Discover the IMD Silicon Valley startup competition international business management visit.
Experiencing international business management, entrepreneurship and innovation first-hand
"Jim Pulcrano: We decided a long time ago that entrepreneurship and innovation and having that entrepreneurial mindset, that that was a key theme of our executive MBA program. And what better place to see it and feel it and touch it than Silicon Valley? This place is iconic. It happens here. Every place you turn, you go around the corner, you see something, you get clues. So that's why we're here in Silicon Valley.
I want them to understand the mindset of the entrepreneur, 'cause one day they will be negotiating with an entrepreneur, acquiring a startup, licensing technology from them, and they need to understand that person across the table that they're dealing with. But even more importantly, there may be a group in their midst that's different from all the other teams that they've got, and different because they're entrepreneurial. And I want them to recognize that, and not crush that team who's probably generating more ideas and more profit than any other team.
The executive MBAs and small teams, large teams, will meet with up to different 50 different companies, venture capitalists, HR professionals, et cetera. Why do these people want to meet with IMD's executive MBA class? It's because we come in with good questions. Our participants are here, they have diverse backgrounds. They're experienced people, 40 years of age. A lot of experience and different ideas. And the questions they ask are the questions that Silicon Valley people don't often get asked. They value that different perspective that we bring when we visit Silicon Valley.
Speaker 2: One of the rules about prototyping is ... prototype to answer a question. Is this the final version, right, bobbles down here, which is fantastic if you're a five-year-old girl.
Key learnings
Anda Cristescu: What I learned this week about entrepreneurship and innovation is that there's really literally no limits to what we can do, and it's a matter of figuring out for yourself, what is it that you're passionate about, and then pursuing that goal, and to not let yourself be stopped by too many obstacles along the way. Have a good plan, think well about it, and then shoot.
Jim Pulcrano: Every year, we come to Silicon Valley with five Swiss startups that have come through the IMD Startup Competition that we've been running for almost 20 years. A competition where we try to select up to 25 different startups to work with IMD's MBAs and executive MBAs. And the five that we bring here every year, they're sort of the raw material for the class, leading up to the VC pitch exercise that we do on the Friday morning.
So this expedition has since already started months ago, when our EMBA students started working with their Swiss high tech startups in small teams to try and understand them, to try and understand their business model.
Lucy Han: We visited to several VC days, and we also had some VCs come to us to introduce how this whole thing works. After this, we have a group discussion and try to figure out, to try to finalize our presentation, how we can support our startup company to create such an evaluation.
Jim Pulcrano: Now, what does a venture capitalist expect? Very, very simple. What is the value proposition, who is the customer, how does this thing work, how do you make money, how do I make money? That simple. We're talking about startups here, but that applies to anybody in any company, big or small. So if they can communicate that well on a Friday morning, they'll have done a great job.
The 15-minute pitch
They've got the inputs. Now it's a question of whether they can turn those inputs into a compelling 15-minute pitch tomorrow morning. This evening, we've been doing dry runs with all the teams to make sure that they're ready, looking for coherence, looking for logic. Can we see the value proposition, can we see the customer segment and how to sell to it? Do we understand how they make money? Do we understand how they make money for their investors?
Stefan Michel: So I will be very tough with you, first because you can take it and this is ... It's very tough, the exercise.
Any person, right before the speech, there's going to be some nervousness. But I believe in our case, because I plan to present and pitch it, and I'm confident about it.
Tino Bendix: To pitch for real VCs is going to be very stressful. You don't know how they will react, and you basically have to be able to answer very quick and with a convincing voice.
Vladyslav V.: Well, how did the pitch go? That was a learning experience. We thought we did well, but the VCs did not like it. They had a lot of technical aspects they wanted to clarify, and the risk element was also unclear for them. Clearly we did not completely understand the world of a VC.
Fred Kittler: From the presentation, I can't tell if it's a feature, if it's a product, or if it's a business. And if it's not a business, you don't want to invest.
Pitch outcomes
Lucy Han: The pitch went very well, and we had a really much better presentation than yesterday. We also answered almost all of the questions of the VCs.
Stefan Michel: This was outstanding.
Stefan Michel: I'm very impressed by three things. The learnings of the participants, just the difference between yesterday's dry run and today's presentation, for some of the groups, was really impressive. Secondly, I'm very happy about the caliber of venture capitalists that we have here. That makes this exercise a real world, real learning opportunity. And finally, I'm also impressed by the quality of the startup companies that work with us on this startup competition.
Jim Pulcrano: This week, we're putting them through a fire hose of ideas, new business models, new ways of doing work. And my hope is at the end of it, that they'll see, there is another world out there. A world of innovation and ideas and risk-taking that is different from maybe the corporate world they come from.
Anda Cristescu: I've learned a lot of the breadth of different industries, different businesses, small, large, private, public. How the economics work, how customers and markets work, which I would have never been able to do through a simple career ascension. And I look now at the possibilities that are out there for myself professionally, and for my personal fulfillment, in a much broader way. And it's really about choices now, which I really didn't feel I had before. Now, there's a world of opportunities in front of me. "
