Research Based Business Ventures, 2015-2016 - Prospectus

The information below is preliminary, definitive information will be posted before December 31, 2015

Summary

In the course RBB-Ventures students will explore the process of growing new ventures (companies) based on developments in science & technology. Core of the course is studying and discussing a number of business cases covering the entrepreneurial process from various angles. In addition, in In-Class Interviews, guest entrepreneurs from the BioScience Park will share their experiences with starting and growing research-based business.

Schedule & Topics; Location

The BI-WEEKLY course sessions are on every other Monday night, 19.00-22.00 hrs in the period from February 1st, 2016 until June 20th, 2016. The exam is on the evening of Monday, June 27.
The course MAY furthermore require participation in additional meetings (In-class Interviews) on Thursday nights between 1900 and 2000 hrs.

Dates, cases and topics (tbd = to be decided) og the Monday night sessions:

Feb 1: Combined kick-off RBB Ventures and RBB Planning
Feb 8: RBB Ventures Session 2: tbd
Feb 22: RBB Ventures Session 3: tbd
Mar 7: RBB Ventures Session 4: tbd
Mar 21: RBB Ventures Session 5: tbd
Apr 11: RBB Ventures Session 6: tbd
Apr 25: RBB Ventures Session 7: tbd
May 9: RBB Ventures Session 8: tbd
May 30: RBB Ventures Session 9 :tbd
Jun 13: RBB Ventures Session 10: tbd and wrap-up
Jun 20: Business Plan Contest meeting, assessing business plans
Jun 27: Exam

Location of the sessions will probably the LUMC, but this may change depending on some housing developments.

Mandatory participation and preparation

The sessions are essentially practicals in the sense that they entail case discussions and interviews Participation is therefore mandatory.
The preparation for case discussions takes about 3 to 4 hours per session.

Course Participation

Intended for: MSc students, Ph.D. students, post-docs, university staff and others motivated for creating and working in a research based business.
Course fee:

no fee for university students;
– However a contribution of 20 Euro’s for the reader is required due to copy right payments
Euro 200 for PhD students for the full course and 120 Euro for the light versions,
Euro 500 for non-students.
If applicable, an invoice will be mailed at the beginning of the course.

*Please note: For this course, it is not possible to register via USIS, instead fill in the registration form

Other enterpreneurial events

Next to the course sessions it is highly appreciated that you participate in other events such as the Science meets Business Cafe, the Science meets Business Plan Competion, events organized by the student entrepreneur foundation LUGUS, the New Venture Competition and the Philips Innovation Award.We will inform you about the dates of these events.

The preparation for case discussions takes about 3 to 4 hours per session.
Grading will be based on class participation, two essays (group assignments) and a final examination.

The kick-off date will be february 1st, 2016 at 19.00 hrs in the LUMC. Be advised that some preparation is mandatory.

Testimonials

By former participants Wouter Bruins and Oleg Guziy .

Participation

Intended for: MSc students, Ph.D. students, post-docs, university staff and others motivated for creating and working in a research based business.
Course fee:

no fee for university students;
– However a contribution of 20 Euro’s for the reader is required due to copy right payments
Euro 200 for PhD students for the full course and 120 Euro for the light versions,
Euro 500 for non-students.
If applicable, an invoice will be mailed at the beginning of the course.

*Please note: For this course, it is not possible to register via USIS, instead fill in the registration form

Course issues & concepts

The cases and supporting readings will illustrate issues and concepts like:

what is entrepreneurship and administrative versus entrepreneurial behaviour;
academic versus surrogate entrepreneurship and the role of the scientist in academic spin-offs;
the framing of ventures in terms of people, opportunity, context and deal;
the phases and critical junctures in new venture formation;
the importance and pitfalls of patent protection;
factors influencing the early growth of academic spin-offs;
options for commercializing science & technology, business models and value creation;
distribution of equity betwen company founders;
value, valuation and risk/reward ratio in new venture financing;
how venture capitalists assess business plans and start-up companies.

Course schedule RBB Ventures Semester 2, 2016 Dates, cases and topics (tbd = to be decided)

Feb 11: Science meets Business Cafe– Biopartner 1 (17.00-19.00 h)
Mar 10: Science meets Business Cafe
Apr 14: Science meets Business Cafe
May 12: Science meets Business Cafe

Course sesions of the previous years:

CASES & TOPICS

Kick-off; Am I an Entrepreneur? The course; Case teaching & preparation; Entrepreneurial traits.
R&R. Opportunity spotting and mobilizing resources.
DeDrug I. IP risks (in particular patents) in a university context.
SpudSpy. Communication and attitude in trying to start a business from a university department.
Vermeer Technologies. Organizing an entrepreneurial team, pre- and post money valuation, (not) becoming CEO of you own company, deal decisions.
BetaGolf. Deciding upon a way to commercialize science; the workings of a successful cross-over of a technology house and investments company.
A123. Reorientation, what will be our business and business model?
Venture capital. How venture capitalists evaluate venture opportunities.
Nanogene. On the distribution of shares and completing the start-up management team.
DeDrug II. On valuation and the investment process.
ProPharma. On the assessment of business plans; Wrap-up
Business Plan Contest meeting, assessing business plans

In-Class interviews

In the In-Class Interviews, guest entrepreneurs share their experiences with starting and growing research based companies. Guest entrepreneurs in latter years were amongst others:

Eliane Khoury, CEO of Virus Free Air, Delft
Gert-Jan van Baarle, Director of Leiden Probe Microscopy
Jaap Blaak, founder and CEO FlexGen; co-founder der VenGen and more
Pieter Gaillard, Founder and former CSO of To-BBB
Joost Holthuis, Founder and former CEO of “OctoPlus”: http://www.octoplus.nl/
Gerard Platenburg, founder and former CEO of ProSensa ; CEO of ISA.
Bas Reichert, founder and CEO of BaseClear .
Victor Schut, Founder and CBO of ProteoNic
Gregg Siegal, founder and CEO Zobio
Pieter Slijkerman, co-founder and former manager of ZF-Screens and NewCatch
Toon Stegmann, founder and CSO of Virosome Biologicals BV, now CSO of Mymetics
Onno van de Stolpe, Founder and CEO of Galapagos

Other RBB Courses

RBB Ventures is part of a series of three courses with a course load of 5 EC each: RBB-Ventures, RBB-Planning and RBB Opportunities, which can be followed together as well as separately. These courses arm students and (future) researchers with the basic knowledge of how to spot, assess and exploit an entrepreneurial, research-based business opportunity and have been desiged to lower the hurdles for students and researchers for getting involved in the process of starting high-tech ventures. This knowledge will be valuable for those who aspire to one day start their own company or who want to become involved in the process of company creation and development as tech transfer managers, business developers, business advisors, investment managers or serial entrepreneurs.

More information on our program on Science & Research Based Business.