QE Programs

At QE I&S, we support Quantic students and alumni on their entrepreneurship journey, with a key focus on helping first-time entrepreneurs avoid the most common causes of failure:

• Lack of commercialisation

• Lack of fundraising

 

Participants are eligible to enter the Entrepreneur Series, bypassing the Launch Programme if they have either:

• Completed the Hackathon or Launch Programme in the past;

• Completed the Capstone with their team; OR

• Applied for Moonshot with their team.

 

The Entrepreneur Series is a structured suite of programmes that begins at the ideation stage and ends at the opportunity to pitch to funders and buyers, thus addressing the two main causes of start-up failure head-on.

 

The cycle runs over four months with two cycles running consecutively every year, starting with the Market/Commercial programme.

 

Entry into the Market/Commercial programme is offered with

• Completion of the Hackathon

• Completion the Capstone with team

• Application for Moonshot with team

 

Entry into the Product programme is offered with successful completion of the Market/Commercial programme

 

Entry into the Pitching Series is offered with successful completion of the Product programme

 

Stage 01: Market/Commercial programme

 

After the ideation and development of a business thesis, market and commercial risk identification and mitigation are the next steps in the journey towards successful fundraising and commercialisation. During this one-month programme, you will learn to clearly define the suitable market of your business and assess its attractiveness using a data-centric methodology. At the same time, you will learn to identify the market dynamics that pose a risk to your business and formulate strategies for risk mitigation.

 

Commercial risk is associated with a probability that a transaction will likely occur. From Day One, you will learn to use data to model the probability of buyer behaviour while identifying non-buyer stakeholder threats to the transaction. You will also learn to assess the business attractiveness of the transaction to you as a business owner via unit economics.

 

To successfully complete the programme, you will have produced material to communicate a market and commercial validation study and output.

 

Stage 02: Product programme

 

After validation of the market and commercial opportunity to your business idea, product risk poses the next stumbling block in your path towards fundraising and commercialisation. Product risk is the probability that your solution is likely to provide the performance and benefits required of your buyers at a competitive level. This ensures that your offering will have an attractive position to sell in a landscape of alternative and/or similar solutions. To perform this validation, you will start by developing an analogue to your solution. Over the course of one month, you will design and conduct a test method to demonstrate that your proposed solution performs competitively to address the problem provided by your buyer.

 

To successfully complete the programme, you will have produced materials to communicate your validation study to prove a problem-solution fit that signals a reasonable probability of success in a commercial environment.

 

Stage 03: Pitching Series

 

With the successful production of materials to validate the market, commercial and product attractiveness of your business thesis. During the one-month pitching series, you will be coached on the packaging and delivery of your business pitch in various formats. Through weekly practice and refinement, you will be prepared for a final pitch presentation to potential funders and buyers seeking to engage with businesses such as yours.

 

Through our structured process designed for first-time entrepreneurs, you will be in a strong position to attract your first buyer or funder.