Innovation Lean LaunchPad Program

About iLLP@Tecnico

The Innovation Lean LaunchPad (iLLP@Tecnico) is an acceleration program using the Lean LaunchPad framework. This framework incorporates the Customer Development Methodology (Blank 2005), the Lean Startup Movement (Ries 2011), the Business Model Canvas (Osterwalder 2010), in a flipped classroom blended learning environment. The iLLP@Tecnico program aims at moving technologies out of the lab and into the market, through talking to customers, partners and competitors and encountering the chaos and uncertainty of creating successful innovations. It is inspired by the I-Corps initiative of the National Science Foundation (NSF) in collaboration with the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA) in the United States. The Lean Launchpad framework was created by Steve Blank, a retired serial entrepreneur and Consulting Associate Professor at Stanford University, and is being used in several Universities around the world to introduce the concept of “lean start-up”, a methodology for launching new companies, products or services.

iLLP@Tecnico offers selected teams the opportunity to participate in a dedicated version of the Lean LaunchPad framework in collaboration with i-deals, a company of the Everis Group specialized in valorization and commercialization of technological innovations. The participation of i-deals in iLLP was made possible by the support of the Everis Foundation.

The program aims at helping teams:

• Assess risks (regulatory, financial or others)
• Gather data essential to find customers and interacting with them
• Define and validate the value proposal
• Identify financing needs and vehicles
• Put teams in contact with potential investors

This 10-week program is not about writing a business plan or doing library research. Teams will be talking to actual customers and partners to build a sustainable and scalable business model. The customer development process will require participants to get out of the lab and talk to real prospects to validate the need for their new product or service.  The teams will work on the different components of their business models and share the findings in a weekly meeting with instructors, mentors, and the other teams.

Follow-up Grants

Upon successful completion of the iLLP@Tecnico program, the teams can apply to a grant of 10.000 euros, to pursue the development of the project and to help the process of moving the technology from the lab into the market. Only a limited number of grants will be available and the selection criteria will be results achieved by the teams in the end of the program in terms of the project’s investment readiness level.

How-to Apply

Teams including Professors, Researchers, Postdocs or PhD Students who have developed a technology and wish to explore its commercial potential can apply to participate in the iLLP program. Each team can have from 2 to 4 members and is normally composed by one or two principal investigators and one to three PhD students or junior researchers. Applications are open until October 17^th, 2014 and should be submited using this form:

• iLLP@Tecnico 2014 Application Form

Selection Procedure

In order to be effective, the Lean LaunchPad methodology requires cohorts of 4 to 6 teams with either similar technologies or similar addressable market. For this reason the selection procedure must take into consideration not only the merit of the team and of the proposed technology, but also on the final composition of the cohort. The selection procedure will be conducted by an advisory committee with 4 members:

• The President of IST
• One representative of IST’s management board
• One representative of IST’s scientific council
• One representative of Everis Foundation/i-deals

The advisory committee will also be responsible for awarding the follow-up grants.

Dates

• Application deadline:  October 17^th, 2014
• Announcement of selected teams: December 12^th, 2014
• Presentation & Logistics: week December 15^th, 2014
• Weekly meetings:  from Jan 5^th till Mar 6^th , 2014
• Final presentations (lessons learned): week of March 16^th, 2014

References

Blank 2005: “The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Products that Win”, Steve Blank, K&S Ranch Press, 2005.

Ries 2011: “The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses”, Eric Ries, Crown Business Publishing, 2011.

Osterwalder 2010: “Business Model Generation”, A. Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Alan Smith, Wiley, 2010.

Blank&Dorf 2012: “The Startup Owner’s Manual”, Steve Blank and Bob Dorf, K & S Ranch Press, 2012.

Blank 2013: Why the Lean Start-Up Changes Everything, Harvard Business Review, May 2013