Per July 2nd, Mr. Radboud Dood of ‘Meesters van de Toekomst’ is available to participants in VentureLab Twente for questions on the funding of their companies in general, and Informal Investing specifically. Meesters van de Toekomst is a broker between entrepreneurs looking for funding on the one hand and ‘business angels’ looking for investment opportunities on the other hand.

A typical activity of Meesters van de Toekomst, is organizing specific meetings where capital-seeking entrepreneurs are brought together with individuals with capital (business angels) who want to provide startup capital for young companies and help them grow. These investments involve major decisions from both parties – they can be a high risk for the investor to take. This is why the plans presented at these meetings, have to meet very high demands. To learn what specifically is asked from the entrepreneurs, is for example an important purpose of the meetings at VentureLab Twente.

Every first Friday of the month from 13:30h-15:00h VentureLab participants will have the possibility to share their plans and financial request with Radboud. He will assess the current quality of the financial request and where possible will give advice on the further improvement of the plans.

Meesters van deToekomst is an initiative of Oost NV and Kennispark Twente.

A visit to the NBIA conference in Orlando, Florida last week was a real eye-opener. Going there with the idea that all is great, greater, greatest in America, my expectations were no different for the incubators that one can find there. However, after listening to different presentations and talking with several people I came to the conclusion that we are absolutely not doing bad ourselves!

In America, most incubators focus on square meters instead of programs or services for their client companies. The VentureLab Twente programme leads the trend of assisting their shooting stars in multiple and tailor-made ways, where the community plays a key role. Especially the possibility to join without fixed idea and the intensity of coaching and availability of trainings can be called unique.

Considering the above, VLT participants and staff can be sincerely proud of what we have achieved so far. And we believe that there is much more to come. The conference left us with very valuable contacts to improve our program even more. So as Walt Disney has said: ‘Stop talking and start doing!’

After last night’s heavy rainfall it’s warm and clouded in Lake Bueana Vista, an Orlando suburb, where the annual international NBIA conference is taking place. It’s a great atmosphere of approx. 250 people who share an interest in business incubation. 4 Venturelab staffmembers attend: Rob, Aard, Mariska and me. On Saterday we visited a.o. Kennedy Space Centre. On Sunday I attended a workshop on Advanced Incubator Marketing. Practical information plus useful ‘tips and tricks’. It’s also been sort of a  wake up call for me to hear from the presenters and the people participating in the workshop, that in USA or Canada states struggle with the same issues that VentureLab Twente does, such as preventing braindrain or the need to raise awareness for entrepreneurship as a career path.

A few things that struck me in the morning session on growing and managing your client pipeline. Many incubators are commercial and they position themselves in terms of their square meters. As successful clients are their prime marketing tool, they do have selection at the gate (“it’s no use having people who want to put pink lipstick on a pig” said presenter Stephen Hartlen, CEO at Innovacorp, Halifax – Can.). They also keep good track of clients’ progress. Having a good CRM system is of course very important, and…. Be On Facebook and send out a few tweets per day.

In the afternoon the floor was for Chris Reddin executive dir. of the BIC in Grand Junction, Colorado. Her topic was social networking for community building. Eye-openers: people’s contacts have to travel with you, as generation y will have had on av. 25 different jobs before retirement (where now it is between 3 and 6). As important as before are: having a good brand and a consistent message, and a good website to reflect those. Her favorite social media tools, to be used for different purposes: facebook, linked in, and twitter (“ it’s all about your phone now” ). Thank you Stephen and Chris for very interesting sessions.

Interesting workshop @ Kennispark Twente (in the corridor):

More info on the website of Kennispark!

Carry Abbenhues, the province of Overijssel’s deputee for economy, toursism and employment, formally opened The Corridor on March 25. She unveiled the 3d animation film of “The Gallery” the future home of the Corridor’s and many other inhabitants. An ‘open house’ followed the formal opening. Quite a few neighbouring entrepreneurs from the Business & Science Park Enschede accepted the invitation to get to know the Corridor and its inhabitants. But I also saw colleagues from the Unversity of Twente, and many new faces who came to take a look.

VentureLab’s founding father, professor Aard Groen, presented the VentureLab Twente programme to a large audience in the Corrridor’s conference hall. Six VentureLab entrepreneurs gave a pitch, among them Maria Lijding (Smart Signs), Piere Wolters (WitWorks) and aviator Ben Capelle (Clean Tech Development Center), shown in the picture gallery. For more pictures have a look at the website of Kennispark Twente, one of the other organisations housed in The Corridor.