The First secret sauce of startup studio success: Entrepreneurs-in-Residence
A best-of-breed of the traditional startup founder and the corporate innovation manager, a well-trained and enabled EIR will: 1. Discover what the market needs - by using fast and lean startup methods; 2. Translate what needs to be done in a language that senior management understands and commits to; 3. Does whatever it takes to build and sell your product and win the day.
A startup studio is a great place for talent to become an EIR. An organization that mass-produces innovative companies will teach how to - be bright enough to gain big traction on a budget; - take direction from the studio's leaders and act on it; - transform yourself along the lifecycle of the startup, going from an early-stage builder to a later-stage scaling CEO.
The 1st challenge is to build up the selection, onboarding and training program that nurtures EIR-s in a sustainable manner. Best practices are available. How Betaworks creates a balanced environment for idea owners, how Efounders select business and technical cofounders; how Midealab builds a sustainable studio culture are all examples you can get inspiration from. All described in the book.
Finding the balance between a pure entrepreneur spirit and a disciplined management attitude is a great challenge. Thos who are up for this challenge make excellent CEO-s for any startup studio.
I hope we will see more thriving startup studios and then a new generation of entrepreneurs-in-residence who were nurtured by these studios.
If you can think of a way to sway more startup decision makers to embrace this new way - like sharing this thought with them, please do so. It would be amazing to see conventional entrepreneurship education places opening up to this mindset.
Attila @aszig