Venture Catalyst Challenge ‘13 & ICStartup: just the start

Have you ever looked at the entrepreneurial activities offered by universities such as Harvard (The Harvard innovation Lab), MIT ($100K Entrepreneurship Competition) and Stanford (The BASES $150K challenge) and wondered why Imperial doesn’t have more of this kind of stuff going on?

America has historically been ahead of the game when it comes to embedding enterprise into their academic institutions. However with start-ups currently the talk of London town, that looks set to change.

Over the past year Google Campus has roared to life and Old Street roundout is now more commonly refered to as ‘Silicon Roundabout.’ And despite East London getting the biggest slice of the entrprenurship cake at the moment, Imperial seems to be jumping on the enterprise bandwaggon by putting commercial innovation at the heart of the new Imperial West campus. Could it be that Tech City sprawls from East to West in time for Imperial’s new campus to open in 2016?

Last year a group of forward thinking students at Imperial noticed this growing trend and decided to do something about it. Throughout the summer break, a group of people passionate about entrepreneurship were hatching plans to transform the enterprise scene at Imperial. ICStartup – a collaboration between Imperial Entrepreneurs, Imperial Innovations and Imperial Hub – was formed, bringing together expertise, experience and passion from all corners of campus. Combining the student enthusiasm of the Imperial Entreprenurs society, the experience, network and resources of Imperial Innovations, and social enterprise expertese of Imperial Hub the foundations were laid in place for student start-up activities at Imperial to flourish.

During this past academic year ICStarup has created a shared working space in the Union for students to work on start-up projects, put on talks, run workshops, and even a hackathon.

The culmination of this collaboration led to the biggest start-up challenge that Imperial has ever held. With £30,000 of funding up for grabs and the chance to access free expert advice, the competition attracted over 200 students, staff and alumni wanting to turn their academic knowledge into a commercial reality. Pedro Silva Pereira reports on the competition.

Be ‘stupid’ again!

Creativity. When you enter school, the ultimate price you are paying is not the tuition fees, but your unique experiences, revolutionary ideas and well “stupid thoughts”. By providing standard education, our world is able to put us in nice boxes, good to manage and move around. However, we should not forget man did not create a wheel because he went to the school of wheels or harness electricity because he was the best student of physics. Man did what he did because of its creative inventiveness, rebellious ideas and imagination.

At the beginning of the year Imperial Innovations launched the Venture Catalyst Challenge ‘13 (VCC) as part of the student business accelerator ICStartup. Over 100 successful applicants spent the next two months developing their very early stage ideas into viable businesses via a series of sessions focused around the Business Model Canvas.

ICStartup decided to challenge Imperial students to put their best ideas to down to practice in its Venture Catalyst Challenge ’13. The format was simple: write an idea, develop a business model, pitch it to a panel of known entrepreneurs and business people and get the chance of winning from £500 to £30.000 pounds to develop a working prototype. From the initial period of registration in early January to the big finale on the 14th of March, 200 teams of students put their brains to work coming up with ideas as elaborate as a satellite vehicle and as simple as...oh wait, this is Imperial – none of the ideas were simple.

During the 6 week period ICStarup provided free business Masterclasses from Lean expert Rob Fitzpatrick, who advised students how to turn an initial idea into a feasible business model. Rob Fitzpatrick also brought in thought leaders and founders including Devin Hunt, Tom Samadol, Daniel Tenner and Jordan Schlipf. In addition, optional sessions ranged from finding appropriate financing to delivering the perfect pitch to idea generation sessions, startup weekends, hackathons and inspirational talks from start-up CEOs.

The event reached its peak at the Grand Finale, where 7 finalist teams gave their Dragon’s Den style pitch to an audience of over 150 people, including investorsfrom Index Ventures, Hoxton Ventures, Opus Corporate Finance, Arts Alliance and Bethnal Green Ventures, as well representatives from the department for Business Innovation and Skills and the Dean of the faculty of Engineering at Imperial.

Entries in the Innovate category ranged from a consumer device for filtering lactose from milk (62% of the global population is lactose intolerant) to safe nuclear powered batteries that can last for years. Entries in the Prove category included lab equipment that can remotely alert the scientist at specific stages of experiments, style deliveries for men, an API to allow developers to add real world rewards to their apps, cloud based practice management software for dentists and the overall winner ClickMechanic which takes the stress out of car repairs with upfront quotes and mobile mechanics.

ClickMechanic received £30,000 in the form of a convertible loan, office space and a mentor to guide them through the summer. Winners in the Innovate category received between £500 and £1000 to test the market or build an initial prototype with more available upon positive traction.

The awards ceronomy was followed by the usual “disruptive” and independent debates of some satisfied, drowsy and slightly alcoholised last surviving participants and friends.

As Rob Fitzpatrick so eloquently put it in is final speech, most of the times people will not have all the skills to put their ideas to practice. However, that doesn’t matter. You can learn hat you need to know along the way. Getting out there and just making a start on something is all you really need to make it happen! His suggestion: host a “burger night” for people who are interested in enterprise! Meet people, share ideas and make it happen!

What’s next for ICStartup?

ICStartup is planning to build upon the success of the Venture Catalyst Challenge ‘13 and deliver bigger, better and more exciting events next year. It’s clear that this is a great time to get involved in the start-up community but if you still need a little more convincing about why to give it a go then read on for our “top 10 reasons to throw your books on the floor, storm out of the library and start your own buisness.”

10 great reasons to throw your books on the floor, storm out of the library and start your own business

1. You’ll get to hangout in Shoreditch and switch the library cafe for cute independent coffee shops
2. Bill Gates did it
3. When people ask you what you do you can legitimately say “I’m my own boss” And that’s swag
4. Suddenly your geeky technical skills will become sexy
5. NO. MORE. INTERNSHIP. APPLICATIONS.
6. You’ll meet cool people and make great new friends
7. You’ll learn something more relavent to real life than the half-life of thorium-232 or the momentum of particle z
8. You can work on something you love. All day. Every day.
9. You won’t need to feel guilty for going to the pub. Sociallising = networking = contacts = opportunities!
10. It will be fun.

Pedro on Google+