Creating Innovative ICT Venture

Venture Formation and Planning

 Prelude
• You have conceptualized your venture
– You have innovative product / service ideas,
– you have vision and mission
– you believe that you have opportunity in the market
– you have intuitively figured out the customers and
your competitive advantage.
– You have a business Model

• Now, you have to create and start your company

and plan its execution.
 Creation: The Components
• Assess Risk and Return
• Build a Start-up Team
• Start the company as a legal entity
– Need a name, logo, office space, etc
• Arrange for finance (seed funding)
• Refine your offering with inputs from market:
do a real market study and feel the customer
• Develop a pricing strategy
• Create Business Plan
 Assess Risk and Return
Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in
rising every time we fall.
Confucius

What determines the success of entrepreneurial

efforts and how can they be managed?
A new venture that creates a novel solution to a
problem will be subject to uncertainty of outcome. An
action in an uncertain market is sure to experience a
risk of delay or loss. It is the entrepreneur’s task to
reduce and manage all risks as much as possible.
 Technology & Market Risk
• Old Technology / Old Market
• Old Technology / New Market
• New Technology / Old Market
• New Technology / New Market
 Market Risk and Technology Risk
• Steve Blank is a retired serial entrepreneur with over 30 years of
experience in high technology companies and management. He is a
Consulting Professor at Stanford in the Graduate School of
Engineering STVP Program.
Steve has been a founder or participant in eight Silicon Valley
startups since 1978. His last company, E.piphany, started in his living
room. His other startups include two semiconductor companies
(Zilog and MIPS Computers), a workstation company (Convergent
Technologies), a supercomputer firm (Ardent), a computer
peripheral supplier (SuperMac), a military intelligence systems
supplier (ESL) and a video game company (Rocket Science Games).
His Google Tech talk, "The Secret History of Silicon Valley" (available
on YouTube) is one of the definitive views on the early history of
innovation in Silicon Valley.
Class Exercise: Estimate the Risk and Reward of (i)
Pervcom (ii) your venture
Reducing Risk: Lower the Barrier to Adoption
 New Venture Team

• New Venture Team

– Is the group of founders, key employees, and advisers that
move a new venture from an idea to a fully functioning
firm.
– Usually, the team doesn’t come together all at once.
Instead, it is built as the new firm can afford to hire
additional personnel.
– The team also involves more than paid employees.
• Many firms have boards of directors, boards of advisers, and
professionals on whom they rely for direction and advice.

9-1
©2008 Prentice Hall
Start the company as a legal entity
10
Legal Formation and Intellectual Property

When one door closes, another door opens; but we often look so
long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the
ones which open for us.
Alexander Graham Bell

Summary
What early decisions should an entrepreneur
make about legal and intellectual property issues?

The choice of a legal form, name, logo, and other formal

elements are critical to a successful future.

Chapter 10: Summary Technology Ventures: From Idea to Enterprise

Funding Your Venture
18
Sources of Capital

Capital is to the progress of society what gas is to a car.

James Truslow Adams

Summary
What are the sources of capital that a new venture can
use to finance the start and growth of its company?
Entrepreneurs can estimate the capital required for their new
business by reviewing the financial projections. Typically,
several stages of investment will be required over the life of the
business.

Chapter 18: Summary Technology Ventures: From Idea to Enterprise

Funding Choice
Flying with Angel Investors