‘A Practical Guide to Business Start-Up’ Seminar One

Friday 8th March saw the beginning of the Converge Challenge 2013 Seminar Series, ‘A Practical Guide To Business Start-Up’ with it’s first seminar and live webinar titled ‘Meet An Entrepreneur/What Type Of Business Should I Start?’. 

Seminar 1 of the session featured discussions on the practical aspects of setting up your own business as well as first hand accounts from entrepreneurs Dan Arnold (CEO of Epistemy) and Angela Mathis (CEO & Co-Founder of Think Tank Maths).

Dan Arnold, CEO of Epistemy

Heriot Watt PhD graduate and former RSE Fellow Dan Arnold has a strong background with the oil industry as well as industrial experience. Dan detailed his own experience in setting up a company to the attendees, drawing on his specialist knowledge and sharing his ‘do’s and don’t’s’ of going into business.

Angela Mathis gave a unique perspective from her position as CEO of a mathematics innovation company. She discussed her extensive career, as well as her company’s role in results and solutions in the energy, financial services, space and defense sectors.

Seminar 2 featured a talk from Dr Olga Kozlova, Enterprise Creation Manager at Heriot Watt University, and focused on ‘What Type of Business Should I Start?’

Dr Olga Kozlova

As Director of the Converge Challenge and Heriot Watt’s Enterprise Creation Manager, Olga supports spin-out companies and stimulates enterprise activities within the university. Her talk covered different types of businesses that exist, from multinational giants to micro-businesses,  as well as practical tips on how to go about creating one.

The seminar ended with a Q & A session from the audience, as well as from webinar viewers from universities and institutions across Scotland.

The next seminar in the series ‘Market Research for Beginners/Intellectual Property‘ will be held on Friday 12th April 2013.

For more details and to book your place, visit our Eventbrite page here – https://www.eventbrite.com/myevent?eid=5150415030

Or our website – http://www.hw.ac.uk/industry/collaborate-with-us/converge/support-start-up-businesses.htm

Scotland’s biggest business start-up prize gets £525,000 from SFC

Converge Challenge, the entrepreneurial competition that awards the biggest start-up prize in Scotland, has been awarded £525,000 of additional funding from the Scottish Funding Council over the next three years.

The funding comes just two months after eight Scottish universities pledged to provide £360,000 of financial support to the Challenge, which was set up by Heriot-Watt University.

Converge Challenge gives students and staff from universities and research institutions across Scotland the chance to develop the commercial potential of their inventions through a six-month intensive and tailored programme of mentoring and training.

A panel of judges then assesses entrants’ business plans, invites shortlisted candidates to take part in a “Dragons Den” style pitch – and selects the final winners.

Last year, Dr Michael Fontaine from Moredun Research Institute won Converge Challenge, collecting £25k cash funding and a further £25k of support from the private sector to assist business growth.

Converge Challenge Final 2012

Olga Kozlova, Enterprise Creation Manager at Heriot-Watt University and creator of Converge Challenge, said: “Converge Challenge’s ability to attract £885,000 of additional funding over the course of the past three months is testament to Scotland’s higher education sector’s appetite to encourage the growth of SMEs.

“This funding will help support the continued growth of Converge Challenge and assist more academics with turning their research expertise into successful commercial ventures.”

The challenge attracted a record 50 entries in 2012, from 14 institutions across Scotland.

Mark Batho, chief executive of the Scottish Funding Council, said: “The Funding Council is pleased to continue to support this Challenge, which attracts entries from institutions across the whole of Scotland, to nurture individual entrepreneurial talent.

“This is a great initiative to take innovative ideas out of universities into new businesses, helping to strengthen the economy and demonstrate the important place of universities in creating jobs and growth.”

According to the Higher Education Statistics Authority, university research led to the creation of 184 spin-offs in Scotland in 2010/11, up from 74 in 2008/9.

Converge Challenge 2012 Finalists profile – Jack Hoy-Gig Ng, Sansible

Heriot-Watt Research Associate, Jack Hoy-Gig Ng, was the winner of the 2012 Converge Challenge Elevator Pitch.

He has developed Sansible, a pioneering antiviral mechanism which has benefits for water purification, water treatment plants and medical devices.

Jack Hoy-Gig Ng in his lab.

Originally from Hong-Kong, but now a proud resident of Edinburgh, Jack’s invention has the potential to become a market leader.

At the time of winning the elevator Pitch, Jack said:

“I’m incredibly pleased that the judges thought my pitch to be the best – it was a nerve-wracking but very thrilling experience to deliver a pitch to leading entrepreneurs. I managed to get the message across and the feedback from the audience was fantastic.”

To find out more about Sansible, you can watch Jack’s winning Elevator Pitch below, or by clicking this sentence.

Along with the other finalists, Jack will give a final pitch of his project to the Converge Challenge judges on September 27th.

And breath…now, we wait.

August 3rd saw the deadline for all final business plans for the 2012 Converge Challenge.

We received a total of 23 applications,14 are from male lead applicants, 8 are from female.

Where they came from:

Heriot Watt University – 5

Napier University – 4

University of Edinburgh – 4

Dundee University – 3

Strathclyde University – 2

Glasgow University – 1

Glasgow Caledonian University – 1

Stirling University – 1

University of the West of Scotland – 1

Moredun Research Institute – 1

So a fantastic spread of colleagues from universities throughout Scotland still remain in with the chance of winning top prize of £25,000 cash and £20,000 business support to help spin-out their company within a year.

What next?

The business plans have now gone to a panel of judges who will whittle this number down to 10. Then, another panel – to ensure impartiality – will assess the final 10, and ultimately, decide the winner. You can read about the final panel of judges here.

Want to be an Entrepreneur? Watch this.

They say there’s no such thing as a free lunch, well in this case, there is. And we’ll also throw in two online Business Start-up Seminars for free too!

When looking to begin a start-up, being a sponge is the best thing you can do, as you soak up all the advice, knowledge and experience of others who have started down the entrepreneur path.

This is why Heriot-Watt University runs free monthly Business Start-up seminars, available to attend in person or to watch live online, led by industry experts. These are open to anyone keen to learn from professionals, and have so far had some excellent feedback:

“An excellent seminar”

“Frank and pragmatic advice on starting up a business”

“Students should be forced to come to these!“

The next seminar takes place on July 13th, here at Heriot-Watt’s Edinburgh campus in Scotland. It will focus on finance and funding for your business, covered over two sessions:

July 13th 2012.

12.15pm – 1.15pm

Finance for Beginners

Join Jeffrey Meek, Partner and Head of Forensic Accounting at French Duncan LLP who will take attendees through the basics of financing your start-up or spin-out company. Jeff co-founded McCabes in 1992 and became a French Duncan partner in 2008. He acts for a wide range of clients throughout the UK with a particular focus on the creative and technology sectors.
http://www.frenchduncan.co.uk/index.html

1.30pm – 2.30pm

Funding Your Business – Beg, Borrow and Sell?

Shahida Imani of Imani Financial Solutions will guide you through the maze of where to go in order to fund your business, and how best to attract funding. Shahida has spent more than 10 years in the Scottish technology arena. A CIMA qualified accountant, her recent engagements have encompassed the technology, software and renewable energy industries predominantly for emerging venture capital backed companies.
http://www.imanifinancial.co.uk/index.html

Why not register, and log-in on the 13th to take part? If you have any questions, we take them from you and ask the speaker at the end of the session.

Register here to attend in person or to view online.

A URL will be sent to you with login details closer to the time.