Our first workshop of the Science to Start-up (S2S) 2019 series kicked off on Tuesday.

Dominic Falcão, founding director of Deep Science Ventures, spoke about the process of problem-orientated ideation: determining which problem your start-up could solve, pinpointing your solution and reflecting on its viability. Our attendees then put what they’d learned into practice by forming teams and creating their own problem-orientated start-up.

Now that our start-ups have come up with their ideas, how can they create a business out of it? This week’s S2S workshop will cover business model theory and shall be hosted by Nicholas Duggan.

Nicholas is an innovation and marketing professional with extensive experience across the medical technology, consumer products, financial services, and ICT sectors. He is a Partner at Viadynamics, a leading innovation and venturing agency, where he champions business model innovation for corporate clients, supports university clients in building capability for Knowledge Exchange and leads new venturing activities.

Nicholas is also a founder and former CEO of Cellesce, a start-up company that aims to transform drug discovery and personalised medicine in the fight against cancer. As CEO, he led the company through successful technology development, IP protection, building out the team, raising seed funding and two subsequent equity raising rounds, to the winning of first customers. Nicholas has also worked to build innovation capability and performance across the humanitarian sector, with UNICEF and the Humanitarian Innovation Fund.

Prior to joining Viadynamics, Nicholas was a strategy consultant at PIMS and a business strategist in the consumer products and electronics industries. He has a business studies degree and a master’s degree in business strategy, both from University College Dublin.

What is S2S?

Innovation Forum UCL and UCL Innovation & Enterprise’s S2S is a free “Science to Start-up” workshop series and a fundamental programme for those interested in how to establish a start-up in today’s fast-paced and competitive market. These interactive workshops are led by sector specialists and shall introduce concepts essential for understanding and considering when developing your start-up.

From the first workshop, you’ll develop your idea and refine it with the new information that you will have gleaned at each workshop. At the final session, you will pitch your idea (whether it’s hypothetical or a true start-up) to our judges for a chance to win a £200 prize. You can also attend this series for your own education/ knowledge with no expectation that you need form your own real/ hypothetical start-up.

What will be covered during S2S 2019?

This year’s workshop series will run over 5 consecutive weeks (Tuesday 8^th October to 5^th November 2019) and will cover: idea generation, business model, intellectual property, finance, marketing and business development and pitching.

Each workshop is split into an interactive lecture by our sector specialists followed by Q&A and networking to enhance your own knowledge and develop your evolving start-up. So, come along and hear from the very best about start-up creation and network over food and drinks. It’s all on us!

How do I sign up?

Our first session started last week, but we welcome those interested in innovation and enterprise. Any start-ups formed from this week onwards will, unfortunately, be ineligible for the £200 cash prize at the final pitching session. For more information, timetable and registration, click on our Eventbrite. Feel free to contact Innovation Forum UCL with any queries on [email protected] 

See you on Tuesday 15^th October, 18:00 at W3.07, IOE UCL.

Article written by Bethan Davies.