01
Organisational context
Leading universities want researchers and students to turn knowledge into ventures. Academic depth is not the constraint; the ability to select the right idea, validate it with customers and pitch it convincingly is.
02
Capability challenge
Shift the default from building the technology first to validating the market first, in a format that fits busy researchers and cohort programmes.
03
Roles involved
- Postgraduate students and early-career researchers
- University enterprise teams
- Accelerator cohorts of social ventures
04
Pathway or intervention designed
A five-day entrepreneurial bootcamp for Imperial College London’s quantum technology community, designed with Studio Zao, moving through ideation, customer discovery, prototyping, business model design and pitching. A one-day lean entrepreneurship bootcamp at UCL for students, alumni and staff. Opening keynote lectures and mentoring for the LSE Generate accelerator and the LSE 100x Impact Accelerator.
05
Live challenge addressed
Participants’ own research and venture ideas, taken from problem definition through customer interviews and prototypes to final pitches in front of judges.
06
Evidence and work products
- Validated problem statements and customer segments
- Customer interview findings
- Prototypes and business models
- Pitches delivered to judging panels
07
Decisions and outcomes
Cohorts left with validated propositions, pitch-ready narratives and a repeatable method for testing ideas, with teams pitching to panels at the close of each programme.
08
Capability retained internally
University enterprise teams gained a bootcamp format they can repeat, and participants a method they can apply to future ventures.
09
Next stage
Facilitator development for enterprise teams so that bootcamps can be run internally.