From ideas to business: how to sustain a start- up company Silvia Rita Sedita silvia.sedita@unipd.it
From ideas to profits
Opportunity recogni@on
Start- up: Failure or success? 1) new organizations operate inefficiently as long as people do not learn their roles, and 2) organizational routines have not been developed; 3) new organizations must rely heavily on social ties among strangers (p. 149), and the consequent lack of confidence translates into an additional source of organizational inefficiencies; 4) the construction of a stable portfolio of customers takes some time, during which customer-producer ties are still very fragile. Liability of neweness (Stinchombe, 1965)
Ecologies «pull models» Industrial districts Clusters Corporate spin- off Academic spin- off Industrial policies «push models» Business innova@on centres (BIC) Science parks (PST) Business accelerators Tradi@onal business incubators New ecologies «hybrid models» Networked incubators Virtual incubators
How to sustain entrepreneurship? Rimedi? Ecologies Pull models IDs Clusters Spin- off Policies Push models Science parks Tradi@onal incubators New ecologies Hibrid models Networked incubators Crowdfunding Crowdsourcing «Natural incubators» Business incubators as proto-ids/cluster? Towards the governance of ecologies Geographical proximity Cogni@ve proximity silvia.sedita@unipd.it
The business incubator Start- up companies located in a business incubator have a higher survival rate (Ferguson and Olofsson, 2004; Sherman, 1999) Higher sales growth (Löfsten and Lindelöf, 2001, 2002; Colombo and Delmastro, 2002) Be5er innova7on performance (Tamásy, 2007) if compared to similar start- up companies not located in a business incubator.
Incubators: yesterday, today & tomorrow Business innova@on centres (BIC) Science parks (PST) Business accelerators Tradi@onal business incubators Networked business incubators Virtual business incubators No-profit incubator For-profit incubator silvia.sedita@unipd.it
silvia.sedita@unipd.it Start- up fai da te?
From to needs Year 0 Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 time
Service category Services Sources of compe88ve advantage Physical infrastructure Office support Access to capital Process support Internal External Internal External Office space, desk, PC, telephone ameni@es PC & equipment support, secretary & mail, security Direct investment Access to VCs, business angels and investors Coaching, mentoring, consul@ng & legal advice Networking Internal Formal and informal rela@onships with key employees External Formal and informal rela@onships with customers, suppliers, partners Favourable rent/ lease terms, volume discount, shared use IT support & lease, recep@on services, safety & protec@on Own incuba@on fund, milestone instalments, road- shows Access to technical experts, start- up training, business planning, strong involvement/ commitment of the management team in the entrepreneurial ini@a@ves Rolodex, internal matchmaking, travel support Compe8tors Municipali@es, science parks, real- estate/ landlords Science parks, real estate operators Venture capitalists, business angels, crowdfunding plagorms Law & accountancy firms, consultants, business angels HR firms, networking organiza@ons, virtual social network (i.e. Facebook and Linkedin), VCs and business angels, clusters and industrial districts Source: Adapted from von Zedtwitz and Grimaldi (2006). The networked BI Physical infrastructure & Office support Access to capital and Process support Networking
Networks in a networked BI inter-organizational formal linkages Source: Grandinetti and Sedita 2014 interpersonal cooperative interactions
The web, the future? Media Wired Italian Valley. CheFuturo! by Riccardo Luna. Wikli. by Marco Magnocavallo. Innov azione. Rivista trimestrale edita da Emil Abirascid.
The web, the future? On line communi@es/off line events Italian startup scene. + 18000 members on FB. Community of Italian startupper founded by Stefano Bernardi. Indigeni digitali. + 14000 members on FB. Community founded by Fabio Lalli. Organizza anche even@ per gli aman@ della cultura digitale e dell innovazione in Italia. Startup business, founded by Emil Abirascid. Startupbusiness is a hub for the Italian tech ecosystem with a focus on the European and Mediterranean innova@on scenes. It consists of a business- networking plagorm, a plagorm of services, an editorial area that includes Startupbusiness News, and the Startupbusiness Review newsleper. Girl Geek Dinners, founded by Sarah Lamb, organizes events and training ini@a@ves for technology lover girls
Crowdfunding and beyond Kickstarter. Born in 2009, is the largest plagorm Starteed. Founded by Carlo Bedino in 2011. Crowdfunding, crowdsourcing and co- crea@on plagorm. Once the idea finds support, the plagorm offers a social e- commerce service. E- crowds
What is your homework about? This year, I launched a new project: ADOPT A START- UP!
How many? About 6 start- ups 4 have been already selected Other 8 are under scru@ny They all have replied to a call over FB or via e- mail
How does it work? Next week there will be the presenta@ons of the start- ups A short pitch followed by a discussion What can we do for improving the chance of success of the start- up? Marke@ng research Scenario analysis Unconven@onal marke@ng
Feel engaged! Feel free to pose ques@ons and to comment on what are you gonna listening next week.
Success The more the interac@on, the beper the defini@on of your project, the higher the probability to do a good job!
No worries You are not alone in this adventure Me and a research assistant will support your work and provide comments and advice
GOOD LUCK!