New Ventures

VentureLab

VentureLab is a three-month entrepreneurial development program that helps students turn research projects into prototypes and ideas into businesses. It helps scientists begin to think like entrepreneurs; understand the entrepreneurial mindset and culture; obtain a unique startup experience; and ultimately, create a product or business that benefits KAUST, its community, the Kingdom, and possibly world.

The Entrepreneurship Center actively supports, coaches, and manages VentureLab participants as they validate their product ideas, develop a working prototype, generate a business plan and engage with potential customers. The curriculum is focused on helping researchers understand the innovation process and how they can effectively move forward within it.

The participants will learn how to:

  • Make the leap (Innovation and Entrepreneurship)
  • Solve real problems (defining and testing the value proposition)
  • Build the network (understanding and testing the value chain and building an advisory board)
  • Run the business (defining and testing the business case)
  • Deliver the goods (defining and testing the technology case)
  • Generate the business plan
  • Validate the business and technology

The program will feature weekly lectures and guest speakers at the forefront of innovation, product development, marketing, and cross-disciplinary entrepreneurship. Upon successfully completing the program, the participants will have developed a prototype or business idea that has been evaluated by potential customers, while learning key aspects of product and business development. In addition, participants will be significantly better prepared to apply for seed funding and to take their business or product to the next level.

If you want to become an entrepreneur and have a great business idea, VentureLab can provide the assistance, experience and training to move your project closer toward commercialization.

VentureLab Fall 2011

VentureLab Fall 2011

In Fall 2011, participants came together for three hours per week to work on their projects; receiving one hour of virtual lecturing and two hours of hands-on lab time.

The program wrapped up with Startup Showcase Presentations on December 5, 2011, where five teams presented their projects in front of a panel of both KAUST and external judges. The judges included:

  • Loay Nazer, Executive Partner at Malaz Capital, founder and Chairman of Nazer Group, Chairman of Bupa Arabia
  • Samer Hamadeh, Senior General Manager at Abdul Latif Jameel Company Ltd.
  • Terry Leighton, KAUST CFO
  • Mohamed-Slim Alouini, KAUST Interim Associate Dean and Professor of Electrical Engineering

As a result of the five pitches, two project teams were awarded fast passes to the final round of Seed Funding. In addition two project teams were also – through the regular process - shortlisted as Seed Fund finalist, which means that four out of 5 VL teams are now shortlist.

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