European Entrepreneurship and Innovation Thought Leaders - Stanford Engineering School

Innovate through ecosystems

Vassilis Nikolopoulos, PhD

Founder, CEO

Chief Innovation Officer

European Entrepreneurship and Innovation Thought Leaders

Stanford University - Engineering School

Monday 31 January 2011

European Entrepreneurship and Innovation Thought Leaders - Stanford Engineering School

Who am I

• Electrical engineer valedictorian (Dundee)

• Postgrad @ Imperial, LSE, Ecole polytechnique, NTUA

• Military service as Officer in Communications

• Worked as CIO and BDM in big companies

• 7 years experience in Trend analysis and Innovation

• Over 20 publications in Journals and conferences

European Entrepreneurship and Innovation Thought Leaders - Stanford Engineering School

Greece

European Entrepreneurship and Innovation Thought Leaders - Stanford Engineering School

Idea and money

- If you have a good idea…

will you make money ?

- The best idea should have the best timing

- Intelen had a good idea in the correct time

- Having all the above you should monetize !

- but we were at the wrong place…no ecosystem

European Entrepreneurship and Innovation Thought Leaders - Stanford Engineering School

Intelen

• Start up coming from the National Tech. Uni. of Athens

• Founded in 2006, legal entity from 2009

• Deals with Web 2.0 smart metering and Energy ICT

• Applications on Soft Grid (Smart Grid IT apps)

• New vision: Social Power Dynamics and Gamefication

European Entrepreneurship and Innovation Thought Leaders - Stanford Engineering School

Intelen’s funding history

• EU Research grants from Medialab @ NTUA (~30K)

• Some more funding from National Research projects (~60K)

• Rest of capital was self-funding from the founders

• Currently pitching to raise seed funding for product validation

• Some more rounds to follow OR attract industrial partner

European Entrepreneurship and Innovation Thought Leaders - Stanford Engineering School

Intelen Pitch sentences…

We shape your demand by using social games

We convert power data into human social behaviors

European Entrepreneurship and Innovation Thought Leaders - Stanford Engineering School

Intelen prizes

• National Innovation contest winner in Greece (2007)

• Red herring top-100 winner in Europe and Global (2010)

• GuideWire finalist for top-100 tech start-ups worldwide

• Three patents in Energy algorithmics and Web metering

• Proposed for Stevie awards and Eco-Innovation in EU

European Entrepreneurship and Innovation Thought Leaders - Stanford Engineering School

Silicon Valley…

• We are here to raise funding

• We are here to expand

• We are here to stay…

• We are here to share a vision

European Entrepreneurship and Innovation Thought Leaders - Stanford Engineering School

Why Silicon ?

• because there is a huge eco-system everywhere

• because Seed and Angel funding is an existing entity

• because big players are here to invest

• because incubation here begins from University

• because here you can setup a company in a few days…

European Entrepreneurship and Innovation Thought Leaders - Stanford Engineering School

Innovation in Greece

• Innovation is rather a toxic and high risk thing to do…

• NO eco-system to support any startup or new idea

• There is no Angel or Seed funding available

• Failure is a very BAD thing that can lead you to jail

• There is no proper way to evaluate new ideas or startups

European Entrepreneurship and Innovation Thought Leaders - Stanford Engineering School

Greek legal framework

• Very complicated and hard to setup a company (~2 months)

• High taxation (45%) and VAT (23%) discourages investments

• High investment risk because of a NON-stable framework

• Government is not securing investments; cares only for taxes

• Bureaucracy is everywhere and a big problem for anyone

European Entrepreneurship and Innovation Thought Leaders - Stanford Engineering School

Building an Ecosystem for startups

• Start innovating in Universities and SMEs

• Providing fast incubation for students and coaching

• Give access to high risk investment funds and angels

• Help start-up ignition while in the valley of death

• Stop looking for a job and invent one !

European Entrepreneurship and Innovation Thought Leaders - Stanford Engineering School

Some thoughts…

• Super angles and super seeds will play for VCs ?

• 95% of the successful startups haven’t used more than 10K

• Is it better to look for funding OR to look for industrial partner ?

• What is the role of Government for the innovation ?

• Who is going to evaluate and fund start-ups ?

European Entrepreneurship and Innovation Thought Leaders - Stanford Engineering School

Thank you !

Googling: intelen

v.nikolopoulos@intelen.gr

http://gr.linkedin.com/in/vnikolop

http://twitter.com/intelen

http://www.intelen.com