Issue link: https://htpgraphics.uberflip.com/i/435716
UMIP INITIATIVES 5 UMIC ® UMIP ® UMI 3 IQuBit and Student Enterprise Update… With the IQuBit programme well underway, student entrepreneurs were put through their paces in November at their first pitching event to investors. The entrepreneurs were tasked with presenting their business plans to investors with the opportunity of securing further funding for their start-ups. If they succeeded in impressing the panel, they would be recommended for further funding, giving them access of up to £10k. The student entrepreneurs were asked to complete a 15 minute pitch explaining their business plan, financial projections, risks associated with the business and of course their exit strategy. The panel was made up of Vikas Shah (Thought Strategy/TiE), Douglas Stellman (Enterprise Ventures) and Ellie Buckley (UMIP). The student entrepreneurs presented their businesses to the panel and did extremely well in demonstrating their passion for enterprise and innovation. The panel all stated it was a "pleasure to meet any budding entrepreneur with ideas and energy". The panel felt that the time was not right to invest further stating that the students needed to define further their business propositions and refine their strategies. Nevertheless, the students all said how useful the event was in shaping their start-ups and are excited for the next opportunity to pitch for investment. Ellie Buckley, UMIP Enterprise and Business Development Executive, commented: "The students did fantastically well and took everything in their stride. Whilst we may not have awarded any further funding, this experience can only make their business plans stronger and we will continue to support our enterprises on the road to success." IQuBit continues to accept student applications to review for the program. If you have an idea, then please get in touch. In addition to this, we are looking to develop stronger links across the University with those who are actively encouraging student enterprise. If you are involved in supporting student entrepreneurs we'd love to hear from you. For more information please visit www.umip.com/iqubit or contact ellie.buckley@umip.com. Social Enterprise Update… Building on our IP expertise and as we continue to find, fund and support social entrepreneurs the autumn term has seen some new and exciting ideas coming forward from across the campus. The new cohort of awardees will be announced shortly and we will be working with them to establish a support package including funding, mentoring and business planning. In addition to this we are working with our high potential social entrepreneurs, which have the desire to scale and grow, to assist them through the next stages of development. To facilitate this we have created two dedicated programmes to help them shape their growth strategies as well as tapping into our Entrepreneur-in-Transit network. The Raising Aspirations in Social Enterprise (RAISE) workshops are facilitated by our partner Novomodo, as an extension to the entry phase Social Enterprise Brief Case (SEBC) workshops, focusing primarily on three key elements; sustainability, social value and product/service. The Just Social Series led by Dr Gill Green (Storm CIC), our Social Enterprise Ambassador, brings together a network of awardees in a roundtable format for specific topic based workshops in areas such as understanding business models, leadership, impact measurements and many more. To complement this activity we will be launching the newly revamped UMIP social enterprise webpages in the New Year providing an online resource to share stories, signpost opportunities and promote workshops and events. Our initiative is increasingly gathering momentum across the campus and in July 2014 we were pleased to announce HiSolar as a University social enterprise spin-out company (see page 7). If you have the passion and drive to make a difference contact us to find out more about the support available to you laura.etchells@umip.com; ellie.buckley@umip.com