IDEA Impact Report 2017

IDEA: Northeastern University’s Venture Accelerator

2017 Impact Report

We work with people who are passionate about solving problems, building great products and developing businesses that impact the world around them.

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Letter from the Team

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Ventures

16

Impact

22

Team

30

Ecosystem

32

Partners and Supporters

36

Thank You

Letter from the Team IDEA provides Northeastern entrepreneurs the valuable support, resources, and educational experience of developing a business from concept to launch. Over the past seven years, the program has grown and evolved under student leadership to support a rapidly growing community of early-stage ventures.

As a team, we are committed to ensuring that IDEA provides a process by which entrepreneurs can have an impact on the world around them.

We continue to focus our attention on creating resources, developing content, and establishing programming that will benefit the IDEA community for years to come. This has been a big year for us, and we are excited to share our progress with you.

We are constantly in awe of the energy, support and tenacity of the IDEA community.

Thank you. You are an inspiration.

Sincerely, Neel Desai, Altschuler-Meyer CEO

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Our Mission IDEA has worked with over 900 concepts to date. The metrics we have collected from our entrepreneurs show the power of the program to not only launch successful companies but also provide life-changing educational experiences in entrepreneurship. As you read about IDEA and the impact we are making, here are a few characteristics that make us unique.

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Student-led Our team of 25 undergraduate students are responsible for the strategy and operations of the program. We are driven by impact, understanding that the work we put in is key to the success of our ventures.

Interdisciplinary collaboration The best companies are built by teams with a wide variety of skill sets and experiences. We work with students, faculty, and alumni across all disciplines to solve big problems and build great products.

Open and flexible IDEA supports all Northeastern founders, including undergraduates, Masters students, PhD students, alumni, and professors. Our one requirement is that at least one founding team member must be affiliated with Northeastern. We operate year-round through an ongoing enrollment process and everything we do is designed to match the varying work pace and needs of our entrepreneurs.

Failure is part of the process We embrace failure and always know that the failures our entrepreneurs have now are valuable learning experiences that will contribute to their future successes.

Our program supports the testing and iterating that’s necessary for an early-stage concept to develop.

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Our Ventures

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2016-2017 Program IDEA’s Stage-gate process accelerates the development of ventures by providing relevant educational and business resources as they advance through each stage.

286

average active ventures

READY

SET

46 ventures

183 ventures

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GO

57 ventures

$200K+ in funding LAUNCHED

ventures

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Ventures & Funding

286 active ventures

Active Ventures

250

200

150

100

IDEA ventures have gone to:

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

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External Funding Breakdown

Cumulative Funding

$76M

18% 42%

raised in external funding

2017

15%

3%

9%

$46M, 2016

13%

Sources External Friends & Family Angel

$13M, 2015

Venture Capitalist Grant Debt $5M, 2014 $800K, 2013

Venture Demographics Industry 55 50 46 39 25 25

3%

24

Faculty

17% Graduate Students

10 9 7

36% Undergrad.

Students

Relationship to Northeastern

44% Alumni

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Education of Founding Team

16% College of Engineering

21% Not Northeastern

6% College of Arts, Media and Design

5% College of Social Sciences and Humanities

4% College of Professional Studies

3%

37%

College of Computer and Information Science

D’Amore-McKim School of Business

1%

3%

3%

School of Law

BouvĂŠ College of Health Sciences

College of Science

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Launched Ventures Ventures become launched from the program when they have raised up to $200k in funding or are self sustainable.

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04 VENTURES LAUNCHED FROM THE PROGRAM THIS YEAR

46 VENTURES LAUNCHED FROM THE PROGRAM SINCE 2010

30 OF THOSE VENTURES ARE STILL IN BUSINESS 15

Funding Impact IDEA provides funding to ventures to support early-stage development and growth.

Applications for funding are reviewed and awarded by student committees.

Prototyping Fund The IDEA Prototype Fund awards up to $1,000 for members of the Northeastern community for early stage development and testing of prototypes.

Gap Fund The IDEA Gap Fund awards ventures $10,000 non-equity grants to address a business gap and achieve their next milestone.

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77

$58,350 in prototype funding

funded prototypes

75

funded ventures

$1.1M gap funds awarded

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Employment Impact When ventures launch from IDEA they continue to benefit the Northeastern community. Co-op is just one of the ways to stay connected.

Co-op students

hired at IDEA ventures

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IDEA-launched ventures that hire co-op students provide valuable hands-on learning for the students while also learning experientially themselves through coaching and mentoring the co-ops they hire.

Esther Chewning Associate Cooperative Education Faculty, Entrepreneurship & Management

students

have co-oped for their own venture

former IDEA ventures used Northeastern’s subsidized co-op program

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Experiential Impact IDEA provides the valuable educational experience of starting a business to anyone in the Northeastern community.

Student Founder IDEA has played a critical role in the development of my venture, Knightly.

The program has provided me with the guidance, resources, opportunities, and environment necessary to pursue an entrepreneurial venture while a student.

With the relationships that I have made through IDEA I feel I have a strong foundation and network to support me and my startup after I graduate.

Abbey Titcomb, Knightly

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Alumni Founder IDEA has provided my team a plethora of resources we wouldn’t have otherwise had access to, all while asking for nothing in return. It’s not only a great organization, it’s filled with great people— ones who truly want to see the companies succeed.

Manny Lubin, Reppr

Faculty Founder IDEA was the first group I contacted at Northeastern when I decided to start a company. They taught me how to pitch QSM to investors.

Ed Goluch, QSM

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Our Management Team IDEA also provides a valuable educational experience for coaches and student management team members running the program. The team is organized into six divisions: Operations, Marketing, Investments, Events, Technology, and Design.

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current management team members

6

out of 9 colleges represented

48%

of members have been part of IDEA for more than 1 year

IDEA has augmented my learning and experience at Northeastern in unimaginable ways. Not only have I worked with incredibly intelligent people but I have worked one on one with talented entrepreneurs helping them find solutions to business problems.

Jordan Vallinino Management Team and Coach 2013-2017

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Manages the flow of ventures moving through the stage gate process by connecting them to resources on and off campus.

Owns and develops all IDEA social media channels, content marketing, and creative media.

Hosts events that collaborate with organizations around campus to foster an inclusive and valuable learning environment for ventures.

Conducts due diligence on ventures that apply for Gap and Prototype funding in order to determine grant allocation.

Creates and manages visual identity and collateral across all IDEA hosted events and communications.

Works to ensure that IDEA information systems and databases are fully functional to serve the community.

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Our Coaches The IDEA coaching team is made up of young alumni, undergraduate and graduate students who love startups. They work one-on-one with ventures to guide them through the stage-gate process and connect them with resources.

It is a privilege to work with founders who are in the early days of building their ventures, and to witness the passion and drive of this community. As coaches, it is our job to ‘hold up a mirror’ for ventures, and ask the right questions to prompt self-reflection as early and as often as possible to help set them up for success.

Nalani Genser, Coach

34 coaches

96

sessions of coaching office hours

3,640 cumulative coaching hours

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Entrepreneurs in Residence Our entrepreneurs in residence Bob Lentz and Kevin Scanlon have extensive experience in the areas of technology & software and biotech & life sciences, respectively.

It’s amazing to see the number of ideas being pursued that come from essentially every college at the university, from food ventures to ventures doing drug discovery—the breadth of ideas being developed is amazing and says so much about Northeastern. NU has created an environment that truly encourages and supports entrepreneurship.

Bob Lentz, Entrepreneur in Residence

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From day one Bob has been the cornerstone of advice for our team. He always provides great insights that has helped us continually develop and thrive throughout the various stages of our company growth.

Sam Marley, Blurr

Our entrepreneurs in residence provide personalized and tailored strategy planning sessions to ventures in all stages of IDEA. They are responsible for our network of investors.

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Our Mentors

80

384

ventures with mentors

mentorship meetings

41% of mentors are NU alumni

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6 mentor hours per month

Our venture mentor team has been invaluable to helping our company strategize and scale. From hiring in tech to raising funds, our mentors have provided endless support while building a close relationship with our team. Their industry knowledge has helped provide guidance throughout our business decision process, and we’re fortunate to rely on them for well-balanced and seasoned advice.

Gabriella Silva, Esportudo

Thank you to our mentorship partners Venture Mentoring Network

Our Entrepreneurship Ecosystem A network of student-led organizations that support entrepreneurship and venture creation at Northeastern. From Scout’s design services, to product creation at Generate, and intellectual property protection from the IP Co-lab, our ecosystem is interdisciplinary and offers ventures a breadth of support.

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CO-L AB For innovators at Northeastern University

2008

30

2010

2014

Working with ventures from IDEA enables our engineers to prototype and build products for emerging startups from Northeastern.

Our engineers are challenged by the constraints of the real world to create innovative designs and solutions. After designing products from paper to function to production, Generate members grow technically, creatively, and become more entrepreneurial.

Mina Iskarous, Generate

2015

2016

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Our Partners We appreciate the support from our network of generous service provides who provide in-kind services in the areas of legal PR, finance, IT, and others.

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Our Advisory Board 2017 Advisory Board Aaron Gowell Alan Mateo Annika Morgan Chris Wolfel Dan McCarthy Deb Boedicker Dennis Shaughnessy Gene Fay George Overholser Hugh Courtney Jim Bourdon Jeff Dolche Krish Nangegadda Max Kaye Nicholas Lento Rich Corley Robin Devereux Roy Liu - Chair of the Board Steve Picheny Tom Durkin

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Faculty and Staff

Northeastern University Center for Entrepreneurship Education: Bob Lentz Dan Gregory Esther Chewning Greg Dalle-Molle Kathryn Wells Katie Dempsey Kevin Scanlon Marc Meyer

What has most impressed and stood out for me is the consistently high quality level of the students who become directly involved with IDEA, and by quality level I mean specifically the commitment to hard work, maintaining the level of passion and perseverance that is really required to get a business started and to see it through to execution.

Roy Liu, Advisory Board Chair

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Thank you

The enthusiasm and support of the IDEA community continues to inspire and amaze us year after year. Thank you to all of our entrepreneurs, coaches, mentors, and advisors it’s an honor to work alongside you.

Keep changing the world!

IDEA Management Team 2016-2017

Designed by Alexander Lim & Alexa Nguyen Portrait Photography by Alec MacLean & Catherine Patchell

Abigail Walker Alexander Lim Alexa Nguyen Allison Murphy Allison Pierpoint Bailey Kane Brian Miller Dan Meyers Dan Prawdzik David Adames

Drew Pomerleau Dyan Khor Elodie Kwan Emily O’Brien Giovanni Armonies-Assalone Greg Preston John O’Connor Jordan Vallinino Katie Mulligan Kiera Haining

Lauren Ramirez Lucas Ferreira da Rocha Miranda Beggin Neel Desai Nina Waskiewicz Omkar Bhat Sarah Sienkiewicz Tanner Elvidge Ted Wolf Vidhan Bhaiya 37

northeastern.edu/idea @IDEAneu