News: InRes

inRes 2014: Displr
Displr at the Web Summit 2015
Our inRes 2014 team Displr was at the Web Summit 2015, held in Dublin between November 3 and 5, 2015. “Being at the Web Summit 2015 has really exceeded our expectations and has been a huge boost for Displr,” this is how the Displr team sees their presence at this event.

After their presence at the Web Summit, Bruno Silva from Displr wrote a post titled “Should you go to the Web Summit 2016 in Lisbon? 5 lessons to make it worth it”. Displr is a spin-off of Universidade do Minho, that has a platform for place-based communication that connects venues with guests through the combined use of large screen displays and mobile devices. A range of display applications can autonomously get the relevant media for each screen and support interactive experiences around display media.

November 2015

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Articles related::
CMU: A Fascinating Atmosphere and Entrepreneurship Mentality

DISPLR – A Social Media Service for Public Displays

December 3, 2015 :: inRes 2015 Closing Session

Meetings and Visits to Leading Companies
Portuguese Entrepreneurs Visit Silicon Valley
On November 1, 2015, thirteen entrepreneurs from Portugal started their challenging journey to Silicon Valley, in the scope of the inRes program. The one-week visit will expose the teams to a highly dense environment of world-leading research groups, and market and industry specialists, in a variety of high-tech areas. The opportunity is given by the CMU Portugal Program, funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology.

left to right: Ricardo Soares (addvolt), Rodrigo Pires (‪addvolt‬), Frederico Carpinteiro (‪Adapttech‬), Pedro Silva (‪Sceelix‬), Pedro Santa (Playsktech), Pedro Castro Henriques (‪‎Scraim‬), Luís Lucas Pereira (‪Playsktech‬), Francisco de Andrade (Sceelix), Mario Espinoza (Adapttech), David Sobrinho (‪‎Xhockware‬), João Neiva (Xhockware), Gonçalo Mendes (‪Followprice‬), César Duarte (Scraim).

While in Silicon Valley, the 13 entrepreneurs will visit the Carnegie Mellon University-Silicon Valley campus, and will make customer, partner and investor pitches related to their project. The pitches will be made to various experts in the field and the experts will provide feedback to assist in the future development of the companies. Additionally, the Portuguese companies will have individual meetings according with their interests. The main agenda includes visits to Facebook, Twitter, Ricoh Innovations, Uber, Vibrado, and Ford Motor Company, among others.

For eight of the young entrepreneurs, their visit started on September 21, 2015 in Pittsburgh, PA at the main campus of CMU under the inRes initiative. The projects Adapttech, Playsktech, Sceelix, and Scraim have participated in multiple activities including LaunchCMU (having their own booths); the 1st Maker Fair in Pittsburgh (Playsktech team has had its own booth); led a workshop on Project Olympus on an innovative software management platform (Scraim team); led two workshops at the Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) and at the Human Computer Interaction Institute (HCII) about a pioneering platform to create scenarios in 3D (Sceelix team); talked with hospital administrators, to physiatrists in Pittsburgh, but also in Maryland (Adapttech team); and attended the Tech 50 Award event. In global, each team had more than 50 meetings.

The other group composed by the teams – Addvolt, Followprice, Xhockware -, participated on the 2014 edition of inRes. These teams have their projects at a more mature stage of business development, with pilots running, and with the intent of becoming international players on its areas. While in Pittsburgh, last year, the teams magnified their network and made customer development research, that allowed them to introduce significant changes on the way they looked to their project, and even on the way of doing business.

The 13 entrepreneurs are participating on inRes, a very early stage acceleration program for Portuguese entrepreneurs in the area of ICT, promoted by the CMU Portugal Program. inRes provides a training period in Portugal, followed by a seven-week structured immersion period in Pittsburgh, in the U.S., anchored at CMU. The participating teams benefit from the exposure to a highly dense environment of world-leading research groups, and market and industry specialists, in a variety of high-tech areas.

October 2015

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inRes 2015
Launched in 2014 by the CMU Portugal Program, funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portuguese funding agency), inRes is a very early stage acceleration program for Portuguese entrepreneurial teams working in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) that push them past their comfort zones, and requires them to work at a steep pace, cope with high levels of uncertainty, and constantly reach out for contacts to further build and validate their business projects. inRes is based on the Lean LaunchPad method. inRes provides a training period in Portugal, followed by a seven-week structured immersion period in Pittsburgh, in the U.S., anchored at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). inRes is organized bu the CMU Portugal Program, in cooperation with Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Caixa Capital, Pittsburgh Regional Alliance (PRA), UTEN Portugal, and INESC TEC. inres@cmuportugal.org

inRes 2015 :: Scraim inRes 2015 Team Led Workshop at Project Olympus

The inRes 2015 teams have been in Pittsburgh since September 21, 2015 and in this short time, they have been busy creating innovative opportunities and establishing valuable contacts for their projects. A good example was the workshop on agile project management held at Project Olympus, last September 30, which was taught by the Scraim team.

During the workshop, the Scraim co-founders Pedro Castro Henriques and César Duarte, used the online service of integrated projects based on adaptive processes, which allows to standardize best practices across the organization, for the practical exercises. “The main goal of this workshop was to validate the Scraim tool in real-time with American companies,” said Pedro Castro Henriques adding that “this allowed us to get some feedback from international users that were able to implement agile management with Scraim on real-world assignments.”

The 25 participants included managers from companies incubated at Project Olympus (current and former), founders, CEOs and programmers from the Pittsburgh region. The feedback on the Scraim tool was very positive, as it was told by one of the participants: “I really enjoyed the Scraim system and I believe it will be a very powerful tool to use as we progress, to manage our projects and processes to make us more efficient.”

Scraim is a complete and easy Multiplatform SaaS, based on the most advanced methodologies, which is being developed in the scope of Strongstep, a Portuguese startup specialized in software engineering.

October 2015

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inRes 2015
Launched in 2014 by the CMU Portugal Program, funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portuguese funding agency), inRes is a very early stage acceleration program for Portuguese entrepreneurial teams working in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) that push them past their comfort zones, and requires them to work at a steep pace, cope with high levels of uncertainty, and constantly reach out for contacts to further build and validate their business projects. inRes is based on the Lean LaunchPad method. inRes provides a training period in Portugal, followed by a seven-week structured immersion period in Pittsburgh, in the U.S., anchored at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). inRes is organized bu the CMU Portugal Program, in cooperation with Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Caixa Capital, Pittsburgh Regional Alliance (PRA), UTEN Portugal, and INESC TEC.

inRes 2015
CMU Portugal Announces the Four inRes 2015 Teams
Adapttech, Playsketch, Sceelix, and Scraim, are the four teams selected for the 2015 edition of inRes, offered by the CMU Portugal Program, funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia. “The review process was highly selective and the caliber of the applications to this call was especially high,” said the international review panel.

Left to right: Mario Sáenz Espinoza (CTO, Adapttech), Frederico Abreu Carpinteiro (CEO, Adapttech), Pedro Castro Henriques (CEO, Scraim), Luís Lucas Pereira (Co-founder, Playsketch), Pedro Machado Santa (Co-founder, Playsketch), Pedro Brandão da Silva (Development Manager, Sceelix) and Francisco Rebello de Andrade (General Manager, Sceelix).

The four selected teams, three from Porto and one from Coimbra, will benefit from a preparation phase in Portugal, followed by a seven-week structured immersion period in Pittsburgh, in the U.S., anchored at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). (information about the preliminary sctructure and schedule is available here)

João Claro and José M.F. Moura, directors of the CMU Portugal in Portugal and at CMU, respectively, emphazised “inRes is specific for teams that have already proven technical feasibility, had interaction with the target industry, but have not yet reached regular sales,” adding that “these four teams are the ones that the review panel considered to be on this sweet spot.”

The four inRes 2015 teams are:

	Adapttech ( www.adapttech.pt.vu/; Porto): Adapttech’s product consists in a smart fitting solution for prosthesis; capable of identifying localized problems within the stump-socket interface, evaluate the level of adaptation and suggest the needed modifications to maximize it. This product aims to reduce the number of replacements needed to reach a patient’s final socket, and thus, saving time and money. The inRes 2015 team is composed by Frederico Abreu Carpinteiro (CEO) and Mario Sáenz Espinoza (CTO).
	Playsketch ( http://playsketch.net; Coimbra): Playsketch is a solution that makes use of drawings on paper as an easy and natural way to create games. Using a mobile application, everyone will be able to draw a game on paper, take a photo of the drawing, and have it translated to a playable game for you and your friends to enjoy. The inRes 2015 is composed by Luís Lucas Pereira (Co-founder) and Pedro Machado Santa (Co-founder).
	Sceelix (www.sceelix.com; Porto): Sceelix is a software that allows you to create complex 3D scenes with all its elements – Geometry, Lights, Textures, Interactions and so on – in a smart and efficient way. Sceelix can create real or fictitious scenes by taking advantage of identifiable creation patterns and/or available geographical data, adding some randomness when, and if, appropriate. This allows you, for instance, to create massive forests with no tree the same as the next, or mega cities with unique styles. The inRes 2015 team is composed by Francisco Rebello de Andrade (General Manager) and Pedro Brandão da Silva (Development Manager).
	Scraim ( www.scraim.com, Porto): Scraim is an online service for project management based on adaptable processes, to help standardise best practices, revolutionising the implementation of international certifications making them affordable for small/medium companies. It is a complete and easy Multiplatform SaaS, based on the most advanced methodologies. The inRes 2015 team is composed by Pedro Castro Henriques (CEO) and César Barbosa Duarte (CPO).

inRes 2015: What are the expectations from the inRes 2015 teams? More
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inRes 2015
Launched in 2014 by the CMU Portugal Program, funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portuguese funding agency), inRes is an intense and challenging program that requires a great deal of commitment from the teams, but at the same time an extremely rewarding experience that allows participants to validate and develop their projects in the future, as they get to contact with partners such as Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Caixa Capital, Pittsburgh Regional Alliance (PRA), UTEN Portugal, and INESC TEC.

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2015 Edition of inRes: 3rd Workshop
“CMU is Working Upstream and Downstream to Enhance Innovation”

Tara Branstad, associate director of the Center for Technology Transfer and Enterprise Creation (CTTEC) at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), was in Portugal to participate in the 3rd Workshop of the 2015 edition of inRes. Between July 28-29, 2015, the teams had the opportunity to learn more about IP management and technology transfer, venture deals, and funding negotiation exercises.

In the past 15 years, CMU has been strengthening its culture of entrepreneurship. Tara Branstad talked about the different ways CMU is engaging with industry: “through research, with examples like UPMC, Apple, UBER, Disney and Caterpillar”; “through spinoffs, which can be seen with IBM, Google, Delphi, Facebook, among others.” This is a result of the different activities the university is implementing to address the components of a university-based entrepreneurial ecosystem: culture and incentives, formal entrepreneurship education, mentors and informal training, advisors, networking and events, gap funds and technology transfer. “CMU is working upstream and downstream to enhance innovation,” said Tara Branstad.

After explaining patenting and IP management, Tara Branstad explained that “sometimes, a ‘mix’ of IP protection is the best strategy: patent machine or composition, keeping processes or other recipes as trade secrets, relying on copyright protections for software, and going with the trademark if there is a value in the brand.”

On the second day of the workshop, Tara Branstad addressed the topic “Funding your Venture.” She identified six investment stages: pre-seed (prototype; technical team; provisional patent, move to independence), seed (customer validation/beta test, addition of business person to team, address other critical issues), A(1)round (get to product sales, key hires), B(1)round (get to break even; growth – sales), later stage (position for exit; enter new markets/international), and exit. The founder’s pie calculator, from Frank Demmler, associate teaching professor of entrepreneurship at Tepper School of Business at CMU, was presented by Tara Branstad as a way to help the founders to decide which part they should keep with them.

Alípio Torre talked about strategic assessments, which should happen early in the planning process. Strategic assessments examine the impact of actions which might stem from one or more policy. Alípio Torre also talked about the Porter’s five forces tool – buyer power, supplier power, threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes, and degree of rivalry.

The training in Portugal will be concluded between August 31 and September 1, with a workshop at Instituto Pedro Nunes (IPN), in Coimbra. The teams will start the immersion in Pittsburgh, anchored at CMU, on September 21, and will be concluded in November, 2015.

July 2015

2015 Edition of inRes: 2nd Workshop
The Customer Development and Goodness Factor

l-r: Luís Lucas Pereira (Playsktech), Pedro Santa (Playsktech), Pedro Castro Henriques (Scraim), César Duarte (Scraim), Dave Mawhinney (CIE, CMU), Pedro Brandão da Silva (Sceelix), Frederico Carpinteiro (Adapttech), Francisco Rebello de Andrade (Sceelix)

Dave Mawhinney, codirector of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), was in Portugal to participate in the 2nd Workshop of the 2015 edition of inRes. Between July 14-15, 2015, the teams had the opportunity to listen to his lectures about customer development, the goodness factor, pricing and revenue models. Dave Mawhinney also had one-on-one meetings with the entrepreneurs to discuss each project. Rui Costa, CEO of Streambolico, one of the startups created in the scope of the CMU Portugal Program, was the invited speaker.

The innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem at CMU is very lively and dynamic. The university is diversifying its activity in these areas, and more and more researchers, students and alumni are becoming serial entrepreneurs. The strong link with companies such as like Disney, Google, or Uber, strenghens the innovation ecosystem at CMU. “Since ever, Pittsburgh has been a city of entrepreneurs, from steel to science and technology,” said Dave Mawhinney.
__________ “Insane perseverance in the face of constant rejection,” a statement by Jack Thorne, founder of the Tepper Entrepreneurship Program, is one of the best definitions of entrepreneurship according to Dave Mawhinney.
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The numbers are cruel: approximately nine in ten startups fail. To increase the probability of being the one that succeeds, several questions need to be answered: Are you solving a real problem? Are people willing to pay to solve the problem your product/service idea addresses? What is the goodness factor? During his lecturers, Dave Mawhinney emphasized the importance of finding the product-market fit. “The teams should seek for big events to get the maximum feedback about the problem they are trying to address. They should try to learn more about the market, the channels, and also the trends,” said Dave Mawhinney.

Resilience and a strong team, with hard and soft skills, are the key ingredients that characterize Streambolico, a spin-off from Instituto de Telecomunicações and from Universidade do Porto. With a disruptive technology that offers a comprehensive set of solutions to significantly improve wireless communication in mobile devices, the Streambolico’s path has been very challenging. In 2012, Streambolico won the grand prize award at the Concurso Nacional de Inovação BES 2012, one of the most prestigious national competitions awarding innovation. The company is currently at the UPTEC.

Rui Costa shared with the inRes 2015 teams several lessons he learned: understand well the market where your product/service will be; make sure that you have a strong team, because they will be crucial to overcome the different challenges your business will face; do not focus to much on solving the problems related to one potential customer. Rui Costa also spoke about the importance of sharing a white paper on “how in-venue mobile video services can be used as a new advertisement channel. We have shown that this new marketing opportunity has a very high value proposition, enabling a fast ROI of WiFi deployments, with the added benefits of increased direct revenue from higher fan engagement.”

The two-day workshop was full of activities: presentations by Dave Mawhinney and Alípio Torre, pitches from the teams, one-on-one meetings to prepare the immersion period in the US, and a networking dinner with Sérgio Costa, a researcher who recently won an award for his work on innovation and entrepreneurship.

The 3rd workshop will take place at INESC TEC, on July 28-29, 2015, with the participation of Tara Branstad, associate director of the Center for Technology Transfer and Enterprise Creation (CTTEC) at CMU. The training in Portugal will be concluded between August 31 and September 1, with a workshop at Instituto Pedro Nunes (IPN), in Coimbra. The teams will start the immersion in Pittsburgh, anchored at CMU, on September 21, and will be concluded in November, 2015.

July 2015

2015 Edition of inRes Cross-fertilization within the inRes Workshops in Portugal

On June 24-25, 2015, the CMU Portugal Program held the 1 st workshop of the 2015 edition of inRes with the four teams of entrepreneurs selected this year: Adapttech, Playsktech, Sceelix and Scraim. The art of pitching, value proposition, customer development and bootstrapping market research, were the themes heightened at this workshop that took place at INESC TEC, in Porto, Portugal.

The first day started with introductions of the participants, followed by a presentation from João Claro, national director of the CMU Portugal Program, about the Program’s goals and achievements, and how inRes fits as an enabler for innovation, talent development on tech based companies, and internationalization. Alípio Torre, business consultant and program coordinator of COHiTEC from COTEC, was introduced as the new member of the inRes core team of experts.

As part of the agenda for the first day, the teams had the opportunity to meet two entrepreneurs of the 2014 edition of inRes: Ricardo Soares, from Addvolt, and David Sobrinho, from Xhockware. Both emphasized the importance of their path during inRes on the development of their business plans and products, highlighting the availability of both experts teams in Portugal and in the United States, in Pittsburgh and at CMU, to help when needed. Ricardo Soares talked about the experience he had with Bruno Azevedo, his colleague at Addvolt: “One day we went to the street and started knocking on doors of potential customers and partners, to get their feedback on our project,” says Ricardo Soares adding “it was an amazing experience, because we had the opportunity to speak with several high-level professionals that, without a scheduled meeting, were available to talk with us and to provide valuable feedback.” David Sobrinho, on the other hand, talked about Xhockware’s experience at Project Olympus, the quality of training and the importance of CMU in the world, and about the entrepreneurial and cultural environment created for and by the inRes teams.

During the two-day workshop, the teams gave two pitches, one on each day. After the first pitch from each team, the other participants, along with João Claro and Alípio Torre, provided feedback. “On this workshop we received a very positive sign from the teams related with their commitment to inRes,” says João Claro adding “we provided feedback after the first pitch, and it was very rewarding to see that all the teams implemented very constructive changes to the second pitch.”

The first day’s workshop ended with a networking dinner with the researcher and entrepreneur João Paulo Cunha, who talked about several challenges he faced during his experience as an entrepreneur. He shared lessons learned that he feels were very enriching to understand: that world-class research is what really moves him, and that technology transfer and commercialization is best left to experts.

The two-day workshop was very intensive, challenging and full of activities: presentations given by João Claro and Alípio Torre, pitches given by the teams, meetings with the inRes alumni Addvolt and Xhockware, a dinner with a researcher entrepreneur, and one-on-one meetings. At the end of these two days, the teams seemed pleased with what was accomplished so far and very curious on how the next workshops will be. João Claro emphasizes, “inRes workshops are a way to exchange ideas, to do cross-fertilization.”

The 2 nd workshop will be held at Porto Business School, on July 14 th -15 th , 2015, with the presence of Dave Mawhinney, co-director of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship of Carnegie Mellon University. The 3 rd workshop will take place at INESC TEC, on July 28-29, 2015, and will have the presence of Tara Branstad, associate director of the Center for Technology Transfer and Enterprise Creation (CTTEC) at CMU. The training in Portugal will finish on August 31 to September 1, with a workshop at Instituto Pedro Nunes, in Coimbra. The teams will start the immersion in Pittsburgh, anchored at CMU, in September 21, and will finish in November, 2015.

July 2015

inRes 2015
What are the Expectations of the Teams?
Adapttech, Playsketch, Sceelix, and Scraim, are the four teams selected for the 2015 edition of inRes, offered by the CMU Portugal Program, funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia.

“At Adapttech we expect to improve our business development and to receive as many ideas, comments and suggestions as possible from people with great amount of experience, from different backgrounds and with different points of view. In order to guide our company towards its full potential, we hope get in contact with possible investors and customers; but above all, we hope to learn a lot from both our lecturers and mentors and all other teams that will be joining us during this process.” Frederico Abreu Carpinteiro (CEO) and Mario Sáenz Espinoza (CTO), from Adapttech.

“Having a good background in engineering and in design areas related to games and experience, we think inRes 2015 will be instrumental to develop our managerial skills and strengthen us with tools to build and develop our business in a more solid, sustainable way. Also, by putting us in contact with one of the major markets for mobile technology and games will definitely help us move our business to other levels.” Pedro Machado Santa (Co-founder) and Luís Lucas Pereira (Co-founder), from Playsketch.

“Given Carnegie Mellon’s reputation and results in the fields of Computer Engineering and the creation of ICT startups, the CMU Portugal inRes program offers the best way to strengthen and validate our project. This program also allows us to have an immersive experience in an enabling American culture, and in that which we consider to be our main market: the United States of America. Associating ourselves to the name of Carnegie Mellon will open us doors and opportunities that we otherwise would not be able to open.” Francisco Rebello de Andrade (General Manager) and Pedro Brandão da Silva (Development Manager), from Sceelix.

“Scraim aims high and global, and we are certain that 2015 inRes program is the right choice to help us get there. We’ll be exposed to environment that will make us stronger and more focused on the evolution of Scraim with the ultimate goal of making it a global service.” Pedro Castro Henriques (CEO) and César Barbosa Duarte (CPO), from Scraim.

inRes 2015: CMU Portugal Announces the Four inRes 2015 Teams more

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inRes 2015
Launched in 2014 by the CMU Portugal Program, funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portuguese funding agency), inRes is an intense and challenging program that requires a great deal of commitment from the teams, but at the same time an extremely rewarding experience that allows participants to validate and develop their projects in the future, as they get to contact with partners such as Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Caixa Capital, Pittsburgh Regional Alliance (PRA), UTEN Portugal, and INESC TEC.

Adapttech, Playsketch, Sceelix, and Scraim, are the four teams selected to be part of the 2015 edition of the inRes Program, offered by the CMU Portugal Program, funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia.

“At AdaptTech we expect to improve our business development and to receive as many ideas, comments and suggestions as possible from people with great amount of experience, from different backgrounds and with different points of view. In order to guide our company towards its full potential, we hope get in contact with possible investors and costumers; but above all, we hope to learn a lot from both our lecturers and mentors and all other teams that will be joining us during this process.” Frederico Abreu Carpinteiro (CEO) and Mario Sáenz Espinoza (CTO)

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