Pudu Business Incubator（PWBI）Project
Author：Steve Xing
November 11th, 2013
Project Background
The overall conversion rates of Canadian Patents are only 11% or so.
The international conversion rate of Canadian patents is much lower than other developed countries, being only 1/3 of the United States’ rate.
The Role of Waterloo Business Incubators：
In recent years, the incubator has become an increasingly important part of technology start-ups.
Many popular start-ups hatch success and attract more new entrepreneurs to join the incubator project. Entrepreneurial incubators and accelerators have sprung up in various cities, and have appeared in various verticals such as education. They are currently being used as a substitute for an MBA. The Y Combinator, a famous American Incubator, even considers applicants without a business plan if they show strong entrepreneurial skills.
These incubators are used to provide practical, technical, commercial and financial as well as training guidance to help new entrepreneursunderstand major concepts such as the big idea, the product launch and other important benefits to business.
The Pudu Business Incubator is essentially an “angel fund + incubator” hybrid and is funded by the venture capital from PuduTechnology. The incubator will provide a small amount of money to exchange a small percentage of the shares of the startup.A new platform for high tech for enterprise is that someday VC cleverly bypasses grafting high risk investments by using a highly innovative gene. With their definition as “A comprehensive business platform designed to nurture a new generation of high-tech talented and innovative entrepreneurs”. At first glance, it seems to be nothing more than just a new VC, but has become the mode of choice for angel investors to bring the highly scaled industrialization of Waterloo to new heights.
Angel investors (Angel Investment) originated in the 19th century, in the United States, usually involved this. It allowed informal VCs to make a onetime upfront investment in an original project or a small start-up. This constituted the investment risk and investment institutions of the United States Venture Capitalist Industry. Since 2000, China has seen a rapid development in venture capital investment, but the vast majority of investment companies prefer short, frequent, fast projects, so the closer a company is to listing, the easier it is to fund financing. The risk factor however is relatively high and is difficult to support all the seeds of the full range entrepreneurial firms.
In fact, the Silicon Valley has been formed from Angel investors in a complete, streamlined system of post-risk investments. Therefore as long as a product or idea has potential, there is access to appropriate help regardless of its stage in the product cycle. Even if the entrepreneur has only a good idea, he/she can find about $ 50,000, in start-up capital from an investor or an angel investor club. If he/she had aprototype and team, he/she might receive 100-500 thousand dollars in seed money. If the company has officially commenced commercial operations and has acquired customers, regardless of platform in product cycle, funds obtained financing of approximately2-5million dollars.
PuduFundis an institution with a long-term vision for success. It provides an incubator for new budding entrepreneurs, with the goal of building a “greenhouse” to harvest the fruit of these entrepreneurs’ successes.
Business incubation that provides trainings for the startup for their needs of business sense for the new venture team and builds strong team relationships, models of business, corporate management and financing. Pudu will work with local government, industry associates and large institutionswith business incubator platforms. It will also set up ” business mentor ” teamswith successful entrepreneurs that regularly carry out specific consulting services, project development for entrepreneurs, business model assessment, program design, risk assessment, business guide, financing services, follow-up guidance and other ” one-stop ” business services.
There is never a shortage of substitution products or business in the market and business incubators open yet another window of opportunity. Under Pudu’s counseling, entrepreneurs are generally able to quickly absorb nutrients and grow different degrees of strength in according to different ability of different teams. “Aim for the top, you will get the middle; aim for the middle, you will get lower; aim lower, you will get nothing.” Entrepreneurswill gain bigger visions, increase their tension of thinking, learn effective “nutrition” and pay higher than the target of efforts to achieve the goal.
Location Selection：
Near the University of Waterloo or similar locations, close to public transport
An incubator at the edge of a chicken coop.
In Canada’s recent years, a considerable number of student start-up companies have emerged from the prestigious University of Waterloo. Thanks to the University’s innovation and entrepreneurship of education and culture, the previous students are well onto the path of success.
The Pudu Fund has begun the processtofind aspiring entrepreneursfrom the high-tech fields of independent students and alumni at the University of Waterloo, and has provided counseling support in addition to nurturingentrepreneurial spirit to help them make their dreams into reality. We found tech savvy students and we taught them business knowledge.
The University of Waterloo has a variety of outstanding STEM programs in engineering, mathematics, computer science, nano technology and many other disciplines. These projects will develop new thinking systems and strengthentraits required to be a successful entrepreneur. We can train the students to fill in the knowledge gaps in the uncharted territory of business.
Mission: Let a group of creative and entrepreneurialspiritedstudents focus on entrepreneurship, “charge”, exchange and practice; provide free office space in the garage (Pudu Business Incubator) for students to startup companies; provide funding for student startups that need a Venture Fund; as well as providing entrepreneurial business counseling for students on campus. Students pursuing entrepreneurial dreams can seek support and help from different sub-projects at different stages.
Theservice management team will provide the following: basic training for innovative entrepreneurship and consulting; help them build entrepreneurial teams; invite scholars, entrepreneurs, venture investors and successful entrepreneurs alumni discussion, introduce students to the latest technology trends, entrepreneurial experience, investment trends, marketing strategies, etc.; help students adjust the positioning and orientation of research and development and entrepreneurship.
Eligible startups can apply for admission to the garage (incubator). The so-called garage, in fact, is an area of approximately 80,000 square feet of open office space. Put together with a few tables, is a company’s office space. This solves the embryonic stage startups in office conditions, reduce the economic pressure and the money savings in order to be able to operate independently in the future.
Theplan is to have more than 100 start-up companies working here.Usually, the initial cost will be personally paid by the credit cards of the founders. However the funding will be limited. Without the support from the “garage” the rapidity of the growth in the company would have been unimaginable.
In the next five years, theincubation is expected to“hatch” about 400 new innovative companies, 90% of the start-ups will eventually obsolete.As long as there are 40 remaining companies that are successful, the average M&A price will be over $45 million for each company,in according to data from the American Entrepreneurial Incubator. The 40 successful companies will have a worth of more than $1.8 billion. Try, fail, improve and try again is part of the startup learning curve. Whether the success of the entrepreneurship, train the students for their insistence, and never give up is the purpose of the incubator to.
Our Services:
Free 24-hour canteen (Cafeteria)
24-hour shuttle bus
Free office space the first year
24-hour fitness center
24-hour complimentary hotel
Patent applications, licensing and other services
Financing
Law
Accounting
Nano Laboratory (in co-operation with the University of Waterloo)
In 2013, we began working to build a business incubator services platform, from pre-incubation to hatching, to the accelerator phase with the incubator supporting all different stages of entrepreneurs. This service platform is not only a physical support but was also a very strong expansion to the virtual services platform where the service can be expanded to foreign companies.
In a 12 month period, the students will share the cubicles, and they can work there just needing to bring their laptops. In order to save the initialinvestment and fixed costs, the startups will share a common reception, public meeting rooms, and publiccopiers and cooperate show rooms. In addition, the incubator also provides investment, financing, public relations, accounting, legal and other professional services.
The incubator services are divided into 3 levels: the first level consists of the pre-incubator companies, which maybe a few people with the possibility of taking a non-registered company as a legal form of the company’s project team. The second level is a standard incubator project, the whole incubator body content, incubators providing free rent for the first year and helping them receive various types of national certification. Level three: When the startup enters the acceleration, the enterprise has to be large enough and must be available with the profit model. At this period, the service will not be limited to general policy support, but instead will include direct equity investments brokered between the strength of the project through mergers and acquisitions.
The acceleration (incubation period) can last as long as 3.5 years. However a new startup can graduate from our incubator, and when doing so will have to wait 6-9 months before following the 1/3 law. Meaning, 1/3 of the group will set up the company, another third with the mobile internet projects will not go far with their projects because they will lack a large enough platform or profit model. For the last third, we will help them sell their project to big companies such as Google, Tencent and Haier…etc.
The Garage mode will help supplement current market mechanicalism, low entry barriers, with high industry barriers tend to be more suitable and successful than the pre-incubation period which is still an early stage in the start-ups.
Not many people come into life with a silver spoon in their mouth, but these people may be full of wisdom and have great ideas for projects. As long as they have a suitable development platform, we will help them achieve their fullest potential.
Investment:
Total project total investment: 20-25 million Canadian dollars
Local jobs: 30
Building Cost estimated: $4,000,000
Building Renovations: 12 million dollars
2 years salaries: $2,500,000
Operating expenses: $1,500,000
Tech Development fund: $40 million/year
