Performance Report: Mentors & Entrepreneurs Workshop

Performance Report:

Mentors & Entrepreneurs Workshop

November 18-19, 2014

Mexico City

FEDERAL GRANT NUMBER: SMX53014GR200

SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES:

With over 90 participants1 from academic institutions, technology transfer offices (TTO),

investment funds and government institutions, a workshop for Researchers, Mentors and Entrepreneurs

was held at the Business School EBC (Escuela Bancaria y Comercial) in Mexico City, on November 18 and

19, as a preliminary activity of the Pilot I-Corps program to be launched in the same country with support

of the National Science Foundation.

The aim of the workshop was to familiarize participants with the I-Corps program, which supports teams of

researchers, entrepreneurs and mentors who work collaboratively to validate business models that

promote commercialization of projects and technologies created in the academic field, which eventually

can result in the creation of new businesses or startups.

To reduce the risk associated with forming a new company, the I-Corps program uses tools like Customer

Discovery, the Lean Start-up and the Canvas Business Model, which make it easy for teams to receive

feedback on the problems of their future customers and allow them to generate a value proposition with

great chances of market success.

This workshop was made possible through collaboration between the U.S.-Mexico Foundation for Science

(FUMEC), and UP Latam (Mexico desk, owners of the Startup Weekend brand), and involved speakers like

Dr. Rathindra “Babu” DasGupta, Program Director of I-Corps at the National Science Foundation; and

Edmund Pendleton, Mike Abbott and Dan Kunitz, instructors of the I-Corps program at the DC I-Corps Node

in the United States.

1 Please refer to the full list of participants in the attached documents.

"I-Corps is an educational and mentoring program, aimed at those who develop research and technology, and serves to help them acquire sensitivity and identify business opportunities that can lead to the formation of new businesses based on knowledge" Dr. Babu DasGupta, Program Director of I-Corps at NSF.

Another objective of this workshop was to promote meetings between mentors, researchers and

entrepreneurs, in order to form potential teams for the pilot program to be held in the first half of 2015.

These teams will be in the program for seven weeks (starting in March, 2015), and will have to complete at

least one hundred interviews with potential customers to better understand their needs and whether their

research has commercial potential to justify the creation of a new company.

During the training, participants simulated the formation of teams and played the roles of Principal

Investigator, Entrepreneurial Lead and Mentor. Then they exposed to the trainers their business models

and a value proposition for their potential consumers to understand how the value proposition is different

from the features of the product or service (at problem does it solve for the final user or customer?)2.

2 Please refer to the complete programa for the workshop in the attached documents

At the end of day one, a networking

event was held attended by the Ambassador of the United States in Mexico, Anthony Wayne, who said that the I-Corps program is implemented in Mexico thanks to the U.S. Department of State and the United States’ interest promoting and strengthening innovation through entrepreneurship and technology.

The implementation in Mexico of the I-Corps program is one of the initiatives of the Subcommittee

for Technology Commercialization of the Mexico-US Entrepreneurship and Innovation Council (MUSEIC)

and it is possible thanks to the collaboration between the U.S. Embassy in Mexico, the Mexican National

Institute for Entrepreneurship (INADEM), the Mexican National Council for Science and Technology

(CONACYT) and the US-Mexico Foundation for Science (FUMEC).

ATTACHMENTS

1. Program of the Workshop

2. Speakers’ Profiles

3. List of Participants

4. Links of interest

ATTACHMENT 1: PROGRAM OF THE WORKSHOP

Day 1 – Tuesday, November 18th

08:30 Registration of participants

09:00 Welcome and Overview of the I-Corps Pilot Program in Mexico: Claire Barnouin, FUMEC

09:15 Presentation of NSF I-Corps Program: Babu DasGupta, NSF

10:00 Introduction to I-Corps (Lean Startup) Methodology – part 1: Edmund Pendleton, DC I-Corps

10:45 Coffee-break & Networking

11:15 Teams pairing up: identification of PI-EL-Mentors for exercises

11:30 Team work: draft Business Model Canvas of R&D projects

12:00 Participatory session: mock mentoring exercises with speakers based on the BMC

12:45 The Roles of the Mentor, the PI and the EL in I-Corps: Babu DasGupta, NSF

13:30 Lunch & Networking

15:00 Presentation of the National Mentors Network Initiative: INADEM

15:15 How to build and maintain a mentor’s network? Dan Kunitz, DC I-Corps

15:45 Q&A Panel: All presenters

16:30 Pitch Fire: voluntary presentation of R&D projects from (2-3 min each): researchers

17:00 Mixer event: hosted with the U.S. Embassy in Mexico

19:00 End of day 1

Day 2 – Wednesday, November 19th

09:00 Welcome and Goals of Day 2: Claire Barnouin, FUMEC

09:15 Introduction to I-Corps (Lean Startup) Methodology – part 2: Edmund Pendleton, DC I-Corps

10:00 Storytelling: how to prep for customer interviewing: Mike Abbott, DC I-Corps

10:45 Coffee-break & Networking

11:15 Ice-breaker activity: UP Latam

11:30 “Speed dating”: Goal: build potential teams for the 2015 I-Corps pilot (PI-EL-MENTOR)

12:30 Participatory session: Simulation of interviews with potential customers

13:30 Lunch & Networking

15:00 Motivational Speech: a Mexican success story in tech commercialization

15:45 What comes after I-Corps? Panel with all speakers

16:30 Presentation of the Startup Weekend “I-Corps Edition”: Gustavo, UPLatam & Claire, FUMEC

17:00 End of day 2

ATTACHMENT 2: SPEAKERS’ PROFILES

Rathindra “Babu” DasGupta, I-Corps Program Director, NSF

Dr. DasGupta joined the National Science Foundation (NSF) in June 2006 and is currently the lead program director for the Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program. Before joining NSF, Dr. DasGupta was the chief scientist for CONTECH Division, SPX Corporation. Dr. DasGupta was also the technical director at Meta Mold Division, Amcast Industrial Corporation. Prior to joining the industry, Dr. DasGupta held various professorships at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, UW-Madison, UW-Milwaukee, and Western Michigan University.

Dr. DasGupta has received multiple awards and honors including the Raymond D. Peters Endowed Professorship in Materials Science (1987-1990) at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, Inland Steel Ryerson Outstanding Undergraduate Teacher (1985) at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, Herman Doehler Award (2000) from the North American Die Casting Association, Innovation Award at CONTECH (1997), and the ASM-IIM Visiting Lecturer to India in 2000. Dr. DasGupta has published numerous papers, has presented at various international and domestic conferences, and has five patents to his credit.

Edmund Pendleton, Director, DC I-Corps

Edmund Pendleton is the Director of the DC I-Corps program, which is an NSF-sponsored collaboration between Virginia Tech, George Washington University, and the University of Maryland. He also serves as the Director of the VentureAccelerator in the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech) at the University of Maryland. He is a certified NSF I-Corps instructor and serves as the lead for the national and regional teaching teams. Edmund is also a technology entrepreneur, angel investor, and

startup mentor. He is an Adjunct Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the

McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University, and serves as a Board Member of

the Investment Advisory Board at the Center for Innovative Technology in Virginia. He earned

an S.M. in Management from the Sloan School of Management at MIT, and an S.M. in Civil

Engineering from MIT. He also holds a B.S. in Physics & Mathematics from the College of

William and Mary, and served as a Rotary Foundation Scholar in New Zealand.

Dan Kunitz, Director, DC I-Corps Accelerator

Dan es un emprendedor y especialista en medios y tecnología que se ha involucrado en la creación y administración de varias startups exitosas en el sector de medios digitales. Dan estuvo en el equipo fundador de Politico.com, donde fungía como Director Editorial y Editor Asociado. Como director de la Aceleradora DC I-Corps Dan asesora y apoya a todas las empresas tecnológicas de reciente creación patrocinadas por el programa DC I-Corps que imparte la Universidad de Maryland, la Universidad de Washington, la Universidad Virginia Tech, y la Universidad John Hopkins.

Además de trabajar con muchos proyectos que se originan en laboratorios universitarios, Dan es mentor de un número creciente de equipos de las iniciativas Federal Labs y de incubadoras dentro de la región de Washington. Dan también es Presidente del programa AccelerateDC del Washington DC Economic Partnership's, donde maneja una red de mentores de ejecutivos y fundadores de startups tecnológicas. Dan tiene una licenciatura de la Universidad de Wesleyan y un MBA en Negocios Internacionales de la Ecole des Ponts.

Mike Abbott, President and CEO, Adaptive Technologies

Mike es un emprendedor experimentado y desarrollador de productos con una amplia gama de conocimientos. En los últimos 20 años, Mike ha sido socio de cuatro compañías exitosas de desarrollo de producto y ha servido como consultor ejecutivo en desarrollo de producto, transferencia de tecnología y manufactura para varias otras empresas. Su experiencia en diseño de nuevos productos va desde productos sencillos de consumo a sistemas complejos para la industria médica, de defensa, de consumo y de manufactura pesada.

ATTACHMENT 3: LIST OF PARTICIPANTS

Name and Last name Institution Role

1 Ada Solares INADEM Ponente

2 Adrián Salcido Harweb Líder emprendedor

3 Alejandro Guzmán GoNet Líder emprendedor

4 ANA CRISTINA DE LA PEÑA OSORIO

NeuroCrowd Líder emprendedor

5 ANDREA PAOLA DORADO DÍAZ

UNAM Instructor adjunto

6 Antonio Juárez UNAM Investigador principal

7 ARACELI TORRES UAEM Instructor adjunto

8 Armando Gonzalez Innovation3 Mentor

9 Babu DasGupta NSF Ponente

10 Braulio Victor Rodriguez Molina

UNAM - Instituto de Quimica Investigador principal

11 Carlos Alberto Martínez Cortés

FUMEC Mentor

12 Carlos Ehrenzweig ZWEIGTECH Instructor adjunto

13 Cecilia Raya Soto IPN - Centro de Incubación de Empresas de Base Tecnológica

Instructor adjunto

14 Cesar Briones Actum Líder emprendedor

15 Claire Barnouin FUMEC Organizador

16 CLAUDIA ARELI VILLEGAS GoNet Líder emprendedor

17 CLAUDIA MARIANA ROJAS MARTINEZ

ANGEL VENTURES MÉXICO Mentor

18 Cuauhtémoc León IPN Mentor

19 Dan Kunitz DC I-Corps Ponente

20 Daniel Rocha Embajada Estados Unidos en México Organizador

21 Diana Meza Moctezuma Everbots Líder emprendedor

22 Diego De la Sancha Hernández-González

UNAM - Centro de Negocios e Ingenieria Industrial, Facultad de Ingenieria

Líder emprendedor

23 EDGAR IVAN NAJERA MORALES

UAEM Mentor

24 Edmund Pendleton DC I-Corps Ponente

25 Eduardo Valdez Fundación Universidad Autónoma Chapingo

Instructor adjunto

26 Erika Sánchez FUMEC Organizador

27 Eugenia del Socorro López Lira Rocha

Grupo Efficiencia Líder emprendedor

28 Eva Ramón Gallegos* IPN

29 Fernando Espinosa Netmedical Ponente

30 Fernando Fabian Hernandez Hernandez

Higia innovation Líder emprendedor

31 Florencio Lugo GoNet Instructor adjunto

32 Francisco Gavi Reyes* IPN

33 GERARDO ENRIQUE GORDILLO

CENTRO DE INVESTIGACION INNPROTEC S DE RL

Investigador principal

34 Gloria De la Cruz UNAM Mentor

35 Gloria Mina FUMEC Organizador

36 Guadalupe Elizabeth Zermeño

UAEM Líder emprendedor

37 Guillermo Fernández de la Garza

FUMEC Organizador

38 Gustavo Adolfo López-Corona

Escuela Bancaria y Comercial, S.C. Líder emprendedor

39 Gustavo Álvarez Moreno UpLatam Organizador

40 Gustavo I Cadena UNAM - Instituto de Ingeniería Mentor

41 Hector Arturo Alvarado Oficina Mexicana de Transferencia de Tecnología e Innovación SA de CV

Instructor adjunto

42 Hernando Ortega UNAM - IIMAS Investigador principal

43 Isabel Olalde UNAM/Morelos otro

44 ISAURO GUZMAN CORTEZ iBIO Investigador principal

45 Ivan Zavala FUMEC Mentor

46 IVONNE SIGLER SIP-INNOVATION S.C. Mentor

47 Jacqueline Ramírez Guzmán

Ecopil Arte Crea Conciencia A.C. Líder emprendedor

48 Jesus Cervantes Herrera Concreto Poliamidico UNIMEZ, S. A. de C. V.

Investigador principal

49 Jesús E. Vera Iñiguez UAM Otro

50 JESÚS SANTA OLALLA TAPIA

UAEM - Facultad de Medicina Investigador principal

51 Jesus Valdes-Martinez UNAM Otro

52 Jonathan Pinzón GreenMomentum Mentor

53 Jorge Alberto Reyes UAEM Investigador principal

54 JORGE EFRAIN CABALLERO MARTÍNEZ

SIP-INNOVATION S.C. Mentor

55 Jorge Ivan Espadas Espinosa

Blue Ocean Mentor

56 Jorge López FUMEC Organizador

57 José Gerardo Vera Dimas UAEM - CIICAP Líder emprendedor

58 Juan Alberto González Piñón*

CIEBT

59 Juan Martínez Romero Universidad Autónoma Chapingo Líder emprendedor

60 Laura Grecia Fuentes Ponce

Proyecto Alicia Líder emprendedor

61 Luis Alain Zúñiga Hernández

Ecopil Arte Crea Conciencia A.C. Líder emprendedor

62 Luis Alfredo Sánchez López

Everbots Líder emprendedor

63 LUIS ALONSO GONZÁLEZ AGUIRRE

INNOVAUNAM Instructor adjunto

64 Luisa Salgado EBC Organizador

65 Manuel Alejandro Montes Garcia

IPN - Centro de Incubación de Empresas de Base Tecnológica

Instructor adjunto

66 Margarita Tecpoyotl Torres

UAEM Investigador principal

67 María de los Angeles Aguiñaga Villaseñor

Instituto Tecnológico de Querétaro Investigador principal

68 Maricela del Villar Polyamides at Concrete Ltd. Líder emprendedor

69 MARTHA-LAURA LOPEZ-ORUE

SIP-INNOVATION S.C. Mentor

70 Mathieu Hautefeuille UNAM Investigador principal

71 MAYRA MORAN UAEM Otro

72 Michel Marfil Rivero Tecnología Renovable de México (Oficina de Transferencia de Tecnología y Conocimiento)

Líder emprendedor

73 Miguel MONTES Universidad Autónoma Chapingo Líder emprendedor

74 Mike Abbott DC I-Corps Ponente

75 Monica Velasco Centro Geo Investigador principal

76 Oscar Rivera Harweb Líder emprendedor

77 Pablo Prieto EBC Organizador

78 Pablo Valdez Embajada Estados Unidos en México Organizador

79 Pedro Hugo Alcalá López Consultanos MX, S.A. de C.V. Mentor

80 Pedro López Sela Fomento Geek Mentor

81 Rafaela Blanca Silva López UAM Instructor adjunto

82 RAMON BACRE Biotecnología Mexicana Líder emprendedor

83 Raphael O. Aguilar RAQ Negocios Mentor

84 Raúl Viúrquez UNAM Líder emprendedor

85 Ricardo Henkel-Huerta LAMPE Líder emprendedor

86 Ricardo Henkel-Reyes Secretaría de Educación del Estado de México

Mentor

87 Ricardo Niño de Rivera Barrón

Everbots Líder emprendedor

88 Rocío Bernal Mujer Emprende Líder emprendedor

89 Rosario Taracena FUMEC Organizador

90 Salvador de León UAM - Azcapotzalco Otro

91 SAMUEL ALEJANDRO SARRACINO

INNOVAUNAM Instructor adjunto

92 Socorro Smith Montes Aceleradora de Empresas ITESM- CEM

Instructor adjunto

93 Uziel Mejia Mendoza CENTRO DE INVESTIGACIÓN EN INGENIERÍA Y CIENCIAS APLICADAS

Líder emprendedor

94 VICTOR MANUEL COLLANTES VAZQUEZ

UAM Líder emprendedor

95 Victoria Eugenia Manzano Corona

Escuela Bancaria y Comercial, S.C. Líder emprendedor

96 VLADIMIR PEDRAZA BECERRIL

PMS LATAM Líder emprendedor

97 Yereli Fonseca Mujer Emprende Líder emprendedor

98 Yolanda Aguirre Fuentes UNAM - Instituto de Química Líder emprendedor

ATTACHMENT 4: LINKS OF INTEREST

Speakers’ presentations (Dropbox):

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bsulmnfb7xuclz3/AAC3klydljbJsUapscOI2Mcma?dl=0

Picture Album of the workshop (Flikr):

https://www.flickr.com/photos/54678820@N06/sets/72157648973441279

The NSF I-Corps Program:

http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/i-corps/

FUMEC’s I-Corps Pilot Program related articles:

http://fumec.org/v6/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=123&Itemid=577

&lang=en

The State Department’s webpage on MUSEIC:

http://www.state.gov/e/eb/cba/entrepreneurship/museic/