Winners and participants of the €1 MM ISCTE-IUL / MIT Portugal Venture Competition spent a networking-packed week in April participating in eTeams III @MIT: an excursion into the MIT innovation ecosystem. This is the third educational boot camp of the inaugural Venture Competition. The founders of Around Knowledge, Waydip, Plux, Weadapt, Acellera Therapeutics, and Cell2B were joined by ISCTE-IUL’s Dean for International Affairs, Professor José Paulo Esperança, ISCTE-IUL’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship project director, Gonçalo Amorim, University of Minho’s Vice Rector, Professor Manuel Mota, a visitor at MIT under the auspices of MIT Portugal and a Fulbright Fellowship, José Estabil, IEI Project Director, and Erin Linsky Graeber, Program Manager. Tangible outcomes from the visit were observed in the connections to potential partners (clinical and industrial) in the US, the Cambridge Innovation Center’s generous offer to host the teams for up to a month, the large number of potential business contacts and peer advisors that the teams developed, and invitations to move forward on joint proposals with MIT faculty and/or entrepreneurs. eTeams III@MIT Curriculum The visiting teams were welcomed to Cambridge by the Honorable Paulo Cunha Alves, Consul General of Portugal, and Prof. Edward Roberts, David Sarnoff Professor of Management Technology, Professor of Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management, Chair/ MIT Entrepreneurship Center, MIT Sloan School of Management at a reception at the MIT 150 Exhibit, MIT Museum. The eTeams III @MIT curriculum was delivered via interactive sessions led by founders / officers of startups and thought leaders from the MIT Entrepreneurship Center. The interactive sessions provided practical advice on Marketing and Sales: key skills that enable product positioning and marketplace traction. Contributions from thought and practice leaders were, - "Entrepreneurship 1-on1 Coaching", Prof. Fiona Murray, Assoc. Professor of Management / MIT Sloan, Associate Director / MIT Entrepreneurship Center, Co-Head, TIES (Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Strategic Management) Group / MIT Sloan School of Management
- “Entrepreneurial Marketing”, Bill Aulet, Managing Director / MIT Entrepreneurship Center
- “Dos and Don’ts, Observations of Hundreds of Companies over 30 Years”, Joseph Hadzima, MIT Sloan Lecturer, CEO / IP Vision
- “Intellectual Property for Bio Startups”, Lauren Foster, Asst. Director, MIT TLO
- “Intellectual Property for IT-based Startups”, Daniel Dardani, S/W Licensing Officer, MIT TLO
- “MIT Innovation Tour”, Joost Bonsen, Lecturer, Program in Media Arts & Sciences / MIT MediaLab
- “Demystifying Early Stage Financing”, Jim Dougherty, Senior Fellow / Council on Foreign Relations, Angel, Entrepreneur-in-Resident / MIT Entrepreneurship Center
- “Sales for Technical Founders”, Mark Roberge, VP Sales / Hubspot
- “Growing the Right Team”, Bob Jones, Principal / Scientia Advisors
- “Launching in the US”, Jos Scheffelaar, CEO and Co-Founder / Launch in US Alliance “Peer Panel”, CEOs from Aura Biosciences, Peer Transfer, and Arctic Sand
- "Networking at MIT - a Primer", Ovidiu Bujorean, Rudyard Partners, Co-Founder / MyPaperlessBills, Entrepreneurial Advisory Board / City of Cambridge
These sessions were complimented by networking events designed to hone pitching skills and expand the network of entrepreneurs and potential US partners for the visiting teams. Over 160 founders participated in aggregate at events with the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge, TechStars, DogPatch Labs, MassChallenge, the Cambridge Innovation Center Venture Café, and the MIT Portugal Founder’s Reception. The week culminated with participation and networking at the Deshpande Center’s invitation-only, sold -out symposium –IdeaStream 2011—where the teams pitched their companies and networked with over 200 VCs, Angels, strategic investors and founders. About the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative within MIT Portugal The Venture Competition is designed to accelerate the market impact of recent technology based ventures through a combination of exercises and events that culminate in the Grand Finale, and through a novel venture phase where the finalist and honorable mention teams will execute their go-to-market plans with advice from Portugal-based and US-based industry mentors (catalysts). Created to provide international incentive for projects and technologies with a strong innovative capacity and management team to move from research to marketplace, this contest is part of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative, an agreement signed in 2010 between the ISCTE- IUL and MIT Portugal and in order to foster a center in the area of technology-based entrepreneurship, and brings together private-public participation from ISCTE-IUL, MIT Entrepreneurship Center, MIT Deshpande Center for Innovation, MIT School of Engineering, and Caixa Capital, the underwriter of the Competition’s prize. About ISCTE - Lisbon University Institute
ISCTE - Lisbon University Institute is an institution of public higher education, established in 1972. The action ISCTE-IUL develops in three main aspects: Education / Training, Research and Services to the Community. Located in the University Campus of Lisbon, currently offers 15 degrees in three major areas: Management Sciences, Social Sciences and Technological Sciences. With approximately 8,000 students, 400 faculty and 200 non-teaching staff, ISCTE-IUL is proud of its list of accomplishments over the past 33 years. The institute's priorities are innovation, quality and diversity, both in education and in academic research. With great emphasis to the labor market, ISCTE-IUL has a high rate of employability of its graduates, in some areas reaching 100%. This confirms the prestige of our institution and the quality of our teaching.
About Audax
Audax is a nonprofit organization established by ISCTE-IUL in July 2005 with the intention of triggering education around entrepreneurship and business management of the family, bringing together the activities surrounding the preparation of business plans, strategic planning and access to financing sources. Since its inception, more than 166 individuals / aspiring entrepreneurs were trained to become entrepreneurs, supported over 200 projects (business plans, finances and strategic advice), resulting in the release of more than 50 successful business projects in all sectors of the economy. In 2008, Audax organized a competition for entrepreneurship broadcast nationally over RTP2 channel with the name of AUDAX TV, and attracted more than 250 projects and an unexpected high interest of the community, having registered a share of over 6%.
About MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is recognized as a world leader in innovation and entrepreneurship. More than $500 million in sponsored research by government and the private sector is conducted at MIT in each year. MIT graduates and professors have created more than 27,000 successful companies, employing 3.3 million people, and generating revenues of USD $2 trillion per year.
About the MIT Portugal Program
The MIT Portugal Program is a large-scale international collaboration involving MIT and the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education which aims at strengthening the knowledge base of national and international competitiveness through strategic investment in people, knowledge and ideas. The program is a high-profile effort to demonstrate that investment in science, technology and higher education can have a positive and lasting impact on the economy, addressing major social issues through quality education and research in the emerging field of systems engineering. The program uses as a basis systems engineering, integrated management sciences, economics and politics in order to better understand, design and implement the complexity of technology-based systems on which society is increasingly dependent. The program is supported by a national initiative that involves seven Portuguese universities and 14 research centers that target sustainable energy systems, transportation systems, bio-systems engineering and advanced production methods as key areas for economic development. Additional Information:
Site ISCTE-IUL MIT - Portugal Venture Competition
www.mitportugal-iei.org
Rules of the competition:
http://mitportugal-iei.org/index.php/us/rules-and-regulations
Caixa Capital, Award Sponsor:
http://www.cgd.pt/Corporativo/Grupo-CGD/Pages/Caixa-Capital.aspx
Participating teams/early stage companies:
http://www.aroundknowledge.com/
http://www.plux.info/frontpage
http://weadapt.eu/
http://www.acelleratherapeutics.com/
http://www.cell2b.com/
MIT Deshpande Center IdeaStream:
http://web.mit.edu/deshpandecenter/ideastream.html
MIT Entrepreneurship Center:
http://entrepreneurship.mit.edu/
MIT Portugal Program:
http://www.mitportugal.org
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT
MIT-Portugal ISCTE IUL
Catarina Madeira
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Phone: +351217903951
MIT-Portugal Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative (MIT)
Jose Estabil
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Phone: +1 617 253 5978 |
