The challenges of European high-tech start-ups Europe needs more innovative high-tech start-up companies who can compete internationally. Through the EVP strategic partnership, four top European technical universities (DTU, TU/e, EPFL, TUM), join forces to develop a unique entrepreneurship program for engineering schools. The envisioned intensive study program will provide master and PhD students involved in spin-off companies with the knowledge and the opportunity to build international success stories from day one. Fostering European Entrepreneurship Further The Eurotech universities are convinced that mutual exchange and cross-pollination could foster ambitious entrepreneurship in the same way that the Erasmus programs helped in changing the attitude and culture of students across Europe. However, an entrepreneur cannot spend a year, not even 3 months far from his company or start-up project. She or he can however certainly invest a few days of his time in intense programs where young entrepreneurs would meet international peers, experts in innovation as well as potential partners and customers through workshops, business developments visits and presentations of their projects that would be challenged by these peers and experts. A European Venture Program The common vision of the Eurotech universities for this program is to make use of their strong alliance to join their support for high-potential companies and help them grow internationally. Therefore the alliance aims at bundling their efforts to improve the entrepreneurship culture, increase the availability of funding opportunities and accelerate the international exposure for their student-entrepreneurs. Almost all programs focus on internationalization towards the US, while the potential of an inner-European exchange is left untouched. We believe that high-potential spin-offs from our universities can find many of the resources and networks they need to succeed within Europe and our vast networks of industry and academia. With European Venture Program we want to increase their readiness for internationalization and expansion. Though this is a long term effort, a first concrete common project is to offer a program to expose and train young (aspiring) student-entrepreneurs on “how to become a European entrepreneur in 12 days” , with the goal of preparing start-ups to grow beyond their national boundaries. Entrepreneurs from the four universities would be selected and mixed for a joint-program of visits, workshops and pitches for their entrepreneurial ventures. The program could include (but not be limited to) the following elements: • sessions (in total 12 days) of visits to the EuroTech locations (and possibly other technology clusters) including their entrepreneurship and incubation facilities • possibly organized in dedicated themes (such as broad ICT or Life Science) • contact to EU market and innovation specialists • visits to local and international companies to brainstorm on market opportunities • contacts with potential international customers / subcontractors / partners • contacts with potential international investors (business angels and venture capitalists) • courses and workshops on entrepreneurial themes • international pitching experience • fireplace talk with seasoned European entrepreneurs • conferences with keynote speakers and role models Ideally, the program would benefit not only the selected entrepreneurs, but also more generally the local entrepreneurial ecosystems as the program would be an opportunity for exposure and communication about high-tech entrepreneurship. Organization In addition to the four universities, the program should include private firms with experience in supporting entrepreneurship. These could be private accelerators (seedcamp, techstars) or firms with experience in the field (e.g. IFJ managing ventureleaders in Switzerland or Leto, the organizers of the Startup Rally - startuprally.org). Other names that are known to everyone include without limitation Microsoft Ventures, Telefonica | O2 (Wayra), Scout24, Deutsche Telekom (hub:raum), Siemens (Technology to Business Unit). As a conclusion Entrepreneurship requires courage and determination. It also needs encouragement from a friendly and ambitious ecosystem. The Eurotech consortium wishes to launch its European Venture Program as a first common tool to foster high-tech entrepreneurship, based on the existing support mechanisms. This is a first step only, with the ambition of creating a more solid and successful environment for our entrepreneurs.