Proseed - Intel Business Challenge Europe 2012

B U I L D B U S I N E S S F A S T E R !

Intel Business Challenge Europe 2012

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TAKE YOUR CHANCE Application Due Date

28 May, 2012

Register For The Competition!

REGISTER!The Intel Business Challenge Europe is open to:

All active students (Bachelor’s, Master’s, PhD) of all accredited universities and colleges from:

Recent graduates up to 4 years after Bachelor’s or Master’s graduation.

All Participants must be between 18 and 34 years old and be citizens or legal residents with valid work or student visa in one of the eligible countries.

Participants may submit projects individually or as a team (multiple university teams are allowed).

Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria,

Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic,

Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France,

Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland,

Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania,

Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta,

Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands,

Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania,

Republic of Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia,

Spain, Sweden, Switzerland,

United Kingdom

Application due date: May 28, 2012

REGISTER!The Intel Business Challenge Europe is open to:

All active students (Bachelor’s, Master’s, PhD) of all accredited universities and colleges from:

Recent graduates up to 4 years after Bachelor’s or Master’s graduation.

All Participants must be between 18 and 34 years old and be citizens or legal residents with valid work or student visa in one of the eligible countries.

Participants may submit projects individually or as a team (multiple university teams are allowed).

Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria,

Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic,

Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France,

Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland,

Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania,

Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta,

Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands,

Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania,

Republic of Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia,

Spain, Sweden, Switzerland,

United Kingdom

Application due date: May 28, 2012

Proseed Magazine Is The Partner Of

Intel Business Challenge Europe 2012

This is one of the world's most important competitions for young scientists and technological entrepreneurs. Their ideas change the world and make it a better place. It is rewarding for us to be responsible for promoting the competition and finding promising Polish projects for the Intel Business Challenge Europe 2012 finals. To-gether with representatives of other European countries we are gathering applications from students, postgradu-ates and graduates whose ideas will accelerate the tech-nological revolution. A year earlier, the Polish partner of the event was INVESTIN Advanced Technology Fund. Currently, INVESTIN is responsible for the coordina-tion of the competition in Europe.

Intel Business Challenge Europe is not a beauty contest that one can win for having beautiful eyes. The concept is also not enough. Established product or service must pass through a sieve of elimination, convince the jury and defend itself commercially.

This special edition you are reading is just a quick look at the way the Intel Business Challenge Europe changes the world and how the projects awarded in the previous edition of the contest are handled. The bar is set high. A quick and inexpensive method of detecting serious diseases, finding a solution in helping disabled people in everyday life or a powder protecting against UV rays – these are not always projects to be called “cool” but we know they are "important."

See for yourself what are the prospects that Intel Busi-ness Challenge Europe provides. It is not about the prize in the finals, but it is about establishing business con-tacts, international promotion and prestige guaranteed by the nominations already.

Anita Kijanka

Proseed Magazine is interested in gathering together all possible external contributions. Proseed believes that technological business development needs a collective knowledge and experiences. External contributions to Proseed Magazine might take various forms. Essays, columns and analytical business papers on business strategies, models and trends are all equally suitable for publication in our monthly.

So if you wish to inspire other entrepreneurs, startupers and technology enthusiasts or simply share your business and technology experience, do not hesitate and contact Proseed editorial team at [email protected]

VisionAnita Kijanka

ExecutionMagda Błaszczyk

AuthorsKonrad BagińskiMagda Błaszczyk

Anita KijankaRadosław Rejman

ProofreadingRay Downing

Business Development Magdalena Gawlińska

[email protected]

AdvertisingIlona Szczerbowska

[email protected]

DTP & IllustrationsJoanna Kołacz-Śmieja

EditorKings Sp. z o.o.

ul. Macedońska 1602-761 Warszawa

ISSN2082-0062

© Proseed 2010-2012

All rights reserved

Photos from pages 5,12,13,14 are property of YouNoodle

4 |

INTEL BUSINESS CHALLENGE EUROPE 2012 06 Why should you participate?

STATISTICS 08 Intel Challenge In Numbers

INTEL CHALLENGE EUROPE 2011 12 Polish Team: NeurON

13 Photo Genie

14 BUCKY'o'ZUN

                INTEL GLOBAL CHALLENGE 2011 16 Global Challenge Winners

INVESTIN 18 Interview with Władysław Halbersztadt, President of INVESTIN Advanced Technologies Fund

KNOW-HOW 20 Attracting Investors With A Good Business Plan

NeurON Photo Genie BUCKY'o'ZUN

| 5

Idea!Intel Business Challenge Europe 2012Global technology business plan competition

REGISTER!

Who can participate?

What are we looking for?

Why should you participate?

Cash prizes will be awarded to the best three projects:

INDIVIDUALS TEAMS

Innovation technology business in functional prototype stage- areas:

1st prize of $25 000

2nd prize of $15 000

3rd prize of $10 000

Register now and try your chances!

18-34AGE

4 years after Masters graduation

Idea!Intel Business Challenge Europe 2012Global technology business plan competition

REGISTER!

Who can participate?

What are we looking for?

Why should you participate?

Cash prizes will be awarded to the best three projects:

INDIVIDUALS TEAMS

Innovation technology business in functional prototype stage- areas:

1st prize of $25 000

2nd prize of $15 000

3rd prize of $10 000

Register now and try your chances!

18-34AGE

4 years after Masters graduation

The Intel Global Challenge is an international technology business plan competition for university level students and recent graduates.

It was founded in 2005 with the goal of contribut-ing to the entrepreneurial movement by helping to generate interest and development of technological projects with a business potential. The Intel Global Challenge is a joint project of Intel Corporation and the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship at UC Berke-ley that brings together entrepreneurial teams from world class engineering and business schools.

To enter the competition, teams can either ap-ply through one of the regional Intel Challenges or through their partners competitions, or by nomina-tion and sponsorship from one of the Intel Challenge partner institutions. The regional competitions are:• Intel Business Challenge Europe – a regional

business plan for university students (The Intel Challenge Europe developed from previously held Eastern Europe Competition leading to Intel Global Challenge);

• Start-Up@Singapore – a national business plan competition and enterprise launcher;

• BIT – brings together students and researchers from leading Russian technical universities, sci-entific-research institutes, and business schools;

• The Arab Technology Business Plan Competition – a regional Technology investment competition;

• “Intel Cup” China College Student Technology Entrepreneurship Business Plan Competition – a national business plan competition in China;

• Intel Latin America Challenge – a competition of technological entrepreneurship projects focused on the Latin America university sector;

• ASTEM Student Technology Prototype Compe-tition, Japan.

Every year the finalists of the Intel Global Chal-lenge win $100 000 $ founded by Intel Foundation.Prize Structure for the Intel Global Challenge is:The grand prize winner: $50,000Second place team: $20,000 Third place team$10,000 4 special awards: $5,000 each (People's Choice, Social Innovation, Emerging Market and Young Innovator)

Prize Structure for the Intel Challenge Europe 2011:Eastern Europe:1st place US$ 20,0002nd place US$ 10,000Western Europe:1st place US$ 20,0002nd place US$ 10,00029 teams from 22 countries participated in 2011 Intel Global Challenge.

Statistics

Intel Challenge In Numbers

8 | Statistics - Intel Challenge In Numbers

128 teams applied to the Intel Challenge Europe 2011. 58 students from 13 countries got through to the European Finals.

The competition attracted 387 teams in Latin America comprised of 815 entrepreneurs, includ-ing participants from 14 different countries.

Apart from monetary rewards, participants who advance to the second round of the competition get the opportunity to receive advice from experts, mentors, and to meet other entrepreneurs, and re-ceive feedback from the jury. In 2011, mentors spent over 300 hours with finalist teams and provided constructive advice on the students‘ business ideas.

The majority of Intel Challenge Europe 2011 startup entries was still in the early stages, with only 10% indicating that they were Growth or Profitable com-panies. It proves that the competition is reaching its target of early stage companies, while is also helping them to grow and become profitable.

Startup stages

Stages% of Startups 2011, N=126

% of Startups 2010, N=44

Just an idea 26% 27%

Prototyping 40% 26%

Beta 25% 30%

Growth 8% 7%

Profitable 2% N/A

The percentage ratio of male to female participat-ing in Intel Challenge Europe 2011 was dispropor-tionate with 86% of men and only 14% of women.

Gender of Participants

Gender% of

Participants 2011, N=78

% of Participants 2010, N=61

Male 86% 82%

Female 14% 18%

% of 2011 European Challenge Participants by Country (N=300):

Denmark 31%

United Kingdom 11%

Hungary 9%

Israel 8%

Germany 7%

Poland 5%

Others 29%

Statistics - Intel Challenge In Numbers | 9

Artur Kurasiński, Revolver Interactive with Photo Genie Team, Israel

Judyta Pasińska, Katarzyna Pomorska P&P Team, Poland

WeCook.fr Team, France, with mentors

Vooxl Team, Netherlands

Avner Barr and Yaron Rechter from Photo Genie Team, Israel

Szymon Kurzyca, Lewia-tan Business Angels, Tomasz Grzybowski, Lewiatan Business Angels and Magdalena Jackow-ska, Vice-president of INVESTIN Advanced Technologies Fund

Paweł Przybyszewski INVESTIN Advanced Technologies Fund with Pikeman Team, Turkey

DobreTech Team, Denmark

Ahmet Orkun Tomruk from Pikeman Team, Turkey

Joanna Jackowska interviewing the Pikeman Team, Turkey

Henryka Bochniarz, President of Polish Confederation of Private Employers Lewiatan, Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament

Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament

Winners of the Intel Challenge Europe 2011

Władysław Halbersztadt, President of INVESTIN Advanced Technologies Fund, Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament and Henryka Bochniarz, President of Polish Confederation of Private Employers Lewiatan congratulate the NeurON Team.

Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament presents an award to BUCKY'o'ZUN team – Sara Naseri and Emilie Kjeldsen, Denmark

All participants and organizers of Intel Challenge Europe 2011

The team of Polish engineers and entrepreneurs working on a project called NeurON won the second prize of Intel Challenge Europe 2011 in category: Eastern Europe. They also had a chance to take part in the World finals held in Berkeley, USA.

NeurON is a software product that runs thanks to a EEG headset and special Augmented Reality glass-es. NeurON lets present virtual content on glasses/LCD monitors and controls this content by human thoughts, emotions or facial expression.

The tool comes as an effect of combining two types of technology: electroencephalography and augmented reality. Thanks to such integrated sys-tem one can control virtual, 3D objects by the use of thoughts. What are the possible usages for such an invention? Intelligent ads, devices for disabled people who can't move their arms or legs and practical tuto-rials for engineers and constructors, to name a few.

The NeurON team consists of 4 men running a company called ARound. Łukasz Miądowicz is a CEO and Strategic Director, Mateusz Kuszner – Vi-cepresident dealing with finance and funding, PhD Eng. Bartosz Reichel is a CTO, software developer and electronic geek and Aleksander Lech – enter-prise software developer and mobile developer. They decided to take part in Intel Business Challenge

spontaneously. Preparing a draft of the project to be presented to the judges, which only took them 30 minutes. The inspiration came from the memory of EEG examination of Miądowicz's nephew diagnosed with ADHD. – Our main motivation was to optimize the time and process of training workers in big com-panies in heavy industry – claims the project's CEO. Special EEG helmet can be used to scroll the virtual manual screened in front of engineers' eyes simply by using their thoughts or blinks – explains Miądowicz.

The team has been now working on the NeurON for one year. – First we built our own augmented reality software engine – tells Miądowicz. – Then we created a software prototype for controlling devices or virtual content using human thoughts and facial expressions.

Since the IBC success the project has been con-stantly evolving. The product is almost finished and the team is preparing to talk to potential clients. – We are looking for investors to finance the final stag-es of the project – says the CEO.

Intel Challenge helped NeurON focus more on business aspect of the project. – During the finals in Berkeley, USA we had an opportunity to improve our business model. We also had several meetings with potential business partners – explains Miądowicz.

Polish Team

NeurON

Polish Team - NeurON 12 |

Last year, the Intel Business Challenge Semi-finals and Finals took place in Sopot, Poland. 33 semi-finalist teams arrived to first receive a day of coaching before pitching to an international panel of judges.

Only nine teams were selected to compete in the Finals held the next day. The judges selected 1st and 2nd place winners for Eastern and Western Europe.

Photo Genie received the first price in the cate-gory for Eastern Europe. The project was developed by three engineers from Computer Science Depart-ment at Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. Before taking part in the Intel competition the team hadn't had any experience in business matters. IBC let them enter the world of entrepreneurship. Yaron Recher, one of the Photo Genie founders recalls: – Up until that moment, we only knew how to write an executive summary but at the time we hadn’t met any people with real experience in the field. I mean the mentors and the other groups as well.

The three Israelis had started working on the project just three months before joining Intel Chal-lenge. Their invention was a supplementary soft-ware/hardware technology that applies computer vision and image processing algorithms to photos of people, making everyone look their best. While modern photo improvement programs are not in-

tuitive and Smartphone applications although easy to use, lead to poor results due to lack of computa-tional strength Photo Genie is a professional solu-tion made simple and easy to use. It is compatible with every digital camera, computer or mobile de-vice. For low-end devices Photo Genie is provided as a cloud service and for the high-end it is fully built-in. Photo Genie is about getting a great shot, in one click, without being an expert in photography.

Today, one year after their success in Sopot, the authors of Photo Genie: Yaron Recher, Aviv Gadot and Avner Barr continue working on the project. They built a good prototype as a proof of concept that won the IBC judges in September 2011. Thanks to their participation in the competition the Photo Ge-nie team had a chance to meet mentors who helped them with further project development. Yaron Re-cher says: “We are currently during the first round of fund raising and hopefully will get the investment soon”. The money they won was spent on the project development and hiring their first employee.

At the moment three engineers are preparing a beta-release of their product. They have set-up a company and work on professional and functional tool. To see how they are doing visit: pa-ya.com.

Intel Challenge Europe 2011

Photo Genie

Intel Challenge Europe 2011 - Photo Genie | 13

The percentage ratio of male to female taking part in Intel Challenge Europe in 2011 was disproportionate with 86% men and only 14% – women.

Sara Naseri and Emilie Riis from Aarhus Univer-sity in Denmark convinced the judges with their BUCKY'o'ZUN project. Two young inventors from Aarhus University run a company whose prod-uct relies on a new, natural compound providing continuous protection against 99.99 % of all UV-radiation. The BoZ compound is in the format of a powder and consists of buckyballs (a.k.a. fuller-enes or C60) with enclosed ozone molecules, O3. The BoZ compound absorbs the UV-light through a photochemical reaction where the ozone is de-composed to dioxygen and a radical oxygen. Dur-ing this reaction a 99.99 % reduction of the solar UV-radiation is possible. This technology is rev-olutionary in many aspects and it can be added to sun lotions, anti-aging creams, and hair-care products, helping to protect humans from the damaging effects of the sun. It can also extend the life of paints, car coatings, plastics, awnings, clothing, leather, and other products by helping to prevent fading and decomposition caused by solar radiation.

The BUCKY'o'ZUN project was initiated to cure skin cancer when the two inventors were still in high school. The complexity of their aim how-ever drove the team to the decision to work on preventing, not curing, the disease. The idea soon turned into a serious business with exter-nal financing, patent applications, and contacts with researchers around the world. To supple-ment their competencies Sara Naseri (CEO) and Emilie Kjeldsen (COO) have partnered up with advisers and built an Advisory Board that holds the expertise.

Apart from winning the first prize at Intel Chal-lenge Europe ($20 000), BUCKY'o'ZUN received The Young Innovator Award at the 7th annual Intel Global Challenge at UC Berkeley.

Intel Challenge Europe 2011

BUCKY'o'ZUN

Intel Challenge Europe 2011 - BUCKY'o'ZUN 14 |

Aula Poland is a non-profit initiative aimed at fostering a culture of technological entre-

preneurship. Its founders believe in the potential of Polish entrepreneurs and innovators,

and, thus, support their development. The Aula team is convinced that entrepreneurship

should be taught, preferably through the practice and transferring the experience. Free of

charge meetings are held two times a month and attract 130-160 participants every time.

9580

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320

425

8500

7000

80%

3

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67

2150

3200

total number of meetings

meetingshours ofmeeting

paneldiscussions

aularoadshows

eatenpizzas

total number of volunteers meetings

speakers

presentations

invitedguests

participants

averageattendance

meetings

meetings

The winning projects from regional competitions organized or partnered by Intel get the chance to participate in the Intel Global Challenge at UC Berkeley, a leading producer of new ideas and knowledge in technology and business.

Participants in the Intel Global Challenge show-case global business opportunities for new tech-nologies. The IGC partners with the best research institutions around the world to find new technol-ogies and teams that can have the greatest impact on society.

Winners of the 2011 Intel Global Challenge – Gaitu

The winning project of 2011 edition was Gaitu from China. The team won $50,000 founded by the Intel Foundation. Gaitu is an integrated e-com-merce platform for the Chinese market. It matches customers who have image processing needs with designers who provide desired services. Custom-ers upload photos to the website, and designers do the rest. Gaitu also provides image-sharing services and taps into the derivatives market by enabling people to turn their edited photos into oil paint-

ings or have them printed on mugs etc. The project offers design services, such as business card and logo design, and integrates printing and logistics resources to provide online printing.

Gaitu is a Chinese word for Forward. The winning team consists of three student entrepreneurs from Wuhan University in China. Gaitu.com website was created by Yu Wei, a PhD student at the Com-puter Science department.

gaitu.com

Second place – Maxygen

Second place and $20,000 was awarded to Maxygen team from Russia for inventing a low-cost, port-able DNA test solution that can be used to identify thousands of infectious diseases, genetic predispo-sitions and hereditary conditions in 10 minutes.

Up to 60% of medical diagnosis in the US and EU are based on DNA tests. But laboratory equip-ment is expensive – a small-sized DNA testing laboratory is worth about $500K. For small clin-ics and private doctors, not to mention hospitals in developing countries, the only opportunity to perform DNA tests is to send samples to cen-tralized facilities. The consequence is there are added costs and delays in test results. Maxygen has developed a low-cost, fast DNA test solution that can be used at the point of care (POC) – in private medical practices, small and medium-sized medical centres, rural sites, etc. Previous POC DNA-based devices have proven expensive

Intel Global Challenge 2011

Global Challenge Winners

Intel Global Challenge 2011 - Global Challenge Winners 16 |

and difficult to use, and required 40 minutes or more to yield results. The Maxygen solution in-corporates several innovations in both device en-gineering and DNA testing chemistry that make it portable, inexpensive and easy to use. Medical personnel simply place the biological sample in a disposable cartridge, and load the cartridge into the Maxygen test device. The device automati-cally performs all tests and displays the results within 10 minutes.

“Maxygen” was founded by three alumni of Mos-cow State University. The CEO, key developer and a co-founder of Maxygen Ltd. is Valery Ilinsky, graduate of Virology Department.

maxygen.ru

Third place – NanoDiagX

$10 000 for the third place went to NanoDiagX team led by Dr. Hassan Azzazy from Egypt. The project provides treatment for hepatitis C virus (HCV) in-fecting 200 million people worldwide.

Early identification and treatment of in-fected patients is critical to reducing transmis-sion of the disease, but conventional detection of active HCV generally requires two tests. Using gold nano-particles, NanoDiagX has developed the HCV nanogold test, which detects the dis-ease in less than an hour at one-tenth of the cur-rent commercial tests' cost. The nanogold test can notably improve global efforts to combat the spread of HCV in developing countries such as

Egypt where resources are limited and 0.5 mil-lion people get infected every year. The company plans to adapt its technology for detection of other infectious agents such as tuberculosis and cancer biomarkers. The invention can contribute to significant time saving as the patient will by-pass the lengthy process of screening using an-tibody tests then confirmation using molecular assays. This assay would also open a new mar-ket segment consisting of individuals who are considered to be at risk for HCV infection but refrain from testing due to the high cost of the current methods. Another potential market are blood banks, which could also benefit from this assay to screen donated blood rapidly and at a lower cost, thereby increasing blood safety and making blood readily available for transfusion. Assay offers molecular detection of HCV with comparable performance (sensitivity of 92%, a specificity of 89%, a detection limit of 50 cop-ies/reaction) to the currently available assays at 1/10 of the price.

The NanoDiagX team consists of Dr. Hassan M. E. Azzazy (coordinator), Tamer M. Samir, Sher-if Mohamed Shawky, Mai M. H. Mansour and Ahmed H. Tolba.

facebook.com/pages/NanoDiagx/206395046100425

Intel Global Challenge 2011 - Global Challenge Winners | 17

19 March 2012 saw the beginning of accepting pro-ject entries for the seventh edition of Intel  Busi-ness Challenge Europe, a competition addressed to young scientists and entrepreneurs. This year’s event rests on three solid pillars – the Chief Sponsor, i.e. Intel Corporation, the Strategic Partner, one of the largest European non-governmental organisa-tions, that is Junior Achievement Young Enterprise (JA-YE Europe), and the Organising Partner, INVES-TIN Advanced Technologies Fund.

We speak about Intel Business Challenge Eu-rope 2012 to Władysław Halbersztadt, President of INVESTIN Advanced Technologies Fund.

What is Intel Business Challenge Europe?

Intel’s competition is one of the most interest-ing initiatives of this sort, not only in Europe but also on a global scale. It is addressed to young people, firstly and fore mostly students, who are involved in scientific research on an everyday basis but wish to translate their passion into a manner of making con-siderable sums of money. Commercialisation of new technologies is no easy trick but it is possible, and this Competition proves it very tangibly. The entrants are also given an opportunity of trying themselves and their ideas: what is its market value? How to sell it? Every Competition stage allows them to gather expe-rience and, consequently, acquire new skills.

What challenges will the Participants face?

This year Intel Business Challenge is organ-ised following a formula allowing for simultaneous recruitment all over Europe. It has been divided

into three stages, two of which will be conducted on the HiTechPlant.com internet platform recently launched by INVESTIN. At the first stage, Partici-pants will submit a preliminary description of their project. Following an analysis conducted by our specialists, 100 entries will be selected and their authors will be asked to prepare business plans. We will not leave them to themselves, as with the aid of the tools available on the platform they will be able to use an e-learning course on compiling pro-fessional business plans. Those will be evaluated by an international panel of experts who will decide on the composition of the final group. The third stage will be the Final of Intel Business Challenge, to be held in autumn, during which the authors will personally present their ideas. 20 best projects will participate – those which, in the experts’ opinion, have the greatest business potential and stand the greatest chance of market success.

So what comes next, after winning the final?

Winning Intel Business Challenge means substantial financial awards, i.e. USD 25 000, USD 15 000 and USD 10 000, combined with an opportunity for further competing, this time in the final of Intel Global Challenge, to be held in November at the University of California in Berkeley.

At the same time, just participating in the Competition, even without winning, constitutes a value in itself. Apart from the possibilities of get-ting acquainted with the whole road to be trav-elled by the future entrepreneur, the Competition

Investin – Intel Challenge organising partner

Interview with Władysław Halbersztadt, President of INVESTIN Advanced Technologies Fund

18 | Intel Challenge organising partner - Interview with Władysław Halbersztadt

also provides a unique opportunity for meeting specialists and experts. Those are practitioners familiar with the market situation, knowing best what awaits the young people hoping to transfer their technology into business, as they have done the same once. This is also a chance of being spot-ted by a potential investor. Investment manag-ers and analysts of funds such as INVESTIN are among the specialists evaluating the projects. Not everybody can get the first prize but this does not mean that the other projects stand no chance of market success.

Why did INVESTIN get involved in the competition?

Commercialisation of knowledge and new technologies constitutes the core of our operations, these are the issues we deal with on an everyday basis. Organising the Competition will provide us with an opportunity of observing European-scale trends as well as evaluating the overall level of these projects and a chance for promoting the best among them. We were involved in the Competition last year. We organised the final, which was held in So-pot as one of the elements of the European Forum for New Ideas created by the Polish Confederation of Private Employers Lewiatan. This year we are re-sponsible for all Competition stages, which will be conducted on our HiTechPlant platform. The plat-form will also serve as a tool facilitating everyday cooperation between the representatives of science and business. This is also a continuation of our co-operation with Intel, which is effected on many dif-ferent levels and planes.

Why Intel?

Intel Corporation has an extended programme of operations related to promoting entrepreneur-ship as well as propagating the use of new technolo-gies in different aspects of life. They show that tech-nology may make our lives easier and that it can be used not only for constructing a space shuttle but, for instance, for creating educational platforms. Both promotion of such attitudes and modern tech-nology itself are close to us, so it could be claimed that both us and Intel strive for the world to be more “user friendly”.

President of INVESTIN Advanced Technologies Fund. Originator of the KOMBINATORIUM incubator, founder of the Foundation for Advanced Technology. Develops projects and companies at the seed and startup stage. Has extensive experience in valuation and financial

analysis of enterprises, including innovative technology companies. He successfully carried out the private placements on the NewConnect. Co-founded the Association of NewConnect Authorised Advisors. He worked as an investment analyst in Internet (e-commerce) and IT (systems management) projects.

INVESTIN Advanced Technologies Fund develops and commercialises projects in advanced technologies, combining the functions of an incubator and a fund investing in projects at an early development phase. Projects based on unique technological ideas and inventions are provided with capital and substantive support as well as access to an international network of contacts. Advanced technology projects are transformed into products ready for competing on a global market.

WŁADYSŁAW HALBERSZTADT

| 19Intel Challenge organising partner - Interview with Władysław Halbersztadt

Is drafting a business plan an obligatory equipment for every entrepreneur seeking success in business?

The answer is – no. According to a survey used by Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship in their cur-riculum, approximately 70% of successful business ventures start without any formal business plan. The advantage of having your approach to business – something you have surely meticulously ham-mered out in mind - additionally laid out in paper might seem debatable to you, especially when it means a trade-off between time spent on business planning and on business development. However, once entrepreneurs choose to raise external finance of whatever sort i.e. capital or loan for their busi-ness, it is time when they meet investors and from that moment on it is better that they understand their expectations towards business planning. In a world where both too much and too little informa-tion is wrong, it is worth understanding what this expectation is about. This is also exactly what this paper aims at, although we will refer to advantages of formal planning as such, too.

Attracting investors to finance development of a venture that has hit a ceiling of further internally-financed growth is of clear value. However, on the cost side it involves, apart from paying dividends or interest and sharing power, also the obligation to provide investors with information. Investors need

information about the venture provided in their language and format to understand what the ven-ture’s risk-and-reward profile is in order to make or continue with the investment. If they do not under-stand the risks and rewards, they might walk away from the table. Thus, sharing proper information with investors should be viewed in the absence of any belief in the other advantages of having a good business plan as a non-monetary price for external finance. What are the other advantages we are refer-ring to? Well, as controversially as it may sound, it might be beneficiary even for most experienced and talented entrepreneurs to set out their implicit as-sumptions, priorities, action plans etc. in the form of a business plan because it gives them a unique chance for a comprehensive, critical look at what you are going to do and how to possibly improve the intended course of action. Think about it as a paral-lel to your next big holiday - you might just embark a plane and handle your vacation as it goes, or do some planning beforehand to revisit the back-of-your-head assumptions of what, where and when to do, allowing to make some useful reservations.

In most general words, in order to satisfy your in-vestors’ informational needs as well as perform an effective self-check regarding your business under-taking, you should put up a “story” of how the ven-ture will further develop and reveal, also to yourself, the structure of your thinking. Without this “story”, the business plan will be a mere bunch of facts but not a coherent recipe for success. Without the struc-ture, the business plan will fail to assure that its key elements were derived based on sound logic and

Know-how

Attracting Investors With A Good Business Plan

Know-how - Attracting Investors With A Good Business Plan 20 |

thus will be aptly adapted when conditions change or prove different then expected. In trying to dot down the business plan, you might like to think of

it as a sum of the following sections, which answer specific questions that put together tell a coherent story of your venture's inevitable success:

Section Question/aim

1 Introduction

Set out the structure of the document

Provide Executive Summary

Specify key limitations to forecasts that you present

2

Offering (pro-duct or service)

Customer

What is the value-to-customer of your offering as compared to its competitive alternatives?

Who is your customer and how they make their purchasing decisions?

3Operations

Go-to-market strategy

How are you going to organize the provision of your product or service and protect its competitive edge?

How do you estimate unit costs?

How are you going to crush the market entry barriers to start selling?

How does expected growth translate into sales and revenue (incl. pricing and segment analysis) forecast?

How are you going to promote your products or services?

4 TeamWho is going to execute the plan and what experience to-date makes their success probable?

5 Financials

How does all the information provided translate into P&L, balance sheet and cash flow?

What exit options for investors do you foresee?

Please note that nowhere in the recommended structure for a business plan does product descrip-tion as such appear. Even though it may sound shockingly disappointing for techy entrepreneurs, the product itself and its features are not the cen-trepiece of a business plan - it is the entrepreneurs'

ability to make money with this product that draws readers’ attention. Going into some details, you might like to further observe the following dos and don'ts when drafting your business plan:

| 21Know-how - Attracting Investors With A Good Business Plan

SECTION OFFERING, CUSTOMER

DOs DON'Ts

1

Demonstrate to what customers at all distribution stages what value will be generated

BUZZWORDS: value-to-customer

List all the features of the product instead of describing its value to customer

2

Compare the value to customer created to the alterna-tive solutions available

BUZZWORDS: value-to-customer

Emphasize the proposed solution’s advantages rather than thoroughly and objectively compare it with alternatives available

3

Explain pricing policy including the price model i.e. what is priced per unit, price levels, segmentation and distribution margins

BUZZWORDS: pricing

Use vague terms as „competitive prices”; assume prices constant in time

4

Explain the decision making process of end customers –why they will choose to grab the value in the proposed way i.e. the proposed solution vs. alternatives, buy vs. pay per use etc.

BUZZWORDS: buying process

Explain the proposed solution’s innovative-ness and superiority without clear link to the expected customer behaviour towards the proposed solution in the market

5

Identify purchasing power directed to the present and future market for the proposed solution i.e. including the precedent solutions, the alternative solutions and realistically assess the revenue stream expected for the proposed solution

BUZZWORDS: market share, market potential

Cite a multibillion estimate for a “market” – a very broad and ambiguous term – instead of a detailed bottom-up and top-down market (revenue) model

SECTION OPERATIONS, GO-TO-MARKET STRATEGY

DOs DON'Ts

1

Demonstrate the understanding of the intended sequ-ence of events (and their robustness), including resource acquisition, training, product development etc., required to enter the market

BUZZWORDS: go-to-market strategy, action plan

Present projected topline growth as your growth strategy without the means that will get you there

Know-how - Attracting Investors With A Good Business Plan 22 |

2

Set out the understanding of operations required for the proposed solution to successfully function, once introdu-ced to the market i.e. inbound logistics and purchasing, service rendering or product manufacturing, sales force organization (incl. sales channels, number of sales reps, geographical coverage, incentive scheme), outbound lo-gistics and distribution (incl. number of POS served), cu-stomer after sales service

BUZZWORDS: operations, efficiency

Argue merely that the business model will be „customer oriented”, have a „lean structure” etc. without explanation how it will actually function and whether it will be efficient

3

Provide a detailed calculation for the development of variable unit cost in time and, separately, overhead cost mark-up

BUZZWORDS: unit cost calculation

Provide just a bullet unit cost figure

4

Explain communication and promotion policy inclu-ding budgets, channels and targeted audience

BUZZWORDS: promotion

Give only a promotion budget figu-re without explaining how the pro-motion should be organized

5

Give grounds to believe that the proposed solution is fe-asible to introduce to the market

BUZZWORDS: technological feasibility, market entry barriers

Fail to identify and present risks to the proposed solution as it will be to your business plan’s disadvantage

6

Present the sequence of capital expenditure: initial, ne-cessary to go to market with a given product or service scope at a given capacity, and (a) later round(s), required to broaden the product or service scope as well as raise capacity

BUZZWORDS: scalability

Fail to explain how the capacity and/or offering scope will rise along with capital expenditure

7

Justify that, once in the market, the proposed solution will not be copied or cease to be valuable to customer in another way and its economic value will disappear

BUZZWORDS: IP protection, competitive advantage

Talking about sustainability, focus solely on intellectual property protection rather than taking also account of possible market transformation trends or alternative ways of delivering a comparable solution

Know-how - Attracting Investors With A Good Business Plan | 23

SECTION TEAM

DOs DON'Ts

1

Demonstrate (also in non-business endeavours) team members' dedication and entrepreneurial spirit

BUZZWORDS: drive, overcoming difficulties

Stick to declarations without examples

2Focus on the market perspective of the business idea

BUZZWORDS: customer orientationFocus on the product perspective

3

Show understanding of the basic management con-cepts: leader-manager-specialist roles, management by objectives, shareholder value, analysis-diagnosis--planning-execution-monitoring

BUZZWORDS: managing an organisation

Give the impression that things will be handled in a non-standard, or random, way

4

Show understanding what human resources are mis-sing among key personnel

BUZZWORDS: competence gap

Give the impression that the team will do everything on their own

5

Demonstrate (also in non-business endeavours) effi-cient leadership and project management skills

BUZZWORDS: leadership, efficiency

Stick to declarations without examples

6

Clearly and concisely formulate point of view; show „top-down” and „bottom-up” thinking abilities

BUZZWORDS: communication, structured thinking

Endlessly discuss everything; hover aro-und resting on general argumentation

SECTION FINANCIALS

DOs DON'Ts

1

Present a revenue model that derives from operating models or assumptions incl. sales volume, average unit price, capacity utilisation

BUZZWORDS: revenue model

Show figures that cannot be critically ve-rified

2

Present a cost model that derives from operating mo-dels or assumptions, incl. headcount in groups, varia-ble unit cost

BUZZWORDS: cost model

Show figures that cannot be critically ve-rified

Know-how - Attracting Investors With A Good Business Plan 24 |

Last but not least, while composing a business plan it is by all means worth putting a lot of attention to clarity - clear language free of typos, easy-to-read graphs and figures. Well-formatted tables go down very well with investors contemplating whether or not guys having put forward a particular investment invitation will be attentive enough to take good care of their money. In closing remarks, we would like to powerfully note that investing should be treated by all means as art, not science, and therefore any pre-scriptions for a good business plan should be treated as subjective and, therefore, with a reasonable dose of own judgement. There is no universal recipe for doing it right or good enough to convince the other-wise unconvinced. As a good example for this reser-vation might serve a case of Skype, the IP telephony company. Although the quality of its original busi-

ness plan with which it had approached first inves-tors is not known, it is widely known that numer-ous professional investors turned it down before the first eventually decided to give it a go, a decision which led him later to some of the highest returns on investment in venture capital history.

3

Present a CAPEX model that derives from operating models or assumptions, incl. the relation between CAPEX and capacity

BUZZWORDS: CAPEX model

Show figures that cannot be critically ve-rified

4

Integrate all models into P&L and cash flow forecast, allowing for evaluation of different CAPEX stages

BUZZWORDS: financial modelling

Fail to preserve adequate links between projected financial statements

5

Present your business valuation, incl. different CAPEX scenarios (if applicable)

BUZZWORDS: valuation

Fail to define your approach to valuation

6Present an outline of an exit strategy

BUZZWORDS: exit strategy

Fail to commit yourself to organising exit opportunities for investors

Warsaw School of Economics and CEMS Master in International Management graduate. Economist and manager. Asset management and private equity experience since 1999. In 2007-2011, executive board member with OPERA TFI, a fund management company. Coach and jury

member in 2011 Intel Business Case Challenge.

[email protected]

RADOSŁAW REJMAN

Know-how - Attracting Investors With A Good Business Plan | 25

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