|
It's an exciting move, both for students creating startups and for the incubators themselves, which are sitting on low-risk gold mines of raw talent. As opposed to private incubators, which normally have only a few months to prove their profitability, the school incubators can take their time since material and space are close at hand on campus and costs are very low. School-fostered startups have automatic credibility with investors, who respect the prestige of incubators at schools like Télécom Paris and Supelec, both created roughly two years ago. In addition, students who are essentially creating startups as a part of their curriculum acquire priceless knowledge from teachers and professionals eager and willing to teach them the ropes. At Supelec, the incubator is on the ground floor of the student building across from the main campus in Paris' Saclay suburb. Two startups are currently under way, while a third was launched this summer on the Rennes campus in Brittany. Each startup pays rent equal to the price of a room, which is less than $130. For over a year now, Télécom Paris has been housing 15 startups on two different floors of the student dorms right behind the school, near France Télécom's headquarters in eastern Paris. Also, the incubators' directors are professors at the school, which creates an enriching symbiosis. ROOTED IN REALITY. Students receive a varied curriculum in order to avoid being isolated from other students and the outside world, and those creating startups are encouraged to continue with courses from the regular school curriculum. At Supelec, certain courses -- such as strategic-innovation management and high-tech marketing -- are taught in conjunction with the prestigious HEC business school, located nearby. In the first trimester, Philippe Laurier, leader of the Télécom Paris incubator, holds weekly seminars open to the public. What's more, business leaders and former Supelec students like Jean-Luc Rivoire, head of France's biggest private incubator, Tocamak, and Denis Payre, founder of software company Business Objects, actively participate and offer invaluable advice. The French group Défi Start-up has students at Télécom Paris participate in its competition for the best new business startups, which also is a great source of motivation. But before a startup can be created, there must first be an idea -- and the schools are finding that the best ones tend to come from former students. This is why Supelec and Télécom Paris are trying to attract ex-students to their incubators. Axicare, for example, which is betting on a platform for the electronic transfer of medical records between hospitals and private doctors, is a startup created by four 1994 graduates of Télécom Paris. That startup, which has already worked with General Electric Medical Systems, was incubated by the school until last summer. "Our students are too young," explains Laurier, who adds: "The projects with the best technology content come from the school graduates." INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE. Students often try to come up with business models following internships at various companies -- but frequently find themselves walking in circles. This is why both schools have come up with courses aimed at helping students refine their focus, and to stop them blundering into markets that are already saturated. What often happens, however, is that student startups develop technologies that are not complex enough, barely justifying the need for such high-performing incubators. Often the projects, which at Télécom Paris range from platforms for selling personal goods online to a site that allows Web users to mix MP3 music scores, already face established competition in the U.S. and in Europe. What's more, both Supelec and Télécom Paris have roughly 160 PhD students who have potentially great ideas but lack the time for both research and getting a business off the ground. Even students who do have time, though, don't always take full advantage of their opportunities. The whole idea behind sharing certain classes among both engineering and business-school students, for example, is to encourage diversity and enrich potential business teams. This is particularly true when the cultural gap that divides academic disciplines comes into play. Business students, for example, are often eager to join forces with engineers creating a tech project -- but experience has shown that engineers tend to be much less enthusiastic about working with marketing teams. "Engineers will have the tendency to think they can do that work [marketing] on their own," observes Laurier. Indeed, students still have a lot to learn about creating companies and sustainable business plans. But one thing is sure: The head start they are getting at school makes the prospect of eventual success a far more likely proposition -- no matter how tentative those first steps may be. By Cecile Ducourtieux Translated by Inka Resch |
