The ePlus project has connected three local ecosystems: Lisbon, Nice/Côte D’Azur and Baden-Württemberg to support and prepare starups and web-entrepreneurs for the changing global digital market, equipping them with the knowledge and skills needed to offer new products and services by digital means, to compete, thrive, and to create new jobs. This has been achieved via a unique combination of talents, tools and services of a European scale, in all key elements: team, concept, technology and capital. The ePlus Ecosystem has developed and deployed an online and onsite environment, building on and interconnecting existing ecosystems, hubs and initiatives, in order to setup a runway for web entrepreneurs to start and scale-up a business in Europe and grow internationally.
The objectives of the action included:
- Putting in motion an European web-entrepreneurship ecosystem by setting up the initial backbone made of the interconnection between the booming regional ecosystems of Lisbon, Nice and Baden-Württemberg, combining and intertwining current services and opportunities and making room for more local ecosystems to join in;
- Untapping on Europe’s unique mass of + skilled and mobile researchers in order to reinforce the web-entrepreneurs teams’ skills and technology grasp;
- Guiding web-entrepreneurs into global business concepts through a European mentoring scheme, building on the best regional and national programmes available;
- Facilitating access to some of the best services from the best service providers in Europe to promote web-entrepreneurs growth;
- Ensuring access to capital either in early stage or crowdfunding form.
The following elements have been taken into consideration while designing a strategy for achieving a better connected European ecosystem:
Network - There is no great “European” ecosystem as of yet, but there are great ecosystems in Europe. Start by creating a backbone interlinking some of the best regional ecosystems across Europe and promoting the sharing of services, and complement it with expert service aimed at internationalisation and growth.
Match - Europe is full of creatives with brilliant business ideas but no scientific/technological knowledge to implement them, and of brilliant scientists and researchers lacking entrepreneurial spirit and business vision. It is time to put them together.
Mentor - Many European entrepreneurs have managed to do it at an international scale – and many of these are willing to pass that knowledge to others through mentoring. Mentoring has up to now been done mainly at local level, but there is no reason to be like that. We must upgrade mentoring schemes to a European level.
Guide - Capital exists, but it is in fact too spread out and fragmented over Europe. Europe has more potential than the United States for venture capital (as it has more savings) and crowdfunding can make an asset out of fragmentation. The key is to improve the accessibility to these tools, guiding entrepreneurs to capital, as certain organisations already do - such as the European Business Angel Network (EBAN) and the European Crowdfunding Network (ECN).
