The EIC Tech to Market (T2M) Venture Building Programme is currently in full swing with its "Team Creation" activity. Now, with nine project teams onboarded, there are already two teams working with their “Entrepreneur in Residence”. We had the chance of meeting them and hearing more about their experience of working together within the EIC T2M Venture Building Programme. Continue reading to know more!
At the “Team Creation” stage of the Venture Building Programme – which is composed by 4 different activities: Tech Demo Days, Opportunities’ Exploration, Team Creation and Venture Support Services -, the project receives support to build a solid and complementary team for their innovative venture, by assessing strengths and gaps of their current composition, identifying what skills are required to face future project’s challenge, and conducting the recruitment and selection of an entrepreneurial profile.
How does the “Team Creation” activity works?
When the teams are onboarded in this activity, an in-depth analysis with our Talent Expert takes place, so the right profile to complement the team is identified. Next, a scouting process is initiated, including candidates from the EIC T2M Venture Building Talent Pool. Once the search is complete, the project teams are presented with the top 3 profiles and the matchmaking process starts to select the Entrepreneur in Residence that will work with the project team.
Due to the lack of entrepreneurial expertise within most scientific teams, this phase of the Programme aims to incorporate a business-oriented perspective into the project. To achieve this, the Entrepreneur in Residence is selected. Their role is to work closely with the team for six months in a part-time format, with paid compensation, bringing in their experience and business insights. The objective is to assess the potential of the entrepreneur to become a future co-founder or a key team member after the residency period.
What is it like to be an “Entrepreneur in Residence”?
At the moment, two project teams are already working with their Entrepreneurs in Residence: ChipScope project was matched with Mattia Nuti, founder and CEO of different companies in the medical technologies industry; and TAONas-LUAD project is starting its residency journey with Gerardo Marchesini, experienced entrepreneur in science-based ventures.
For Mattia Nuti, the commitment of the project team is one of the key motivating factors to engage in this activity: “Sergio and Joan (ChipScope project team members) are directly involved as part of the operational team, and they are very great guys! We are working together every day, and they are putting all their effort on this project. So, they are 100% commited to this and I’m very grateful for that!”. Mattia continued to elaborate on the focus of the residency work: “I clearly see the future of this solution in the market. In this way, I’m here to facilitate the go-to-market as well as the fundraising process.”.
The matchmaking process was a very important step for Gerardo Marchesini to set the ground for the residency with the TAONas-LUAD project: “Getting to know the different players on the team was great, and the fact that we had several instances to meet helped in creating the required trust and understand the commitment. We had some very tough negotiations in the process that, in fact, served as a catalyst for solidifying the whole team and understanding the purpose of everyone in it.”. As first steps, Gerardo highlighted: “Getting to know the full project, and, afterwards, will begin to test the waters with some investors so we can set a story that will resonate with them.”. Finally, Gerardo drew their first objectives: “I hope we can bring to the team the capacity to validate the product, kickstart the project, create the company and start fundraising next year.”.
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Spotting the right profile for your project team
Juan Valcárcel, who is a Coordinator at the Centre de Regulació Genòmica, representing TAONas-LUAD project, mentioned the relevance of the programme’s support: “The EIC T2M Venture Building team was instrumental to identify an experienced, enthusiastic entrepreneur in residence for our project and greatly helped us to align innovation and business development views for the next steps in spin-off creation.”.
Sergio Moreno, from University of Barcelona, representing project ChipScope, is looking forward to establishing their new venture very soon: “We started this journey based on our EIC-funded project back in 2017, and we really believe our technology can be useful in the health and biotech industries. So, we hope that it can lead to the creation of a good spin-off, as we plan to finish all the documentation and the financial investment plans with Mattia in the following months.”.
About the EIC Tech to Market (T2M) Venture Building Programme
The EIC Tech to Market Venture Building Programme powered by EIC Business Acceleration Services aims to help build start-ups to exploit promising research results through venture building services, comprising a range of activities from identification of promising business ideas to venture creation and development.
If you’re interested in knowing more about the Programme and our open calls, please visit our page in the EIC Community.
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For additional information, please refer to our helpdesk by choosing “EIC T2M Venture Building Programme” as the subject.
DISCLAIMER: This information is provided in the interest of knowledge sharing and should not be interpreted as the official view of the European Commission, or any other organisation.