Stanford University is famous for its academic flexibility, ability to attract naturally highly ambitious students, and inspire those who are not. The best known example is of course Google, started by a couple of PhD students on an official academic leave, with the support of academic staff.
In Scotland, the UK, and Europe in general, people tend to not have the entrepreneurial spirit we see in the Silicon Valley. Our education system has to work harder in order to inspire and motivate students. An economy cannot rely solely on large corporations. Innovation is the main driver of value, and only entrepreneurs take the risk of innovating.
Edinburgh University is lucky to have a whole eco-system of societies. Being in Scotland, most are dedicated to finding innovative ways to drink more alcohol more efficiently, but some of them try to inspire and give students a chance to find opportunities. It starts with the Business Society which is a group of students interested in networking between them. Then there are specialised groups, such as EUTIC (Edinburgh University Trade & Investment Club), iCUE (Innovative Consulting, University of Edinburgh), the E-Club (Entrepreneurs Club), the Edinburgh Group, etc. They give students the opportunity to join a community of inspired people willing to learn from each other.
On top of these are the organisations mentioned in my previous post which support entrepreneurs: Launch, EPIS, SIE, etc. They can help students write business plans and providing highly skilled business mentors. They also organise a number of events to showcase those who made it, and inspire more students.
It seems there is a missing link. Support is available for those who have an idea, and events are available to those who do not have ideas. Inspirational speakers are pretty much everywhere.
The problem is that students go to University to get a degree in a particular subject. They may get business training during that degree, but cannot really spend too much time growing an idea whilst completing a degree. The financial and professional pressure after graduation is such that most graduates join stable and secure graduates schemes in large companies. Relieving that pressure, by offering students the opportunity to spend a period of time after graduation, would make some give it a try at starting a business. It would also make the SIE, Launch, and EPIS offers a lot more useful as these resources already in place would be more commonly used.
Interested in the subject? Informatics Ventures is organising an event in September, the International Entrepreneurship Educators Conference.
StartupCafe 
I think you’ve really hit the nail on the head here Thomas. I noticed the same lack of entreprenurial spirit amonst university students, and lack of opportunities to pursue innovative ideas after graduation at my Canadian university as well. Financial pressure to pay off student loans/lines of credit etc seems to be one of the biggest factors contributing to the number of students who immediately search for a secure job with an organization straight out of university, rather than pursuing a potentially good idea. Entrepreneurship is not really seen as a legitimate use of a new graduate’s time/resources and is kind of frowned upon until they are more established in their field.
Entrepreneurial Canadians who are successful are often seen in high regard, but there is a lack of support for individuals looking to begin pursuing their innovative ideas, which seems a bit hypocritical to me.
Thanks Janan! I am a bit surprised to hear that Canada seems to have the same issue we see here in Europe. You’re absolutely right when you write that entrepreneurship is not really seen as a legitimate use of a new graduate’s time/resources. Getting a job is the thing to do by default after graduating, and anything else is seen as a waste of time or simply laziness. Expectations are that newly “educated” people must get a job, in order to fulfil their role in society, or to simply repay the cost of their education.
The European Commissioner for Competition, Neelie Kroes, pointed out that students, graduates, and other youth who really want to become entrepreneurs will eventually become entrepreneurs, whilst the others simply get jobs. That is natural selection. There is a debate on whether more should be done to inspire, and support young people starting their own venture, which could become a substantial public expenditure and have mixed results.
Perhaps we need large businesses to offer more support to new and young staff for entrepreneurial enterprise within the safety net of the organisation.
For instance Universities (in Scotland) are supposed to support staff if they wish to set up a new business – but the mechanism to support start-up is not really there – as most real support is in spin-off and patenting of “inventions”. This is probably(?) a hang-up of our history in engineering – and also to support medical research where, most research council money is spent (I think?) and lead times are quite rightly very long and bound by tight policy & regulation.
If the current government focus on IT/ digital related business is to be taken seriously more money needs to be spent on ‘innovation’ where research happens concurrently or as a result of start-up because speed to market is so important for competitive advantage.
Whether this happens independently (within the support of a welfare state) or by creating a similar structure of small flexible semi-autonomous businesses within larger organisations, people need some form of secured income to pay off the debts incurred through study.
People need the opportunity to fail without stigma, and try again if real innovation is to succeed.
… and here is some info collected from Twitter
rt @HEScotland A degree will leave you with debts of £23,500 (Independent): http://short.to/n4gf
rt @TheICNetwork rt guardianscience Maths and computer science are costliest degrees http://tinyurl.com/mutr2l
RT @hermioneway: Applicants to IT courses dropped by 50% whilst 141,000 IT jobs needed Digital Britain: http://bit.ly/198Erg
Morna, thanks for your insight. I think it is unfair to say there isn’t a support mechanism available in Scottish Universities. There are a number of organisations dedicated to helping youth and students start their own companies: PSYBT, Business Gateway, the Scottish Institute for Enterprise are some in the public sector. Some of the Universities have staff directly employed to support would-be entrepreneurs: the University of Edinburgh, Napier, Strathclyde, etc. Although these are often commercialisation departments, their support is often available to people starting businesses which are completely unrelated to Universities’ R&D/Academic specialities.
One of the problems I see is that Universities will tend to expose their commercial success stories when these are directly related to their research. It is more prestigious to talk about how they are helping in the quest to cure cancer, than how one of their students started a successful clothing company.
Neelie Kroes was taking Nokia as an example of company which tries to provide support to University students starting companies. There are other companies who do that, Shell is one of them with their LiveWire program.
But I think you are very right, if students had a safety net, giving them more confidence and lowering the risks of failure, we would see a lot more people try to develop their own venture. It would be good to see this in Scotland, more companies opening their doors to motivated graduates, not to take on jobs, but to work with the help of these companies on innovative projects, and with the support of Universities.
Hi tom,
you are right that there are some support mechanisms for students – and some of them do a very good job. However, it is my opinion that seed funding in the UK is still pretty limited.
Also – I think you misunderstand my point – which is from the perspective of an employee who has tried start-up (not spin-off) for two ventures within the university structure. The businesses were fairly typical of technology innovation.
They could not be supported internally as this was not the type of thing that commercialisation does. They could not be supported by TSB as the business/ company must be external to the university. They could not be supported by research grants as they were innovations using existing technologies (requiring start-up not spin-off).
I was advised by the university to explore external funding – which I did through NESTA and other orgs as well. The response was very clear – that the business ideas and b/g work was sound, they looked like high-growth scalable businesses – but that they would not fund it because the university contract required steep % on IP and patents that might arise.
I’ve since had some interesting conversations with the KTP network who say they recognise this scenario and that the difficulties I was having are a well known problem and that they are now working to resolve this. However this will require policy changes at local and government levels and will take some time to implement.
I think you are right about companies opening their doors to help students innovate. A different type of employment contract might be needed and it would be interesting to explore how that might manifest.
I’d also like to know more about how large companies support innovation from existing employees – and how their development is structured.
Morna, thanks for your explanation. Now I understand better what you meant. Funding is complicated in general in the UK and in Europe compared to the Silicon Valley. Michael Clouser from the School of Informatics was comparing the number of venture capital available per capita in California and here. The availability of capital here is simply more limited.
And you’re right, ideas are funded in Universities through research grants, which implies generating IP (patentable ideally). If you don’t have that, you probably won’t get any funding from the Universities. They are however able to provide support, other than direct funding.
The issue is probably not at the University level, but at a much higher level than that. The european commission has strict regulations on what public institutions can and cannot fund, so has the British government. Gavin Don also spoke about that at the Growth Series debate. A document was produced following the debate with a set a recommendation for the government. Their fifth recommendation is to create a Scottish Innovation Fund:
“Scotland has a strong Angel network supporting early-stage companies but no comparable venture capital network; with only 0.1% of GDP spent on risk capital investment;
• The current level of private capital available in Scotland has been identified as insufficient to “grow to scale” globally competitive Scottish companies.
Proposed Action: To engage relevant parties to discuss the creation a Scottish Innovation Fund of £500 million (e.g. 10 limited partners committing £10million per annum over a 5 year period) – and to subsequently identify & appoint a world-class Fund management team.”
it certainly is improving as universitys give more and more emphasis towards entrepreneurship
I have been surfing online more than 4 hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours.
It’s pretty worth enough for me. In my opinion, if all webmasters and bloggers made good content as you did,
the web will be much more useful than ever before.
Here are a few very big secrets every thinking carp
angler who wants to keep ahead of the crowd
needs to know. When tying the lines to your jugs use between 3′ and 6′ of line with a single hook
attached. As they are huge, RVs also have a huge checklist of parts
and components that you need to inspect after long storage
to ensure smooth and safe driving.
By reducing the size of the internal fat deposits the skin can and will appear flatter and
smoother. Don’t let yourself be baffled, acquiring
benefits on the <. Until now, the only 100% approved items for moisturizing on the HCG diet have been pure baby oil and mineral oil because unlike other oils, they have no nutritional value and are will not be absorbed by the skin.
To keep you in the most comfortable and peaceful state of
mind possible, Dr. The rhinoplasty surgeons India enhance the nose by reshaping
it by using components like cuboids, gristle (fibrous) and a couple of fashioned elements as well.
At $10,000 it was exactly one tenth cheaper than the same
surgery in the United States, which would have
cost him $100,000.
Thank you, I’ve just been looking for information about this topic for
a long time and yours is the greatest I have discovered so far.
But, what about the conclusion? Are you sure concerning the supply?
Hello it’s me, I am also visiting this website on a regular basis, this site is
in fact nice and the visitors are genuinely sharing
good thoughts.
How Edward physically handles her is like a mere child.
32 probability value (or 32% probabilty) falls short of qualifying, and hence the picnic will have to
be cancelled. This cost of regular rewards, and then in season grows found in rate paid, can be sure symptoms of economical practicality.
This injury was one that was not resolved but instead one
which left the bicyclist with a weakened wrist. At RA resorts, we promise
to deliver the best service, the best food, the BEST of everything for just
for you. This means that it can be used in any number
of productions; common uses for stock footage are
documentaries, television programmes, news items, sports reviews, independent films, commercials, and movies.
This brings the patient to a deeper state of relaxation than most
other sedation methods. They are a must for teeth that have been damaged
in an accident. Just imagine finally having beautifully straight teeth while continuing
your routine as usual. Pat Perkins is a copywriter for Yodle Local, a business directory and online advertising company.
Regular cleanings are a huge benefit to your overall health.
The new techniques in cosmetic dentistry are offering people with a fresh new facial appearance and
a beautiful smile. Knowing this means that a concern over something like your teeth
and your smile can have a debilitating effect
upon the way you interact, whether in a professional or social capacity.
Restorative dentistry as the word itself suggests is to restore
back to normal any dental condition that hampers you in doing your daily work.
Within this industry there are also many opportunities to
be self employed and work as your own boss. If yes, it is time to head out to the known bend cosmetic dental professional.