The iBootcamp is an intensive personal development program for entrepreneurial researchers. It is limited in time and the primary purpose is to guide researchers or business partners staff who want to found their own company starting from a concrete business idea. The program is a set of focused workshops in which an entrepreneurial multidisciplinary team is created and coached. The workshops are a balanced combination of teaching, coaching and doing with a strong exposure to business executives, industry and financial experts. www.FITT-for-Innovation.eu

1. Entrepreneurial Bootcamp
FITT
– Fostering Interregional Exchange in ICT Technology Transfer –
www.FITT-for-Innovation.eu
Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

2. iBootcamp: the essence
 Set of focused workshops
• Goal: Create a team that can deliver a business presentation that
can survive a professional investment board
 Based on your own business idea
• No case studies here; we go for the real thing
 Executed with a multidisciplinary team
• … that you need to recruit
 Workshops are a combination of:
• Teaching
• Coaching
• Doing
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3. What is this New Innovation Process?
External
Ideas Venture
Dating Entrepreneurial
Gate 1 Gate 2 Gate 3
Event iBoot Camp
Internal
To IBBT Venture
Building Business Innovation Board Launch
Venture
People Opportunity Plan
Connecting
people and ideas
New
Project
Jan March June
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4. Fit within the organisation
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5. Who is eligible to join iBootcamp?
 Every collaborator from IBBT research projects with a great idea and
with an entrepreneurial mindset
 Idea owners are helped to form winning teams with multidisciplinary
skills
 iBoot Camp Teams are coached by industrial coaches,
Board members and Business School Professors
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6. Dating Event: Connecting People and Idea
Talented people everywhere but ... they are not connected!
Engineering
Marketing
Research & Finance Operations
& Sales
Development
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7. When? iBoot timeline: once a year
Submit your idea by Mid January.
Selected teams are notified by End of January.
Deliver your team recruiting pitch beginning of February.
©◊©◊
10 Feb 24 Feb 4/5 March 12/13 March 26/27 March 23/24 April 4 June
Dating Present Team WE 1 WE 2 WE 3 Grand jury
team building On a residential location
(to promote the bootcamp feeling)
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8. (Residential) iBootcamp Program
Weekend 1 (Friday + Saturday)
How to develop a successful business plan
Opportunity Development & Freedom to operate
Elapsed time = 2 months
Weekend 2 (Friday + Saturday)
Business Models in ICT
Entrepreneurial Marketing
Weekend 3 (Friday + Saturday)
Entrepreneurial Finance
Human Resources
Presenting and Selling the Business
Opportunity Plan to Venture Capitalists
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9. Where?
• All workshops occur on a residential location to
promote the bootcamp atmosphere. The first edition
was organized in a Monasterium (converted to a
hotel), the second edition in a Castel.
• On the first edition (iBoot2008) there was a possibility
for the teams to sleep over, to promote the team
building. This facility was however not repeated in
the next editions, but teams are left free.
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10. Software tool by Inceptum ®
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11. Pro’s & Cons
Pro’s
• Strength: create a winning team that is able to make a business idea
happen.
• Innovation: coaching by doing by coaching
• Right to copy: Generic format applicable in all kinds of business
environments (except Inceptum tool that is licensed)
Cons
• Problems: risk of rising expectations too high
• potential problems: ability to find the complementary skills to form a
team
• Advice: take time to find the right team members around an idea
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12. Why ? Rationale iBootcamp
 Context: mission of IBBT to create new business opportunities
 ‘problem’ solver: real life approach starting from the main assets =
people and (good) ideas -> quickly identify hidden skills and expertise
among iBootcamp participants in domains such as communication,
presentation, entrepreneurship, innovation, leadership, business
acumen, ...
 The main bottleneck in a research organisation is not to find good
ideas and competent (technological) people, but to find the lacking
complementary skills available outside the organisation. With iBootcamp
one creates the ideal platform to match those skills around a specific
idea with great potential. Doing this you cover entrepreneurial
awareness building, you identify business opportunities within the eco-
system and you help to kick off new business.
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13. Why ? Impact iBootcamp
 Evidence of success: most teams (8 of 10) convinced a professional
venture board of their potential. Of the 10 teams so far (2008-2009) two
have already started doing business, 5 have been accepted for further
incubation, only 2 did not succeed.
 Recommendation: strong format for quickly assessing real business
opportunity and at the same time building a business team of skilled and
motivated people
 Impact on future performance: iBootcamp creates a lot of awareness
of business opportunities lying within the eco-system of the
organisation, it motivates skilled people to invest free time in developing
‘their’ idea and it creates a good deal flow of well prepared investment
opportunities for internal or external VC money or at least for further
incubation.
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14. Outcome of iBootcamp: today
 Learning effect:
- ideas and teams of second bootcamp were stronger and better
-Steep learning curve within teams
 Strong marketing effect on IBBT profile as an organisation able
to support new business development, making the transition form
idea generation to commercialisation
 During second bootcamp there was a joined team that attended
the Alcatel-Lucent bootcamp = open innovation extended to
similar activities of business partners
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15. Outcome of iBootcamp: plans for the future
 3th edition of iBootcamp (2010) will pay more attention to the team
building, coaching for marketing of the business ideas and feedback to
the teams (through dry runs) before the exposure to the final jury.
 Feedback shortly after the final jury and follow up are also point of
attention
 Flemish feasibility study to establish a Flemish incubation center
providing these kind of bootcamps for the Flemish industry
 Find extra financial resources for follow-up of successful teams
(through Proof of Concept funds, pre seed investment funds)
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16. Lessons Learned
 Looking back now, what would you …
• … do different/improve? Pay more attention to the team building after
the dating event and have the coaches better prepared before the
start of the workshops
• … improve? Better use of software tool by teams
• … recommend to others? Just do it (learning by doing)
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