Accelerating the ‘Future Founders’.

Six universities in the UK came together to pool their resources and generate economies of scale in creating impact from world-leading research, commercialise innovation and boost the region’s economy.

Zuas delivered a ‘Future Founders’ programme to academics and researchers who had identified opportunities with commercial potential and wished to explore how to take these forward. The programme enabled them to explore, build and accelerate their enterprise opportunities and also to develop their personal entrepreneurial and commercial capabilities. 

Each session was very ‘hands-on’, with key concepts supported by case studies and individual and group exercises - embracing the ‘learning by doing’ ethos of all of our courses. We worked with the participants to diagnose and develop their opportunities, identify and close any information gaps, identify and mitigate risks, identify key milestones, assess options for funding, develop an outline business plan and investor pitch, and deliver this pitch to a panel of investors and mentors.  

To date, we have delivered this programme to eleven cohorts of more than 150 participants. Several graduates of the earlier cohorts have gone on to found spin-out companies, and we continue to support people from the later cohorts as these move towards company formation. 

Next case study: ICT-themed accelerator