The Venture Lab is made up of two components: The Venture Lab Accelerator where IE students and alumni can take their business ideas to the next level by being accepted to a "bootcamp" which helps them make their projects "investment ready" and Venture Days where finalists from the Accelerator as well as any other students or Alumni can pitch in front of investors internationally.

The Accelerator Sessions

The Venture Lab Accelerator comprises of 10 learning sessions delivered by top IE Professors, Industry Experts, Serial Entrepreneurs, and Start-up Investors. These sessions focus on very specific start-up issues that face new ventures regardless of sector or maturity of the enterprise. For example:

• Sense-Making
• The Lean Start-Up and Customer Development Learning from failure
• Business Model Generation
• Getting to Plan B
• Venture Deal Term Sheets What investors want
• Developing an Investor Pitch

The Mentors

Each project in the Venture Lab Accelerator is assigned a mentor. The mentor will be an entrepreneur, investor, or businessperson with sector-specific experience whose mission is to bring a real-world perspective to the students' project, to counterbalance the students' ambition and vision with hard-learned lessons from the real world. Mentors serve both as a "reality check" and a source of potential networking for each student team. Most mentors hold regular meetings with their teams during which they analyse and apply the selection criteria to the project at hand and give invaluable feedback about the evolution of the students' business.

Getting into the Accelerator

To apply for a spot in the Venture Lab Accelerator students must submit an online application.

To ensure that only the most innovative and disruptive projects enter into the Accelerator, a Selection Committee of investors and entrepreneurs will filter student applications. Our principal criteria are:

• INNOVATION – what make your business different?
• HIGH GROWTH POTENTIAL – market size?
• SCALABILITY – can your business model be implemented internationally?
• TEAM – do you have relevant skills and experience?

Deadline

The next edition of the Venture Lab runs from June 2013 – November 2013.  The deadline for applications is May 3rd.  If you are interested in participating in the next edition of the Venture Lab Accelerator please submitt your application here https://gust.com/university/ie-venture-lab/apply

The Finals

The Venture Lab Accelerator is an extremely competitive process where IE students and alumni compete for entry into the Venture Lab Accelerator and also to get to the semi finals and the finals.

The final of the Venture Lab are held in parallel with the Venture Days international investor forum in Madrid where finalists will pitch to a panel of local and international investors and representatives from the media. The 5 top scoring projects from the Venture Lab Accelerator will be invited to pitch at the Venture Days.