FAQ

The simple answer is whether it is possible to earn money on an idea, and the natural consequential question is: how do I do that? A good business idea should provide answers to the following questions:

• Who is the customer?
• What are the customer’s needs that the company’s product solves?
• What is the product?
• What benefits or values does the product create for the customer?
• Why should the customer buy this particular product and not someone else’s?

There are other aspects to a good business idea and much of it lies in the individual entrepreneur’s ambition. How much money should be earned and what other values should be created in the company? Some crucial aspects of a good business idea are three specific potentials.

Three aspects of the potential of the business idea:

Customer potential – The more customers that you solve a big or important problem for, the more customer value you create that they are willing to pay for – the more money there is to make. This is usually called market potential.

Profitability potential – The more customers are willing to pay in relation to the company’s cost to realize customer value, the greater the exchange or leverage there is in the business concept, and thus a large margin. If the realization cost is dependent on volume – that is, it becomes relatively cheaper for each new customer – then the business idea is usually called scalable.

The competitive potential – The more unique and difficult to copy your created customer value and delivery method is, the stronger business you can build the company on. By stronger we mean the ability to compete with other companies that are also trying to sell to customers, existing and future competitors. We call these conditions the company’s competitive advantages.

We are looking for you who have an innovation or business idea where LEAD’s expertise and creative environment can make a difference. Whether your idea comes from research or your own garage, we are interested, as long as there is ambition to realize the idea and build a successful company. The most important thing for us is that our efforts are of great benefit to your company.

In order to be as useful as possible and contribute to new innovative growth companies in the region, there need to be certain conditions in the business ideas we work with. When we start a collaboration, we need to see that there is a potential, and then we will help and support you in realizing that potential.

LEAD is looking at:

Strong team – It is people who create business and it is people who build companies. Who you are, what knowledge you possess and what you are passionate about are essential for successful company building. Do you have strong enough drive, the right skills and the opportunity to work with your innovation in a time-focused manner?

Business idea’s potential – The more people you can solve a problem for and the more people who are willing to pay for the solution, the greater the market potential for the company. The potential needs to be large enough to be able to build a growth company in an international market.

Scalable idea – the product or service can be sold over and over again with a minimal amount of extra work for each new customer.

Protection – The more unique and difficult to copy your solution, the stronger the business you can build your company on. Your business model or other factors create sustainable competitive advantages over competitors or future competitors.

That LEAD can be useful – Last but not least, that you believe that LEAD’s expertise is useful in the company and that you see the advantage of working in LEAD’s environment.

The two memberships are adapted to how far you have come with the idea, i.e. How far you have come and what feedback you have received from the market. In business lab, the work is focused on your business idea solving a major problem for the intended customer, so, problem statement, approach, customer value and competitors – and to further develop the idea based on feedback from the market. We have a business development program, bootup, where your business idea is in focus. Lead also contributes with external competencies that have specific market and industry knowledge to help get more information.

In incubate you get access to more coaching. The membership starts with verification of the business model – an intensive period to develop and market verify your business concept. By business concept we mean the description of customer needs, offers, customer benefits and ways to reach and retain customers. It is also important to evaluate what resources and competencies are needed to develop and deliver the solution to the customer, and what the business model for this should look like. It is about getting out and talking to potential customers and other players in your market – partners, resellers, suppliers, etc. To test your idea, get feedback which you then take home and adapt, and then test again.