We had a chat with Roxana Rugina, in order to find out more about Innovation Labs. Roxana Rugina is the CEO & Co-founder of Simplon Romania and a Program Manager at Innovation Labs Cluj. “Simplon develops educational programs around digital competencies, programming and entrepreneurship. On the entrepreneurship side, we have developed the partnership with Innovation Labs, for the past two years and we have events all year round, inside the universities and out. The main aim of these events, is to prepare the students for the program.”
About Innovation Labs
Innovation Labs is a pre-acceleration program for students, who want to learn more about entrepreneurship, how to build a product and how to create a start-up. It is only aimed towards tech founders. “It provides them with principles about start-ups and how to develop a product and a team around that product. The reason why I mention pre-acceleration, is because the main aim of the program, is to develop an MVP. After, they can further go to an accelerator, or another field specific program, so they can further develop their business.”
The program was started in 2014 by Bogdan Iordache, Andrei Pitiș and Răzvan Rughiniș in Bucharest and it is currently at the 3rd edition in Cluj. “The founders of the program have noticed a relatively large gap, between traditional education and the acceleration field and the “start-up industry””. There was a lot of potential, of bringing products from the research area (bachelor thesis, dissertations…) to the product area. But this transition, could not happen without a training program, offered to the people behind these projects.”
“The founders of the program have noticed a relatively large gap, between traditional education and the acceleration field and the “start-up industry” “.
For this reason, it has been decided to bring to university a series of experienced entrepreneurs, which could teach the students how to build a start-up around their idea. The program is built around a close partnership with universities. “Our courses take place in universities and we also have an ambassadors program, aimed towards the teachers, that want to get involved and promote and help the students, that want to be part of the students during the year.” Innovation Labs is now present in multiples cities across Romania: Bucuresti, Iasi, Timisoara, Sibiu, Cluj and Alba Iulia. In each of these cities, we have partnerships with the universities and local organizations.
Program detailed description
The mentorship program lasts for three months, from March until the end of May. During this period, there are two to three sessions per week. The format, is with two sessions per week. These sessions can either be working workshops or presentations, where experienced entrepreneurs are invited. At the workshops, we have a structure which we try to maintain in all the cities. We believe, that these are some crucial steps to follow, for a young team of students, to learn things about the team, product roadmap. How to prioritize your time working on the product, as they have to finalize an MVP until May. As they have to have an MVP, which they can present, at the end of May at Demo Days.
We have sessions about marketing, in which they learn everything related to identity, how to present the product or how to structure your pitch. We also have sessions about customer development such as interviews and interview guides. We also facilitate contact with various people, for example if there is a product aimed at B2B, we offer them technical support, including materials. For example, if they need sensors or different platforms, together with our partners we can offer them a series of resources such as databases, access to various API’s, for example from Orange, Carrefour , BRD or materials from IBM. If the teams ever need anything, they just let us know and we also try to help them with resources.
During the three months they work together with the teams, with the mentors, with the organization team, they have various sessions for status, check-up in order to verify the progress. At the middle of the program, we have a “Boost Day”, an event during which we verify, what is the current status and how can we optimize. Usually students don’t really know the workload and what does it imply to work in a team. It often happens that they will not be able to finish their work, until the end of the program, then a reprioritization is needed, in order to finish everything till the end. So the purpose of this event, is to give them an energy boost and to make sure they accomplish, as much as they can until Demo Days.
The start of the program and the application process
When the University year starts, we already start to have activities with them, such as treasure hunt, to get them to know is and promote Innovation Days, we then continue with “Idea Jam” which are a series of pitching events, in which they can present their ideas and get feedback on them. And they can choose to continue to work on the idea, if the feedback is good or pivot otherwise.
The program starts in March with a hackathon. During this event, the teams have to develop and pitch a first prototype of their idea, in front of a jury including top level people from diverse industries in Romania. This year we had in Cluj 140 participants, out of which 33 pitched an idea, 23 have been participants in the hackathon and 24 have worked at the prototype presentation. Out of 23 we have selected 9 teams, which have moved forward to the mentorship program.
The end of the program
At the Demo Days, there are a series of pitches at a local level, where the teams that will go to the Bucharest final are selected. Here the criteria are pretty straight forward. They need to have a working MVP and their objectives have to be tied with the Bucharest final. In the sense, that the trip to Bucharest should be of value. Because, from our experience, there are also teams that do not necessarily have to go to the final in Bucharest, in order to continue to work at that product.
They have to commit and put in the work. As during the program they also have school work and exam periods. If they cannot commit during this period, than there are chances that they will not do it afterwards.Our end goal for the program, is to instill a working discipline and help them continue with their product after the end of the program.
Until last year, there was a final pitch round. Usually more than 30 teams were gathered and it is a lot for the jury. So we have decided to introduce semi-finals divided on categories. Based on each category the finalists will be selected and they are going to pitch in front of the jury. This year, the main categories are Agriculture, Cyber-security, Energy, Health & Lifestyle, Smart Cities and Retail. There are cases of teams that continue to work in the same team. It is not necessarily that they will keep the product that they have pitched at Demo Days in Bucharest, but we have 30% of the teams continue to work with the same initial product, which they pitched at Innovation Labs.
What happens if I don’t win ?
For the teams that do not manage to get into the finals, time is definitely not wasted. At Bucharest, they will have the chance to meet hundreds of people. There is a lot of national media coverage, entrepreneurs, serial entrepreneurs, investors, the corporate partners of the program. There are cases in which teams that have not won at Bucharest, are still in close collaboration with one of the persons, that they have met at the event, or with a corporate partner and they are still developing their product. We want to take as many as we can to the Bucharest final, since they will get a very good exposure and further development for them.
What happens if I win ?
The main benefit for the winners is visibility. They do not earn cash prizes, because we are a pre-accelerator, the main target of the product is education. On the others hand, the partnerships are sure. If you have won a prize it is more than likely that you will find a partner. For a startup, networking can provide some entries which I believe they are more important to some degree than money, for a product in its early stages.
The Cluj Scholarship
A trend that we have noticed, is that a good portion of the teams, give up working on their idea after Innovation Labs, as there is no longer a dynamic environment. There are no longer mentors and deadlines. So this scholarship helps them, to continue working on their product. We have a scholarship that we offer to a team based in Cluj, during the summer with the condition that they are not employed anywhere else. The main reasoning behind this, is to support them to continue work on their idea full time, and we offer them 3000$ for the 3 months. We have calculated that this, is the equivalent of a decent salary, if they were to be employed at a company. In order for the team to be qualified for the scholarship, they all have to be students. We are looking for the team that made the most progress, which are the most dedicated and need the money the most.
In conclusion, Innovation Labs is definitely a program that provides a great deal of added value to young and senior entrepreneurs alike. From resources, mentorship, a working framework, access to an extended network and last but not least, access to resources.
Below you can find a list of the companies from Cluj, that have qualified for the Demo Day in Bucharest this year. In order to see all the companies, that have made it to the finals you can go here.
DeliverME is an online platform that connects large chains of supermarkets or hypermarkets, with their customers, by giving them the possibility to sell their products through it.
Audiochallenge
Audiochallenge is a tool that comes to the aid of blind children who have limited access to modern learning tools. The application employs principles of artificial intelligence and allows for progress.
In a crowded city where everyone has to be on time at school, faculty or work it is necessary to find the best solution for transportation. BusWatch offers this solution by providing the current location of the buses.
AgroAutomation is an intelligent system for monitoring and controlling greenhouses. The system has live streaming to a mobile or desktop application and transmits information regarding soil humidity, temperature…
BeeByte brings technology into beekeeping, offering hard and soft solutions for monitoring hives and environmental parameters. The application helps beekeepers collect, analyse and communicate data.
Softschool is a complete educational management tool that connects pupils, authorities, parents and employers and responds to their particular needs for communication and information.
EyeSIGHT puts forward an innovative solution for the treatment of amblyopia and strabismus through a VR environment.
Natura Virtuala is a VR tool that offers the possibility to visualise flats available for renting. The product helps users save precious time.
Definitions
Demo Days
Demo Day/s is an event in which selected start-ups present their start-ups to a room full of investors, program partners and press. In case of Innovation Labs the Demo Day is held in Bucharest.
Accelerator
“An accelerator takes single-digit chunks of equity in externally developed ideas in return for small amounts of capital and mentorship. They’re generally truncated into a three to four month program at the end of which the start-ups ‘graduate,’” – Paul Bricault (cofounder of Amplify).
Pre-accelerator
A pre-accelerator is a program focused on early stage startups, taking them from concept to MVP (minimum viable product). A big part of the program is mentorship. Experienced mentors will come in and give the team guidance with product and customer validation, marketing, product development, pitch and anything else needed to build the product to a place in which it can attract investment and attention.
MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
A minimum viable product (MVP) is a development technique in which a new product or website is developed with sufficient features to satisfy early adopters. The final, complete set of features is only designed and developed after considering feedback from the product’s initial users.
Alexandru Selejan
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