Idea to Impact: An overview of VentureWell

7 October, 2016

Phil Weilerstein President & CEO

VentureWell.org

Our Mission VentureWell supports early-stage, socially beneficial science and technology innovators, their ventures, and the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems that are critical to their success.

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Innovators’ Pathway

Aware Validate Discover Prepare Build Grow

Faculty

Students

Entrepreneurs

Innovators

Universities

Accelerators / Incubators

Governments / Philanthropies

Investors

Learn

Discover (market, customer), Validate (market, business

model)

Validate, Build, Grow

Inspire, Educate

Educate, Support

Fund, Connect

Coach, Mentor, Connect

Invest

Innovation & Entrepreneurship Landscape

Our Programs & Initiatives Early Stage Innovator

Programs

I-Corps

E-Teams

Xcelerator

GIST

ASPIRE

BMEidea / DEBUT

Faculty Initiatives Programs

Faculty Grants

Pathways to Innovation

OPEN

Lean LaunchPad®

I&E Network Initiatives

National Innovation Network

BME-IDEA Meeting

TTA Advisory

GIST Network

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Inputs Activities Outputs Outcomes Impact

Early Stage Innovators

VentureWell Staff & Networks

Funders I-Corps™

Attitudinal Shifts

Adoption of I&E practices

Educational •  Academic Success

E-Teams (E1 & E2)

Xcelerator

GIST Bootcamps

ASPIRE

BMEidea / BMEstart /DEBUT

Faculty Grants •  student teams

Pathways to Innovation

Faculty

Trainers, Instructors, Mentors, Coaches

National Innovation Network

Cultivate I&E Networks

OPEN

Lean Launch Pad ®

BME-IDEA Meeting

TTA Advisory

GIST Network

Recruit, Train, Support and/or Fund Early Stage Innovators

Recruit, Train and/or Fund Faculty

I-Corps@NIH

Recruitment

Funding

Networks

RTS$

R$

R$

Building National Innovation Capacity

Policy

Documented Evidence of Commitment to I&E

Internal

Behavioral

Venture / Organizational

Early Stage Innovators

Career •  Employment •  Research •  Teaching

Faculty

•  Lemelson •  NSF •  NIH •  USAID •  State

Department •  Gates •  Kauffman •  AutoDesk •  European

Investment Fund

•  USDoE

RT$

Training, Coaching & Mentoring RTS$

RTS$

Participation, Retention / Attrition Rates

Quantity & Quality of S&T Ventures

RT

RT$

Satisfaction Levels

Quantity & Quality of Applicant Pool

T

Intent to Persist

Networks

Quantity & Quality of Connections

Policy Change

Achievement of Benchmarks

Accomplishments, Milestones Achieved

Economic •  Products •  Ventures •  Investments

Institutions

Actual I&E Persistence

Knowledge Gains

Awareness & Support from Key Decision Makers

Participation, Retention & Attrition Rates

Satisfaction Levels

Identification of Helpers & Barriers

Immediate Feedback for Program Improvement

Institutional

Quantity & Quality of I&E Opportunities

Assessment of Overall Program Impact

Career •  Employment •  Research •  Teaching

Commercialization •  Investments •  Revenue •  Jobs •  Patents

Social and/or Environmental •  Beneficiaries

Intent to Persist

Intent to Persist

Awareness of I&E Economy

CTIC Morocco

RTS$

Our Funders and Partners

*

Consul*ngandServiceRevenue20%

OtherFederal5%

OtherState

Dept3%

Na*onalScienceFounda*on38%

PrivatePhilanthropies20%

Sponsorship3%

FundingSources

Support and Training for Innovators and Entrepreneurs We work directly to support inventors and innovators in bringing their ideas to market through:

–  Workshops and training

–  Coaching and mentoring

–  Funding or awards

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Example Current Programs: o  E-Teams o  ASPIRE o  I-CorpsTM / Lean Start Up

o  Xcelerator o  GIST Bootcamps o  Venture Pipeline Development

Idea

Training to support Early Stage innovators

Goals are: §  Develop start-up competency in commercialization §  Expanding the pipeline of early stage innovations

Investment /Partnership Ready

Introduction to evidence-based, milestone-based entrepreneurship

Market Discovery and Validation

Customer Discovery and Business Model Development

Customer Validation and Investment Readiness

TypicalTopicsofTraininginSTIEPrograms

E-Team Grants Program

§  50 teams §  $5,000 in funding Key objective: Discover the best market for the invention.

§  9-10 teams §  opportunity for further

funding Key objective: Develop a case for partners and investors to invest in the business.

§  20 teams §  $20,000 in funding Key objective: Develop and validate business model.

Stage1MarketDiscovery

Stage2BusinessModelDevelopment

Stage3ASPIRE

Presented with support from The Lemelson Foundation. Stage 3 ASPIRE presented with additional support from the Ewing Marion Kauffmann Foundation.

The E-Team Program cultivates opportunities for collegiate entrepreneurs to move ideas out of the lab and into the marketplace.

ASPIRE Program

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§  ASPIRE creates advanced, sector-specific training programs and prepares high-potential, emerging hardware ventures for investment.

E-Team Outcomes

§  583 grants awarded to teams from 161 schools

§  $7.5mm awarded to date

§  140 companies formed

§  over $750mm raised by companies

Seed Investing Program

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Goals: 1.  Invest in innovations with high-potential for impact to help them get out of

the lab and into the market; 2.  Catalyze investment into a high-risk but potentially high-impact company; 3.  Return financial returns into the organization to further the mission; 4.  Make investments instead of a grant to create a regenerative effect. We

teach investment-ready teams the ins & outs of venture funding and signal confidence to otherwise wary angel and seed investors.

Our seed-stage investments are tools for learning, providing catalytic risk capital.

Seed Investing Criteria •  Venturehasemergedfromourpipeline•  Simpleinvestmentvehicle(typicallyconver*bledebt)

•  1:1matchfromasophis*catedleadinvestor.•  Aclearpathtoprofitabilityandanexitstrategy•  Cataly*cuseoffundsthatallowtheteamtoachievekeymilestonesthatarecri*caltogrowth

Innovation Network Development

§  Initiatives to create and build networks to strengthen the overall innovation & entrepreneurship ecosystem.

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o  National Innovation Network

o  BME-IDEA Meeting o  TTA Advisory o  GIST Network

National Innovation Network Hundreds of NSF-funded researchers from I-CorpsTM Teams, Nodes, and Sites participate in the National Innovation Network (NIN). This network of thinkers is addressing America’s needs for innovation education, infrastructure, and research.

7 Nodes, 51 Sites

As of May 2016 …

§  38 courses held §  749 teams trained §  203 colleges and universities sending

teams §  2,392 individuals trained §  42,000+ customer discovery interviews

conducted

Expansion Across Agencies

I-CorpsL3courses

I-Corps@NIH2courses;38teams

Lab-Corps8Labs

2013 2014 2015 2016

including12teamsfromDOE,DOD,NIH,orUSDAARS.

I-Corps@DODPilot

Accep*ngapplica*ons

I-CorpsEnergy&Transporta*onKicks-offinMay

As of April 2016 … •  324 companies…. and growing •  3 acquisitions •  $83 million raised

1% 2% 3%

31%

63% Awards/contestsRevenueGrantsAngel/VCfundingGovernmentawards

81% of I-Corps Teams are active 13-21 months after the course

PIs

60%Posi7veInfluence

60% of PIs say I-Corps positively influences their teaching

81%Ac7ve

CleanTech Innovation Challenge §  CTIC supports global CleanTech

innovation and entrepreneurship through direct work with innovators and ecosystem development and support.

§  First location – Morocco, Fall 2016 o  Workshops for innovators;

sector-specific topics include value proposition and business model development

o  Creation of network of supporters and mentors for CleanTech innovators

European Investment Fund - TTA

Country-wide early-stage innovation support and training program. Focus on developing: §  Technology Transfer Capacity in

Country §  Building Funding Capability of

Angel and VC groups to support Early Stage Innovators

§  Advisory to Governmental Agencies on the support of early stage innovators.

Turkey Technology Transfer Accelerator Advisory •  European Innovation Funded Program to

support building capacity in startup support and tech transfer.

•  The initiative has the following key objectives:

•  Assist with matchmaking and linkages for Turkish TTO’s and agencies to U.S. TTO counterparts

•  Help in building the Turkish Technology Transfer Offices community

•  Develop TTO-specific strategic plans

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Faculty Initiative Programs §  Initiatives to support faculty in developing programs that

cultivate & support student innovators and promote institutional change through: –  Grants –  Workshops & Training –  Conferences

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o  Faculty Grants o  Pathways to Innovation o  Open o  Lean LaunchPad®

Faculty Grants VentureWell grants of up to $30,000 challenge faculty to create new courses and programs in which students develop ideas and gain the skills to bring them to market. These grants support experiential learning and foster student invention, innovation, and entrepreneurship that leads to the creation and support of VentureWell student E-Teams.

Next deadline: November 9

Faculty Grants Outcomes

Since 2011: §  156 grants awarded §  $4.5MM total §  94 institutions §  over 14,000 students impacted §  3 out of 4 of the courses & programs created

through the grant continue after the grant period

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Pathways to Innovation Program:

Faculty Development & Institutional Change Initiative

Goal: Enable engineering programs to develop widespread, effective, and accessible innovation and entrepreneurship (I&E) offerings for undergraduate engineering students embedded into formal and informal undergraduate engineering education.  

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Program Elements

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Lean LaunchPad® The Lean LaunchPad educators program trains faculty to integrate Lean Startup principles into curriculum.

Next seminar: December 5-7

OPEN Conference Open is an annual convening of faculty, government, foundations and others focused on increasing science and technology invention, innovation & entrepreneurship in higher education & research.

Next Conference: Washington, D.C. March 24-25, 2017

Thank you !

Phil Weilerstein

VentureWell.org

pweilerstein@venturewell.org