Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity’s Post

Great deep dive about Spinout companies by Beauhurst. Spinouts 🌀are not as common as regular startups, but with the rise of startup activity in areas such as climate 🌎 and bio 🧬 tech, spinouts are an integral part of the solution. Spinouts are common both in academia 🎓but also in corporates, where the parent organization leverages talent, customers and IP to create a new business to be scaled as a standalone company. Here are a few points 💯and insights about Spinouts that are important to know: 1️⃣ pre-spin and post-spin - many people don’t understand that there are two difficult parts for Spinouts. The pre-spin is internal process of getting a technology or business spun out is extremely challenging. It includes many stakeholder management, negotiation, finding talent and forming a new entity. Only then, after the company is an independent entity starts the post-spin which is the challenge the organization have to support and help that company succeed. 2️⃣ to build a Spinouts machine you need to build an ecosystem and mechanisms - The Uk 🇬🇧 is one of the most impressive environment to spin out tech companies from universities. University of Oxford spin out 205 ventures and University of Cambridge 145 ventures to date. But if you dive deep into those two instituations you understand the vast and comprehensive entrepreneurial ecosystems that are built around them. Oxford University Innovation for example and other parties are providing support in the different phases of spinout. 3️⃣ climate, pharma and analytics - startups are getting more and more scientific lense and this in my view is going to get more common. Building a company to remove carbon from the atmosphere or to develop a new way to test for a disease 🦠 requires not only great business thinking but really a scientific breakthrough to have a unique advantage. This is why we see pharmaceutical, climate and medical devices rise as Spinouts. 4️⃣ investment community that knows how to handle Spinouts - not all Venture Capital funds would interact with Spinouts. This is why it’s important but to ease the IP restrictions from corporate and jnjversities to make it more accessible to institutions investors but also to build the knowledge within VCs and CVCs on how to handle Spinouts and build new entities that will invest in those companies until the risk profile becomes attractive to VCs. Top investors for Spinouts: 🔘Oxford Science Enterprises - Sam Harman Rich Laxer 🔘IP Group plc - Colin Gallick 🔘Syncona Limited - Hitesh Thakrar 🔘Woodford Investment Management 🔘Parkwalk Advisors - Emilie Syed 🔘Amadeus Capital Partners - Pragati M. 🔘Molten Ventures - Bindi Karia Martin Davis 🔘 M&G Investments 🔘TOUCHSTONE INNOVATIONS INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT LIMITED 🔘 Novo Holdings - Naveed Siddiqi Dr Rebecca Myers Natalie Berge https://lnkd.in/eWVnZGPN #venturecapital #spinouts #innovation #deeptech #technologytransfer #investments #universities

"We have learnt through this research that there is not one type of ideal ’entrepreneurial’ personality but six different types. Many successful startups have multiple co-founders with a combination of these different personality types. To a large extent, founding a startup is a team sport; therefore, diversity and complementarity of personalities matter in the foundation team. It has an outsized impact on the company’s likelihood of success. While all startups are high risk, the risk becomes lower with more founders, particularly if they have distinct personality traits. Our work demonstrates the benefits of personality diversity among the founding team of startups. Greater awareness of this novel form of diversity may help create more resilient startups capable of more significant innovation and impact." #study #startups #founders #personalities #success

🚀 Exciting News for Virginia's Organic Growth! 🌱 Thrilled to share the latest development in Virginia's innovation landscape! The recently announced VCU Startup Accelerator is set to propel groundbreaking university research with immense market potential, aligning seamlessly with the mission of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP). 🎓🚀 Check out this insightful article about how VCU is taking a giant leap forward in fostering organic growth within the Commonwealth: https://lnkd.in/eETPG-Hp As Virginia continues to position itself as a hub for innovation, this accelerator, promises to be a game-changer by bridging the gap between cutting-edge research and real-world applications. 🌐🔬 Kudos to VCU and VEDP for their work in investing in the future of our state, unlocking the full potential of academic research, and fostering an environment where groundbreaking ideas can flourish into successful startups! 🌟💼 This initiative not only demonstrates VCU's commitment to innovation but also showcases Virginia's dedication to economic development and the growth of a vibrant startup ecosystem. I'm excited about the positive impact this work will have on Virginia's economic landscape and can't wait to witness the innovation and growth that will stem from this powerful ecosystem. 🚀🌏 #VCUInnovation #VirginiaGrowth #StartupEcosystem #OrganicDevelopment #InnovationHub #VEDP #CollaborationForSuccess

Understanding Startup Success: The Role of Founder Personality Traits Recent research in Nature on a global sample of startups (21,187 firms) has unveiled that founder personality traits play a pivotal role in a startup’s success, diverging significantly from the general population’s traits. Contrary to the notion of a singular ‘Founder-type’ personality, six distinct personality types among founders have been identified. Successful founders typically exhibit openness to adventure, enjoy attention (lower modesty), and demonstrate high activity levels. Additionally, the study highlights the advantage of having larger, personality-diverse founding teams, underlining the importance of varied personality types as a key factor in a startup’s performance and likelihood of success. #startup #founder #success

Earlier today I gave a presentation (attached) to the Runway Startup Program at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute on early stage start up finance. The presentation highlighted the "ins and outs" of SAFEs, convertible notes and the NVCA model financing documents for priced equity rounds. I got a chance to meet several early stage founders, each inspiring in their enthusiasm for their ventures and their eagerness for input on how to navigate the venture waters. Cornell Tech (as it's widely known) started as an economic development initiative of then Mayor Mike Bloomberg. The initiative sought to attract another engineering school to the city in the hope that it would produce entrepreneurial engineers who would in turn start job-creating companies. Seven bids were submitted for the competition. Cornell partnered with the Technion (often referred to as Israel's MIT) to submit the winning bid. Going to Cornell Tech on Roosevelt Island a day after a Cornell undergard was arrested for vile and physically threatening anti-Semitic posts was poignant. However, being there highlighted to me a couple things that I found quite comforting. ➡ The depth of the connection between the US and Israel that would make a joint bid by two major educational institutions, separated by over 5000 miles, not only feasible but optimal. ➡ The centrality of Israel in the global innovation economy. Bringing in an Israeli partner to boost entrepreneurship, even in a city with a large amount of venture activity like NYC, is like a first place team trading for an all-star. It's a move you make when your team is going great, but you want to put it over the top to win the championship.

The #Startup ecosystem on the #PrincetonU campus is booming. Read our newest article about our investor pitch day. https://lnkd.in/e_WtJDVn

🚀 Exciting News for STEM students! 🚀 Join us at ODYCEO's upcoming event, "Engineering a Startup," for an exclusive workshop on "Funding A Startup" that promises to propel your ideas to the next level. 🔹 Workshop Highlight: "Funding A Startup" 🗓️ Date: April 19, 2024 🕒 Time: 15:00 - 16:00 We are thrilled to announce that Melina Mai from Big Pi Ventures will lead this informative session. Melina brings a wealth of knowledge and insight from her extensive background in deal sourcing, evaluation, and portfolio support. ✨ Workshop Content at a Glance: Grasp the essentials of VC funding stages and operations and understand the critical factors influencing VC decisions. 👤 About Melina Mai: Melina Mai is an Investment Associate at Big Pi Ventures, a technology early-stage venture capital fund. She is involved in deal sourcing, evaluation, due diligence, deal structuring, and portfolio support. Before joining Big Pi, Melina worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company and she holds an Integrated Master's in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens. 🔍 About Big Pi Ventures: Big Pi is an early-stage venture capital fund, investing in founders who are developing exceptional technologies or ingenious business models. Big Pi is anchored in Greece, targeting global markets, and supports startups with capital and advice born from experience. Don't miss this opportunity to gain critical insights into the world of startup funding from one of the industry's most astute minds. #ODYCEO #EngineeringAStartup #VentureCapital #StartupFunding #TechInnovation #Entrepreneurship #StartupWorkshop #Innovation #Engineering

What does a VC look for when "Funding a Startup"? Join our Associate, Melina Mai, at the below workshop to learn more about VC funding fundamentals! ⬇ #BigPi #BigPiVentures #Odyceo

The Impact of Founder Personalities on Startup Success Scientific study of 21,187 founders using an algorithm distinguished successful founders with 82.5% accuracy. Startups with diverse combinations of founder types have an 8 to 10 times greater chance of success than companies with a sole founder. Good founders had a couple of particular facets of their personalities that aren’t that common. They include a drive for variety and novelty, an openness to adventure, less modesty, and higher energy levels. The more these traits are found in a company, the paper says, the greater its odds of success are. #startups #startup #founders https://lnkd.in/eD4YBXHr

𝐆𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐝𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐩 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐚 𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐧.    603 founders of US unicorns, or 21% of the total, held a doctoral degree or equivalent. For the matched random sample of US VC-backed startups, 20% had a doctoral.    The same holds for founders whose highest degree was a master’s (excluding an MBA), with around 19% of each group falling into this category. And for people whose highest degree was an MBA, the percentage is around 11% for each group.    Of course, founders of VC-backed startups are, on average, much more educated than the overall US population. However, the difference in education level between unicorn and random sample founders is essentially inexistent.    If it’s not the education level, what do you think makes unicorn founders stand out? Share your thoughts in the comments below!    Thank you to the Stanford University Graduate School of Business Venture Capital Initiative team for spearheading this research. #stanford #stanfordgsb #venturecapital #startups #innovation #technology