Paris School of Business Keynote

1. How can Paris & Boston
learn from each other’s
Entrepreneurship
Communities
Trish Cotter
Associate Managing Director, Martin Trust Center for Entrepreneurship, MIT
Director of delta v, MIT’s student educational accelerator
Entrepreneur-in-Residence, MIT

2. Agenda
Paris & Boston
Our entrepreneurial ecosystems
A side-by-side comparison
Innovation
Transformation
Your role
Framework
The Disciplined Entrepreneurship framework
Entrepreneurship can be taught!
Entrepreneurship Education
Entrepreneur Personas
Program Pillars
Key Takeaways
Question & Answer session
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3. 2 Cities:
Similar Entrepreneurial Profiles
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4. Boston & Paris
Entrepreneurial Ecosystems
 Both have glorious entrepreneurial past
 Both had lost their status to more agile competitors
 Until recently, both shared a risk averse approach
 Until recently, best talent of these cities went
elsewhere to pursue their dreams and endeavors
 Now … both cities are on their way to regaining
leading positions on global entrepreneurial scene
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5. Highlights for Entrepreneurs
“Boston is ranked #1 among the
top 25 startup hubs in the US.”
-- US Chamber of Commerce Foundation
[San Francisco Bay Area is the clear leader
in total startup activity, but it lacks a
cohesive community, and declining quality
of life for residents helped move Boston to
the top spot.]
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• > 60 co-working spaces in Boston,
Cambridge & other cities
• > 40 university incubators/ accelerators
statewide
• $6 billion invested by VCs in Boston-
area companies in 527 deals in 2016
“Paris is among the top six tech
cities in the world.”
-- CB Insights
[Greater Paris is home to more than 22,000
startups and is adding 1,000+ startups
every year. However, for the moment it lags
far behind London and Berlin. ]
• Tax incentives for new businesses
• Government and public sector funding
• France Digitale and La French Tech
programs
• New crowdfunding legislation

6. Side-by-side City comparison
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Indicator Boston Paris
Metropolitan GDP $400 billion+ $740 billion+
Metropolian Population 6.75 million+ 13 million+
Startup's Number 4.000+ 22.000+
Startup's Ecosystem Strength Areas Biotechnology+Robotics+ Enterprise Software B2C+ Consumer Web
Number of Private Unicorns 6 5
VC Number 130+ 100+
VC Funding (2016) $6 billion $2 billion+
Angel Investors Number ~7.000 ~5.000
Average MOIC 7.59% n/a
Average seed round $800k+ $650k+
Average Series A round $10 million+ $4 million+
Rounds with local only investors 60% 73%
Founder age 34.7 33.9
Female founders 29% 21%
Time to hire engineers ( days) 59 54
Software engineer salary ( MAR-2017) $95k $47k
Remote employees 33% 24%
Foreign employees 33% 22%
Foreign Customers 33% 42%
Employees with startup experience 43% 40%
Equity to employees 14% 7%
Innovation Ranking #1 n/a
Average rent (one-bedroom apartment) $2.400/month $1.100/month

7. Most Funded Startups
Boston & Paris
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Note: Despite the fact that Paris has 5x more startups,
Boston has 3x advantage over Paris in terms of capital
invested in startups.

8. Thinking about
Innovation

9. Innovation=Invention*Commercializatio
n
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10. Innovations
Internet, broadband, WWW (browser and html)
PC/laptop computers
Mobile phones
E-mail
DNA testing and sequencing/Human genome mapping
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
Microprocessors
Fiber optics
Office software (spreadsheets, word processors)
Non-invasive laser/robotic surgery (laparoscopy)
Open source software and services (e.g., Linux, Wikipedia)…
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11. Innovation Can Transform Firms
Eli Lilly
 “Random” drug discovery to genetics and genomic
Nokia
 Rubber boots to cell phones
Corning glass
 Cookware to optical fiber to displays
IBM
 Mainframe to PC
And many more…
‘s
Source: Prof. Rebecca Henderson, MIT Sloan & now HBS

12.  Levi Strauss
 Kodak
 Lehman
 Zenith
 US Post Office
 Kidder
Peabody
 Firestone
 General Motors
 Bausch & Lomb
 DEC
 Motorola
 Sears
 Timex
 Nestlé
 Philips
 U.S. Steel
 Polaroid
 IBM
Not the Club You Want to Join
Original Source: Prof. Rebecca Henderson, MIT Sloan & now HBS

13. • Does it work?
• Can it be produced?
• Is there a need?
• How big is the “market”?
• Will it be accepted?
• Can it be effectively deployed?
Stages of Innovation

14. • They may not work
• There may not be a need or value proposition
• There may not enough of a “market” to justify
• The target “market” may not accept it
• Risks of deployment
The Nature of Innovation

15. Your Responsibility
Risk/ExposureInnovation
• Will it work?
• Can it be produced?
• Is it needed?
• Does it justify the investment?
• Will it be adopted?
• What could be the collateral
damage?
• Value of innovation
Technical and Human Resources Dimensions
What you can do

16. Skills are essential and may not be present
Resistance to change is normal
Some degree of change is positive
 2 years or so
 Cross training
 Creativity
Requires most leadership skills
Human Resources Considerations
What you can do

17. Experimentation (“tiny completed action that helps you
learn something”)
Rapid
Early on
Iterations
Solution to Uncertainty and
Management of Risk
What you can do
Attribution: Prof. Stefan Thomke, HBS

18. Is Failure a Positive Thing?
This is not a license for dumb failure
Failure is trying something and learning from it
Failure is not when it is doing the same thing again and
getting the same bad result without significant learning
When is the cost of failure the highest?
What you can do

19. Value of Bias to Action
But our experience has been that most big institutions
have forgotten how to test and learn. They seem to
prefer analysis and debate to trying something out, and
they are paralyzed by fear of failure, however small.”
-- Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman Jr.,
In Search of Excellence, 1982
What you can do

20. Framework for Summarizing an Innovation
Our innovation idea is ____________________________________ (cf. why you chose it)
It’s value to our company could be (economic justification)
________________________________________________________________________
Important considerations are (exposure to be managed)
________________________________________________________________________
The human resource considerations are
________________________________________________________________________
We plan to take the following steps
________________________________________________________________________
Our team had the following perspectives
________________________________________________________________________
This innovation is __ technical, __ process, __ business model, __ positioning, __ other
This innovation is __ incremental, __ disruptive, __ lateral/general
What we believe we will learn if it fails
________________________________________________________________________
What you can do

21. Key Risks of Innovation
Talent
Training
Culture
Technology
Organizational
Incentives

22. Disciplined
Entrepreneurship
Our Framework
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23. Disciplined Entrepreneurship
24 steps to a successful startup
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www.disciplinedentrepreneurship.com

24. Successful Entrepreneurship
=
Spirit
of a pirate
Skills
of a Navy Seal
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+

25. “It is not the strongest of the
species that survives,
nor the most intelligent …
… but the one most responsive to
change.”
- Charles Darwin
Natural Selection

26. Entrepreneurship at
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27. We help create entrepreneurs not
companies.
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28. Customer (Student) Personas
Exploratory/
Curious
Ready-to-
Go
RTG - 1 Entrepreneurship
Amplifier
Corporate
Entrepreneur
Interested but has
no driving idea or
team; is in
exploratory mode;
starts here but will
migrate to another
state or out of
entrepreneurship
Chomping at the
bit & just wants
help to get going –
has idea, tech
&/or core of team
Wants to be in a
start up but does
not want to be a
founder
Interested in
understanding enough to
successfully promote in
their org (e.g., gov, corp,
family business) but is not
the direct venture creating
entrepreneur
Wants to be an
entrepreneur in a
large organization
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29. Goals of Entrepreneurship Education
• Teach how to fish! NOT just give him/her a fish 
• Develop entrepreneurial mindset and skill set
• Applicable in many different settings
• Success if student tries and decides “not for me”
“Our goal while you’re at MIT is to provide you more
than you can get anywhere else to build your capability
to be a successful innovation-driven entrepreneur”
– Bill Aulet
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30. Program Pillars
How do we identify success?
1. Head: Knowledge
2. Hands: Capability
3. Heart: Mindset
4. Home: Community
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31. Stage 1
Inspiration
Idea
Technology
Stage 2
Validation
Stage 3
Customer
Linkage
Stage 4
Develop
Business Plan
Stage 5
Escape Velocity
Stage 6
Launch
Company
Stage 7
High-Growth
External
Accelerators
& Incubators
Angels & VC
Priority #1: Build Students’ Capabilities
Priority #2: Build Great Companies
Lots of Iteration
Escape Velocity

32. Validation
Workshops, EIR’s
The Entrepreneurship Ramp
Inspiration,
Idea,
Technology
Classroom Extra-Curricular Accelerator
Sandbox
t=0
Sandbox

33. delta v
The Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship provides the expertise, support, and
connections MIT students need to become effective entrepreneurs. The delta v capstone
educational accelerator is our most visible program; its success has created a ripple effect.
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Learning by Doing
• Student educational
accelerator
• Top student teams chosen
• 3-month summer
“boot camp”
• Space, stipends,
structure & status
• Demo Day – Boston, NY &
San Francisco

34. Community
We provide the resources & connections entrepreneurs need
to achieve their goals through:
Professional Advisory Network
Peer & student events
Speaker Series & Workshops
Entrepreneurship Ambassador Program
MIT Alumni
Other parts of MIT network
Prep & exposure to service providers, advisors & funding
Trips, treks, conferences, hackathons
Other special events
- And more!
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35. Key Takeaways
• Entrepreneurship can be taught and it is effectively
taught with our process
• The students appreciate there is value in a
rigorous/disciplined process for entrepreneurship –
it is not just magic and mentorship
• Learn by doing (delta v)
• Learn by failing / don’t coddle our students
• Entrepreneurs and companies evolve over time in a
Darwinian manner – fluid teams are essential to
optimize the learning process (as well as success)
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36. delta v 2017 Cohort
20 teams, 60 entrepreneurs
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37. Getting Started
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38. Company
Core Business
“FIREWALL”PROTECTION
Innovation Group
 Deliver innovation to Company
 Fast clock speed & flexibility
 Global network
 Ability to take risk
• Bottlenecks
• Opportunities
• Exposures
Needs
One Critical Consideration
Innovative Solutions
• Validated
• Matured

39. Tools
 Independent Business Units
 University sponsored research
 Scouting
 University partnerships
 Corporate partnerships
 Mergers and Acquisitions
 Incubators
 Corporate Venture Funds
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40. Actions you can take
 Competitions
 Speaker Series
 Open Innovation Groups
 Google 20% time
 Accelerators
 Hackathons
 Independent Innovation Groups
 Innovation Audit Teams
 Data Analytics Group
 Rotating project teams
 Dedicated tiger teams
 Separate business unit
 Self directed innovation incentives
 Acquihire
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41. MIT’s Entrepreneurship Legacy
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Over 30K companies, 4.6M jobs, $2T revenues/yr

42. 42
Thank you!
Questions …?

43. Contact Information
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pcotter@mit.edu
@triciacotter
www.trishcotter.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/triciacotter