Bootcamp Begins (Part 1)

This week my ICURe journey well and truly started, with a whirlwind trip to Southampton for bootcamp. After weeks of research and sorting out all of the ICURe-related administration it was finally time to pack my bags and head off to the first event of the programme, bootcamp at the lovely Chilworth Manor in Southampton. Originally, I’d planned to write this blog in real-time but this turned out to be far too ambitious as the schedule was jam-packed with pitch training, business development lessons, networking, talks from ICURe alumni, more pitch training, mentoring sessions and social media training (did I mention pitch training!?). It was certainly one of the most rewarding weeks of learning I’ve had in a long time and I’ll do my best to summarise the highlights for you all in this post.

On the first morning of bootcamp I was introduced to the 12 entrepreneurial leads (ELs) on this years ICURe explore cohort. The ELs are all researchers like me from universities across the UK, each with their own incredible research and starting their own market exploration journeys. Bootcamp kicked off with each one of us taking it in turn to present our “Verbal Business Cards” (VBCs) to the group. It’s hard to believe that just last week, I was blissfully unaware of the term VBC and now I know it better than my own name!

Being able to confidently and concisely present your research to people who have no idea what you do is extremely important and a tough skill to master. Given that my fellow ELs and I are training for a conversation marathon (aiming for 100 meaningful conversations in 12-weeks!), it is essential that we practise this skill as much as possible. Bootcamp certainly provided this opportunity, with valuable insights and advice given from each of our mentors. It was amazing to see the evolution of everyone’s pitch over the first few days of bootcamp as we all found the right way to present our research in an understandable way (no science terms allowed sadly). The trick is to be concise, compelling and communicate clearly; 1. who you are 2. what you do, and 3. the value your research brings. Aiming to make a strong first impression and quickly get to the heart of the problem you are trying to solve. If anyone fancies having a go, I’ll be happy to read your VBCs in the comments!

The rest of the first day involved learning about developing a business model and identifying the value propositions of my research. By this stage you may be wondering, what actually is her research? so maybe this is a good time to introduce it. I’ll probably do another post with more details, however In short, I am part of a research team at the University of Bristol developing SMARTT (safe, machine-assisted real-time transfer), an AI-powered clinical decision support tool designed to assist clinicians in making safer, faster and more consistent decisions in intensive care units. Our team is made up of software engineers, data scientists and clinicians from the University of Bristol and University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust. Together, we’ve been working on streamlining clinical workflows, reducing burden on clinicians and most importantly improving patient outcomes…but more on that later! Back to value propositions…

So what is a value proposition? Typically when I think of my research, I think of it in terms of features – what actually is the technology and how does it work. However, the value proposition focuses on broader impact, emphasising the benefits these features bring to the target audience. The features tell us what it is and the benefits tell us why it matters. This was our first step in viewing our research as a commercial product and considering its potential real-world impact. Coming up with value propositions can be quite daunting – what if you don’t have any benefits?! However, once you shift from a research-focused mindset to a customer-focused one, you’ll start to see how your research can address real-world problems and provide value.

One of the most interesting parts of the day was a session led by Rosy Jones (ICURe trainer) on exploring different markets. Like most of the other ELs, I came into ICURe quite confident on what my target market would be (healthcare). However, Rosy presented us with a multitude of tips and tricks on how to step out of our comfort zones and analyse the potential of our technology in other sectors. In research, we are often laser-focused on one area of study, and it can be hard to think of our work as having potential outside of its primary field. Yet, the solutions we develop can often have broader applications in other sectors. This is something I definitely hadn’t considered before joining ICURe and I’m excited to see where this exploration will take us and what unexpected opportunities may arise. Each team has to select one ‘wildcard’ market to explore. In the past, this has led ICURe teams developing dental implants to identify their product’s potential as a heat insulator in the Formula 1 industry! So who knows, maybe I’ll end up pitching a clinical decision support tool to astronauts, anything is possible!

The final item on the days agenda was a Q+A session with ICURe alumni, entrepreneurial leads from last year, who came to impart their wisdom and help us prepare for the next few months of market exploration. It was really encouraging and fascinating to hear about their experiences on the programme and learn about their new spin-out companies. Their practical tips on how to approach businesses for meetings, start conversations at conferences, keep track of contacts and follow up with interested parties will certainly come in useful once I hit the road. As the day came to a close, we all headed into the centre of Southampton to a lovely Italian restaurant called Piccolo Mondo, in total there were 23 of us, 13 ELs and 10 trainers and mentors. Brilliant conversation was had by all over some delicious pasta and wine! It was difficult to fit all the highlights into one post, so stay tuned for part two, where I’ll share the second half of bootcamp and the arrival of our research teams!

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you in the next one!