Countdown begins for entrepreneurs
Student startups have until end of April to qualify for USD100K
Budding entrepreneurs at KTH have until April 30 to apply for the FOUNDER.org University class of 2016 and to compete for USD 100,000 in start-up funds. Now in its second year as a member university of the FOUNDER.org network, KTH will host the World Founder Forum 2015 in June.
Last year KTH, started its collaboration with FOUNDER.org. KTH was the first Scandinavian university in the global network, which had already been supporting the commercialization of research and student ideas at top universities such as MIT, Stanford, Berkley, Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge.
Since then, KTH has hosted some well-attended FOUNDER.org events. From June 14-17 the Founder World Forum will come to KTH, welcoming FOUNDER.org teams from around the world for a day of knowledge sharing and inspiration.
We caught up with FOUNDER.org founder Michael Baum, to talk about innovation, and this summer's big event at KTH.
Why are you bringing the World Founder Forum to Stockholm?
"Why Not! Stockholm is full of innovation and life. Midsummer is the perfect time to be in Stockholm and provide our founders from all over the world the chance to experience the beauty of Sweden. In addition we have an amazing school partnership with KTH and three great companies in Stockholm including Short Cut Labs, Tinitell and Volumental."
What will you be looking forward to at the Forum?
"I always look forward most to seeing the new teams meet the current teams and all the amazing peer-to-peer learning that takes place. This year I’m also looking forward to our leadership day with the current Class of 2015, which we are running on June 14. We will be covering three challenges including Personal Leadership, Scaling from Founder to CEO and Managing a Board of Directors. These are all leadership topics young founders struggle with and we’re looking forward to helping them. I’m also really looking forward to the new Class of 2016 starting. We begin the year with some of our best challenges like Whole Brain Thinking and The ff."
What has it been like working with the KTH teams in the class of 2015?
"The KTH teams are always great to work with. We find them to be so global thinking and curious about the world but also wickedly smart and focused on their ideas. They also really seem to enjoy the jolt of Silicon Valley we bring to Sweden."
What have you found to be most interesting about the innovation ecosystem here, in Sweden, since KTH has become part of the FOUNDER.org network?
"One of the most interesting things is how resourceful Swedish innovators seem to be. For example, the Volumental team is so creative in seeking out people and programs to help them along. They recently won a substantial EU Horizon 2020 grant award and now they are teaching our other teams how to do it. The team also seems to be able to reach out to anyone, anywhere and get them to help build the company. To me this is representative of the think global, act local mindset we find all over Sweden."
Opportunity for KTH — and Stockholm
My Klint, manager of the KTH student incubator, Student Inc., says the Founder World Forum presents an opportunity not only for KTH, but for all of Stockholm to show its achievements in innovation and entrepreneurship.
"KTH and Stockholm overall have a very strong startup community, and we hope that this event will make it even stronger and raise the international focus," Klint says.
Klint adds that the partnership with FOUNDER.org benefits both the university and its student startups by connecting them with the world's high-performing universities. She points to FOUNDER.org's business development program, 8D, which offers quarterly meetups and a highly-reputed network. "8D gives our startups the opportunity to connect, collaborate and develop in an international context, raising their chances of succeeding in an international market."
Applications for the FOUNDER.org student start-up competition are open to all KTH students and PhD students. Each of the top 10 finalists will take home USD 100,000 and 50 semi-finalists will be accepted into the 12-month FOUNDER.org University. Accomplished innovators teach the university’s curriculum, which is focused on building a high growth company. The teams also interact with each other on assigned projects.
Three cases from KTH won a place at the FOUNDER.org University: Shortcut Labs with their smart button Flic, Tinitell and Volumental. The 3D company Volumental was one of 10 companies that received a startup grant of $100,000 and a place at the university with mentoring for a year. The fledgling company also secured one of the largest seed investments in Swedish history, together with FOUNDER.org, Moore and Intel.
For more information about applying for a place in FOUNDER.org University, visit the FOUNDER.org website: https://www.founder.org/home/.
David Callahan