powering entrepreneurship arthur meadows product manager venturenavigator
TRANSCRIPT
Powering Entrepreneurship
Arthur Meadows
Product ManagerVentureNavigator
VentureNavigator for Entrepreneurs
3principal features
Business Assessments
Online business evaluation engine Objective assessment of business or
venture
Plus 20 other assessments Investment Readiness
Licensing Potential
Management Skills
Legal Structure for Social Enterprises
.....
1
Targeted, impartial feedback
Business Assessments
Online business evaluation engine
Question
Feedback
1
Possible Answers
Business Resources
Relevant, practical business
resources
Sourced from UK Universities (and
others)
2
Community
Forum for SMEs / Entrepreneurs Post questions
Solve each others’ problems
Sell services to each other
Additional Advantages Forum for Networking
Permanent (searchable) record of advice and
signposting
3
Community
Forum of Entrepreneurs
3
VentureNavigator’s History
Origin
Consortium of UK Universities£4m grant from
Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF)
Assessments and Content sourced from Universities
and others
Launched in November 2007
to end users
12,000 users
Recent Stats
100k+ interventions
4,000 businesses
assessed2,000+ business creations
(estimated!)
Innovative use of VentureNavigator
in HEIs
VentureNavigator in HEIs
Student Enterprise Competition
Careers and Student Job Shop
Entrepreneurship Teaching
Others?
Innovative use of VentureNavigator
Business Plan Competitions
Business Plan Competitions
Competition Module Questionnaire with free text + multiple choice
answers
Business Plan Competitions
Advantage for Applicants Benefit from VN’s Assessments, Resources and
Community before making an application
Advantage for Organisers Complete Solution
Questions are entirely customizable
Brandable (for sponsorship)
Stats: Applications Completed / Started
Judging Sheets
Business Plan Competitions
Some Examples
Connect Goa
(India) Business
Plan Competition
John Logie Baird
Competition 2010
Innovative use of VentureNavigator
VentureNavigator Scotland
VentureNavigator Scotland
Scottish Parliament to Scottish Universities:
How can we innovate out of recession?
Universities are fountain of knowledge
(technical, business, etc)
“Demand side” problems of accessing this
knowledgeSolution:
Grass roots encouragement of
entrepreneurship
Signposting to SME Support in Scotland and
specifically within academia eg ‘Interface’
VentureNavigator Scotland
Scottish Business Assessment:
Advice and guidance
Signposting to additional resources in Scottish
Innovation and Business Support System
VentureNavigator Scotland
Scottish Business Resources:
Business Support organisations
Grants and Loan Schemes
University Resources........
Innovative use of VentureNavigator
VentureNavigator Nigeria
VentureNavigator Nigeria
Entrepreneurship education in Nigeria
Collaborative project with UK
Universities and Nigerian Universities
funded by the British Council
Implementation
Separate community
Most of the existing assessments
50% of the Business Resources are “locale
agnostic”
VentureNavigator Nigeria
Resources specifically created for
Nigerian entrepreneurs and SMEs
‘How To’ guides and Case Studies
VentureNavigator Nigeria
Feedback from VN Launch on 24th
July in Maitama, Abuja, Nigeria:
Emeka Delvis Tochukwu of the Department of Psychology, University of Nigeria, Nsukka has this to say:
“If there is anything students need, it is VentureNavigator.
It provides an avenue to equip students to monitor,
control and manage their future in the right time and right
direction. It is revealing, educative and brings up the
dead side of anybody.”
Innovative use of VentureNavigator
Skills Training and Education at HEIs
Skills Training, Education at HEIs
Transferable Skills Assessment Identifies skills deficits
Signposts to resources (inc. instructor courses)
to helpPartnership
University of Essex
University Campus Suffolk
Learning and Enterprise Access Point Suffolk
Essex Development and Regeneration Agency
Colchester Borough Council
Funded by Economic Challenge Investment Fund
(ECIF)
Innovative use of VentureNavigator
VentureNavigator for specific sectors
VentureNavigator for CleanTech
Interest in providing a portal for
CleanTech in Switzerland Clean Tech Assessment(s)
Clean Tech Resources
Clean Tech community for emerging cluster
New Game in town??
Local Enterprise Partnerships
Local Enterprise Partnerships
HEIs ‘have a seat at the LEP table’ VentureNavigator is participating:
Online platform for Business Support
Local Community for SMEs
However..... No top down strategy / formula for LEPs
Awaiting Dept of BIS decisions.......
Summary
Summary
VentureNavigator provides a
venture support platform Business evaluation engine
objective, benchmarked evaluation signposting to resources to improve
business Resources for business
Community for SMEs to help themselves
portal for communicating with SMEs and
Enterpreneurs
VentureNavigator
Arthur Meadows
Product Manager
Appendix
VentureNavigator for Local Communities
Your Community Forum
Landing Page
Customisable Community Home Page
Your Community Forum
Users can ask questions to
community members ... and to the whole VentureNavigator
community
Questions to / from
Community
News and Event Management
Community Leaders can announce
News and Events to members
Community Messages
Community Broadcast Messages
<h2>Social Media Can Save Councils Money, Says First Specialist Officer</h2><p>The first local authority worker employed to handle and shape a local authority’s social media output has been appointed by Brighton and Hove Council. </p><p>As the council’s social media officer, Jane Postlethwaite’s responsibilities include creating strategies to develop its use of sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and
Community Reporting
Query Membership Statistics
Bells and Whistles
Seeding your Community using
existing Contact Lists
Best Practise in Community
Management Consultancy
Business Plan Competition
Functionality
Widgets that can be embedded on
your Authority web pages
Pricing
Setup, configuration and training
Annual Licence - dependent on
working head of population
Optional extras / bolt-ons
Summary
Improves the chance of
success for local businesses
Gives the Authority a
communication platform in the
community
Provides information about early stage and SMB businesses
Improves the effectiveness of Local Business
Support
Appendix
Member Upload
When you start
your community,
we can pre-load
it with your
existing
contacts.
Just supply us
with a
spreadsheet of
names and
email addresses
of your contacts
and we will
invite them to
join your online
community.
Competitions
Our Competition
feature enables
you to set up
sophisticated
business plan
competitions
quickly and
efficiently.
Community Management Training
You need to
manage your
community to get
the best results.
To help get you
started we offer a
half-day training
workshop.
This is a non-
technical session
that covers
community
planning and
management,
and social media
marketing.
Invitation to Trial
Join the ‘Community of Community
Managers’ Use VentureNavigator as your community
members will experience VentureNavigator.
Network with other business community
leaders - ask questions, share best practise,
leverage this community of power users!