What to Expect When You Apply
- After the Springboard application has been submitted it will be reviewed by the NISP CONNECT team to ensure all qualifications are met and any necessary supporting materials have been collected.
- A NISP CONNECT staff member or Entrepreneur in Residence will contact you to schedule an initial meeting. The purpose of the meeting is to assess whether Springboard is appropriate for the company and how NISP CONNECT can best help the company meet its goals.
- Once a company is accepted into the program the 3 to 8 weeks of coaching will begin.
- If appropriate, the NISP CONNECT team will convene a panel of experts to provide feedback to the entrepreneur.
Once you have been accepted into the program we will provide you with a template containing a sample presentation. This presentation format will be used to help you organize your business issues, and has been designed to help you identify your weaknesses as well as your strengths. Your first assignment will be to develop your draft presentation, which will be used as a tool to coach your development.
Once you have completed your first presentation draft, you can expect to participate in a series of meetings, with your EIR serving as a coach. Please expect to work through several drafts of your presentation. At each stage of the process, new business issues will be uncovered, and you are likely to be asked to research or otherwise better define key characteristics of your business model. You will complete the process at your own pace, but this process generally takes several weeks.
When your presentation seems to be ready for a panel presentation, we will assemble a list of proposed panelists, with attention to including people with relevant industry or professional experience. The purpose of the panel presentation is to secure meaningful feedback on your business model and assumptions, and panelists will be asked to provide constructive feedback.
The panel will include between 6-12 participants (depending on your stage of development) and will generally include CEOs from your industry – to test your business assumptions, potential customers or partners – to test your market assumptions, intellectual property and business transaction attorneys – to test your IP assumptions, academic experts – to test your technological or scientific assumptions, angel or venture investors – to test your funding assumptions, and other professionals whose expertise is relevant to your business.
We will involve you in the identification of proposed panellists to ensure that there are no conflicts of interest.
Presentations are generally scheduled for Tuesday or Thursday mornings at the Northern Ireland Science Park. It takes approximately one month from the time we begin formulating the panel until the date of your presentation.