When an entrepreneur starts their business, he/she either spotted an interesting market opportunity for which the entrepreneur creates a profitable, innovative solution, or he/she developed a promising technology for which the entrepreneur needs to seek a profitable area of application and market. These two types of start-ups are sometimes labelled as market pull vs technology push start-ups.
During this session, we will try to find out what the main differences are in the founding process of both types of start-ups. More specifically, we ask ourselves two main questions: Does it require different entrepreneurial skills and actions? And how should external investors act in these two types of start-ups? We will listen to stories of technology push and market pull companies and include the perspectives of an investor and a TTO.
Places are limited. Register your place at this event.
Hear our panel’s views and offer your own. A reception of wines and canapes will follow the event.
About the panel:
Erwin Daneels, Associate Professor, Strategic & Business Analysis
University of South Florida
Erwin Danneels researches the growth and renewal of corporations in the face of changing technological environments, and won a three-year $212,000 National Science Foundation grant to conduct a large-scale study of product innovation and growth in public U.S. firms. He has published in top academic journals such as the Journal of Product Innovation Management, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, and Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal. Most notably, he is the author of five solo-authored articles in the Strategic Management Journal.
Erwin joined the management department from the University of Central Florida. He received an MBA from the University of Ghent in Belgium, an MS from the University of California, Davis, and a PhD in Business Administration from Penn State University.
Jon Edington, Director Technology Ventures
Imperial Innovations, London
Jon joined Imperial Innovations in 2010 from Sovereign Capital, a mid-market buyout firm, where he specialised in transactions in the healthcare services market. Prior to Sovereign Jon spent seven years at 3i where he was a director in the venture capital business and managed a number of technology investments from deal origination through to exit. At Imperial Innovations Jon focuses mainly on software and IT investments. He is on the board of Featurespace, Acunu, JustYoyo, Semetric, Cortexica and Permasense and works with Get Fractal and PSE. Jon’s investment experience includes Nimbus Partners (acquired by Tibco), OST Business Rules (acquired by Microgen), Kavado (acquired by Protegrity) and FMS (acquired by Temenos). Prior to 3i, Jon worked at Deloitte Consulting in London having gained six years’ manufacturing and industrial experience in the US and Japan. Jon has a BEng from Imperial College, London and an MBA from INSEAD.
Alain Falys, Co-founder and CEO
Yoyo
Alain is the Co-founder & CEO of Yoyo, an innovative mobile consumer engagement platform that launched at Imperial College in 2013, and Partner at tech investor club Firestartr.co. He
co-founded the global eInvoicing company OB10 in 2000 which listed on AIM as Tungsten Corporation Plc ($500m market cap). The incubator that he co-founded (Omnis Mundi) realised a $100m exit of e-commerce company BuyVip to Amazon in 2010. Alain is former senior VP at Visa International.
Places are limited. Register your place at this event..
This event is part of the Best Prcatice 5-part series. The series is organised by The Entrepreneurship Hub at Imperial College Business School, and is supported by the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF).