EIC Accelerator equity

Workflow for Creating an EIC Accelerator Pitch Video (SME Instrument)

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The EIC Accelerator blended financing (formerly SME Instrument Phase 2, grant and equity) has gained a mandatory video pitch in 2021 and many applicants are uncertain as to how such a video should look or be prepared. While the official proposal templates and guidelines by the European Innovation Council (EIC) do not give an answer to this question, the following article aims to present a simple workflow that can be used by prospect applicants, professional writers or consultancies. Since many Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SME) and startups have some experience with video creation or editing due to social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook or Twitter, this article will omit tools like Adobe Spark or Loom which are used to simply record a speaker on top of a slideshow. This article will focus on video cutting and effects tools as well as a simple workflow to bring all essential parts together in an efficient manner. The software that is discussed is exchangeable for the most part but, due to their compatibility, we focus on Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects and Illustrator. Note: There are excellent tutorials on YouTube for each of these steps and the following article aims at giving an overview of the workflow without detailing the exact mechanics of video editing in Adobe CC. 1. Adobe Premiere Pro (PP) Premiere Pro (PP) is used as the main video creation dashboard and cutting tool. Here, everything is prepared, brought together and will be finalised for export. The most important tasks to be done are: Note: A simplified version of this software is available under the name Adobe Rush. 1.1 Importing the Video Footage Once the video has been recorded, it will need to be imported into PP. What needs to be considered is that every video might have different resolutions and frame rates which will appear different in the respective timeline. The way PP works, a timeline is created that has a defined frame rate and resolution. The frame rate or Frames Per Second (FPS) defines how many frames (or images) are present in each second of video footage. Standard FPS’s are 23.976, 24 or 30. The former two FPS’s yield more of a natural motion blur while the latter (or higher FPS) will appear sharper during motion. For an EIC Accelerator video, using 23.976 or 24 will be sufficient. For the resolution, the video should be at least Full HD which translates to dimensions of 1920×1080. If no FPS or resolutions are specified prior to importing the clips, the sequence will automatically adapt to the clip’s original settings once it is dragged into the timeline. It is advisable to already decide on FPS and the resolution prior to the shooting. 1.2 Synching the Video to the External Audio (optional) If the video has been recorded separately from the audio (i.e. with an external microphone that was not connected to the camera during the recording) then the audio must be matched to the video in post-production. This is optional and not needed in cases where a shotgun microphone is mounted and connected to the camera or a wireless condenser microphone is used. To sync the external audio clips to the built-in audio of the video, they must be placed into the same timeline in PP and the two can be matched with the synchronisation feature. This usually works well but, especially for shorter clips, it can be necessary to manually adjust the positioning. For this, it is always advisable to have an orientation point in the video and in the audio to simplify matching. This can simply be in the form of clapping hands at the beginning of the recording so that the built-in microphone and the external microphone pick up the same sound which can be used as a matching point in post-production. To finalise the linking of the external audio with the video clip, the two can be linked (not grouped) so that all cutting and moving is always applied to audio and video as a joined unit. 1.3 Cutting to 3 Minutes The next step after the video and timeline have been prepared is the cutting to 3 minutes in total which means that all videos must be trimmed to that time. This is also an opportunity to already plan where certain video clips can be inserted to demonstrate the product, showcase the office or related parts. Cutting down the footage is a challenge in and of itself but thoughts on this process can be found here: Why an EIC Accelerator Video Editor Should be a Proposal Writer or Story Teller To circumvent the difficulty of this step, it is also possible to only record exactly 3 minutes of footage but this might be more difficult than the cutting process itself. 1.4 Colour Grading the Footage After the footage has been prepared and trimmed, it should be colour graded by using Lumetri colour or a similar effect. The general goal is to make the lighting and shadows look well contrasted and to have sufficient saturation and balanced skin tones in the final video. As there are plenty of high-quality tutorials out there on colour grading so it will not be detailed here. Note: Adobe Photoshop can be used to create Lookup Tables (LUT) based on a video screenshot which can be directly imported into Lumetri colour inside PP. The LUT’s act as a filter for the video footage inside PP which can use the benefits of the image editing features native only to Photoshop. Note 2: If multiple clips require identical colour grading, an “Adjustment layer” can be placed on top of the respective clips. The effect can then be applied to the adjustment layer alone which will apply it to all clips below in the timeline. 1.5 Audio Enhancement Depending on the source of the audio and the microphone settings, it is usually advisable to perform a voice enhancement. There are a variety of tutorials and guidelines on YouTube but examples of general enhancements are: … Read more

Recommendations for Selected Changes on the EIC Accelerator Platform (SME Instrument)

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The EIC Accelerator blended financing (formerly SME Instrument Phase 2, grant and equity) has transformed greatly in 2021 and its new AI tool has been used by thousands of applicants in a matter of weeks. While the previous article pointed out some of its shortcomings and the overall experience, the following article aims to make suggestions for its improvement (read: Reviewing the EIC Platform). From a business perspective, startups and Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SME)’s have to, by necessity, pursue a realistic and business-focused approach to succeed in their venture but if a grant application forces them to create a project analysis that is neither relevant for their business nor to investors or customers then it cannot be a useful approach overall. From the public funding agencies perspective, the great challenge of creating a framework for grant applications is to encourage the right companies to apply but to also have sufficiently high barriers in place that can filter based on factors other than the budget alone (i.e. we do not want to fund you vs. we do not have enough money for you). Many companies look at the EIC Accelerator and immediately dismiss it because it is time-consuming and the chances for success are too low for the current stage of their business. They need to protect their time and resources since what they work on is cutting-edge and has a high risk of failure. There is a risk that competitors are getting ahead and it can often be more valuable for the company to convince risk-averse Angel investors or customers as opposed to spending many months in filling out EIC form fields just to fail because the CEO has the wrong gender, an evaluator does not understand the 1,000 characters on the customer pain or the Technology Adoption Lifecycle (TALC) just makes no sense for their particular commercial model. While many great companies have been funded by the SME Instrument and EIC Accelerator, there clearly is room for improvement for the European Innovation Council (EIC) and European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA). Here are some suggestions as to what could make the process easier of applicants and evaluators: Guidelines and Templates While working with an official proposal template for the EIC Accelerator is now redundant since the EIC platform acts as an on-the-fly guideline, there is still a need for further explanations as to what is needed in each section. What is a suitable gender equality strategy in the eyes of the EIC? Since this is not taught in MBA’s and practically no VC would ever ask this question – what does a DeepTech cutting-edge business working on a disruptive innovation need to display to satisfy the EU? How does the EIC want applicants to quantify their cash flow projections for The Chasm or The Gap between Early Adopters and the Early Majority? How is the space between two market adoption segments meant to be quantified in the eyes of the EIC? What market activities are needed before TRL8 in comparison to market activities in TRL9 as these are mandatory? How should the mandatory project management differ between TRL5-8 and TRL8-9? These are examples of questions that could be addressed in a grant application template or guideline which helps applicants to address questions they, frankly, will never need to answer outside of the European Commissions (EC) funding arms. Being More Reader and Writer Friendly When the EIC announced that it would create an AI Tool and interactive application platform that aims to make everything easier – it seemed like a great idea. Writing a business plan was tedious and took a lot of time which meant that applicants had to spend valuable resources on writing that could have been spent on growing their business or technology. Adding video pitches, a short application as a teaser and integrating an automated AI assessment that screens patent and scientific databases seemed like great news for applicants. For a brief moment, it seemed like many applicants could finally prepare great applications on their own without the reliance on professional writers or consultancies. But this turned out to be a very short-lived scenario. As opposed to making the applications more writer- and reader-friendly, it became even harder to read and to write. Instead of adding more audiovisual content to the applications, heavily relying on graphics and making things easy to digest, the EIC removed all of the images, formatting, hyperlinks and headings to yield an application that is 99% plain text. No formatting. No colour. No graphics. No hyperlinks. No references. Just plain text. More Images The solution is simple: Allow the upload of graphics and illustrations in key sections. Do you have a software with a UI? Upload up to 5 screenshots, please. Do you have a reactor? Please provide photos of the prototype. Do you have an AI-driven infrastructure innovation? Please upload a schematic view that conceptualises your product. Do you have competitors? Please upload a comparison table. Note: There is an auto-generated competitors table on the Step 2 platformin but it only shows checkmarks or crosses – no nuance. It comes as a surprise to many that allowing image uploads was not in the top 5 of features to be added to the EIC Accelerator platform as soon as it was launched. Yes, there is a pitch deck and yes, there is an Annex in Step 2 of 10 pages but there is no guarantee that the evaluators will read the text and then search for a relevant graphic in the other documents. In fact, graphics are supposed to compliment the text as it is being read. They should not be an afterthought. It is hard to believe that the EIC consulted their evaluators regarding the AI platform in any way. No evaluator would have ever supported the removal of all visual support materials just to end up with a 99% plain block of text. Minimize the Text What is urgently needed is to remove text segments that have … Read more

The Profile of a Company That Should Not Apply for the EIC Accelerator (SME Instrument)

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The EIC Accelerator blended financing (formerly SME Instrument Phase 2, grant and equity) is a highly competitive but also highly popular grant and equity financing scheme by the European Innovation Council (EIC). Many startups and Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SME) in the EU but also in associated countries such as Israel or Norway are interested in applying to the funds but many would be better off seeking out other options. While grant consultancies and professional writers all have different approaches to the selection of suitable EIC Accelerator applicants, there are some common themes that are shared among success-oriented grant consultants. Since the official grant proposal template for the EIC Accelerator does not clarify such nuanced points in-depth, the following article aims to give an overview of the types of companies that should not apply. For any startup or scaleup that is recognising themselves in any of the points listed below, it would be advisable to refrain from hiring a writer or consultant since time and resources can be better spent elsewhere. Note: The EIC does not primarily select great companies, it primarily selects companies that fit a certain mould. Having low chances for success under the EIC does not mean that the company or project are bad. The EIC would have never financed social networks like Facebook or Twitter and even industry-specific unicorn companies like Epic Games or Instacart. Yet, these are all success cases on a level the EIC dreams of. The list below is designed to highlight the first impression that consultants and grant writers often face when a client first comes into contact. Since the demand for grant writers is generally very high, this first impression will likely define how interested the consultancy is in a particular project. How do they present their company or technology? Why do they need EIC Accelerator support? What needs to be financed? 1. An Inquiry Uses a Gmail or Similar Domain Address While this is not a strong red flag – it suggests that the company or project is not fully formed yet. Buying a domain and creating a private email account usually precedes even the company registration since it is so simple (and cheap). If an inquiry lacks a private domain then this is usually a sign that a project is in the idea stage. Very few founders would contact investors or customers with a Gmail address which means that any inquiry from such an address is a tell for an ineligible project. Since 2021, the EIC Accelerator also funds non-incorporated natural persons but, due to the competitiveness of the grant, this does not mean that a single person without backing, traction or support networks will be able to be successful. Every inquiry that comes from a domain that is not privately hosted and is not attached to a Corporate Identity (CI) will likely be ignored by selective consultancies. 2. The Prospect EIC Accelerator Applicant is in the Idea Stage The new EIC’s AI platform aims to display the journey from Ideation towards Go-to-Market but that does not mean that a natural person can be successful with a pure idea. The Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) clearly outline the stage a technology has to be in with TRL5 being the minimum for the EIC Accelerator and lower TRL’s only being possible in EIC Pathfinder and EIC Transition programs. The current diagnostics and ideation parts of the EIC Accelerator application are misleading since they can give the impression that projects can still be in the idea stage and is then transformed into a commercial product once Step 3 is reached but this is not the case. The applicant’s project will not make significant changes from Step 1 to 3 – the only thing that will change is the amount and depth of data that is provided to the EIC for evaluation purposes. The EIC Accelerator, also a misleading name, is not a traditional accelerator that aims to help startups succeed by helping with product development, investor relationships or customer contact. The primary resource, outside of limited coaching, will be financial which means that the applicants need a business plan, the right commerial strategy and must have all it takes to implement the project. The EIC will not hold the beneficiaries hands albeit they will aim to create networking opportunities if it matches current political agendas such as the Green Deal, COVID-19 relief or similar trends. Having an idea and reaching out to a consultant with a half-formed business plan will likely be insufficient and be ignored by most selective writers. 3. The Company has no Website or Social Presence It is understandable that many companies are in stealth mode especially when it comes to DeepTech products in the area of biotechnology or pharmaceuticals where large competitors spend billions on R&D and could copy a technology quickly – patented or not. Still, even if a company has no interest in marketing itself or in publicising its technology, every company that has sufficient seed funding and the degree of traction needed to succeed in the EIC Accelerator should have a website and a LinkedIn page at the very least. There can be exceptions but no presence at all often means that founders view this project as a side business or are not invested in its success. One additional exception to this is a newly formed company that is a University spin-off or subsidiary of another company. In the latter case, the prospective applicant can usually provide a website link for the parent company while, in the former case, they could be too early stage for the EIC Accelerator but can be eligible for the EIC Pathfinder. 4. Based on Research that is not Theirs (a University Non-Spin-Off) What can often be encountered is a company that is basing its technology on University research that is not theirs but also does not exist in the market yet. This, in and of itself, does not mean that it is ineligible for the EIC Accelerator but … Read more

On the EIC Accelerator’s New AI Platform – Bugs and Review (SME Instrument)

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In 2021, the EIC Accelerator blended financing (formerly SME Instrument Phase 2, grant and equity) launched its new AI Tool which is an online platform for proposal submissions. Due to its delayed launch and the interactive nature of the tool, many bugs and errors were encountered by prospect applicants. While it is clear that both the European Innovation Council (EIC) and Innovation Loop have put great work into this elaborate project – it still left many applicants confused and frustrated. Reviewing the Platform If the aim of the EIC was to reduce the reliance of startups and Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SME) on third parties such as professional writers or consultancies then this might have backfired. While every CEO understands the need to create a business plan and upload the document, very few have the time or patience to fill out seemingly endless forms that far exceed the work placed into writing a grant proposal. In fact, feedback from CEO’s has been that the mandatory milestones, the 12 pre-defined steps of the innovation and, especially, using the Technology Adoption Life Cycle (TALC) to define a market entry and financial projections was not applicable to their business. The overall structure of the platform, especially for the full application in Step 2, gives the impression of an MBA student having been assigned to try and make all innovation businesses fit into a single mould. This one-size-fits-all approach has led to the objectification of innovation which, by definition, defeats the purpose of seeking out innovators in the first place. It assumes that every company will inevitably face customer segments characterized as innovators, early adopters, the chasm, early majority, late majority and laggards which is not a relevant distinction for the boots-to-the-ground commercial strategy of most businesses. On this particular point, not only must market and financial projections such as revenues and cashflows be planned for each listed step but it is mandatory to address each of these segments without exception. Frequent complaints on this part have been: What if a company has no interest in spending significant marketing and sales expenses on reaching laggards who are hard to convince? What if the chasm is not relevant for a specific commercial strategy that has large scale distributors and retailers – thus allowing vertical scaling? What does the cash flow of the chasm look like if it is supposed to be a gap between two segments and not a segment of its own? It seems like the TALC is an analysis tool that is conventionally used to look backwards at an innovation rather than a tool that is integrated into an early-stage business plan to estimate an innovation and its market uptake. Identifying what a future barrier or risk could be is important but to include a gap between the early adopters and the early majority according to a book published in 1991 (“Crossing the Chasm” by Geoffrey A. Moore) seems redundant. Estimating a cash flow and revenues for a potential gap seems unnecessary at best. The Template and Content While the official proposal template and guide for applicants do reflect the content needed for the full application, the platform requests a high quantity of content with very strong overlaps between sections. While it was clear that the 2020’s EIC Accelerator applications were already very text dense, the EIC seems to have asked themselves: How about we remove all images, formatting and links from the application and have even more text? Needless to say, it is obvious that evaluators were not consulted in this decision. The EIC should, for the sake of their applicants and evaluators, update the platform and allow applicants to add images and graphics into key sections of the applications. Many sections should also be removed since they likely frustrate evaluators more than applicants but a future article will follow with specific recommendations. Bugs and Errors The following list of errors and bugs is by no means complete but reflects the experience of a small number of applicants who have used the platform thus far. The European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA) have already been notified of these bugs and some of the errors have already been fixed in the past weeks. Note: It is easy to point out 1% of mistakes if 99% was very well executed. The EIC Platform looks very well-designed, is elaborate and does present a well-planned snapshot of an innovation. Still, it remains to be seen if this is the right path for the EIC moving forward. 1. Deleted Text One applicant had all their risks in Step 1 removed during the submission. This was evident when comparing the screenshots of the submission window with the resulting proposal as it is shown after the submission. Risk analysis is a critical issue for the EIC Accelerator which makes such a glitch extremely harmful but, luckily, the applicant presented a strong case in other sections and passed regardless. 2. Auto-Save Often, the platform in Step 1 and 2 did not auto-save properly which resulted in the browser window scrolling back up to the top and displaying a generic error message. Reasons for this were entirely bug-related since trial and error showed that, very often, having 1000/1000 characters blocked auto-save while 999/1000 passed successfully. Alternatively, removing all the line breaks from a paragraph also worked in some cases if the window did not auto-save properly. This, of course, made the text hard to read for the evaluator but applicants had no other option. 3. Error-Messages In the value-chain, the main stakeholder could be declared as both “part of the problem” (mandatory for the main stakeholder) and as “impacted by the solution” (optional). If both options were selected, the item received an error message regardless of where it was in the value chain – before or after the solution. 4. Team Allocation The team in Step 2 did not save its data when it came to the work package allocation (i.e. selecting the specific work packages for each … Read more

Why an EIC Accelerator Video Editor Should be a Proposal Writer or Story Teller (SME Instrument)

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The EIC Accelerator blended financing (formerly SME Instrument Phase 2, grant and equity) has recently introduced a video pitch for Step 1 of the evaluation process. This has placed an additional level of storytelling on top of the written application and the pitch deck. Since there is no useful guideline or proposal template for the video pitch, this article aims to share thoughts on the storytelling and the overall process of the editing of a pitch video for startups and Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SME). Editing is an extremely important part of the video creation process since it can completely change the entire narrative, can alter the story or make things seem less or more plausible. Many famous writers and producers have long recognized the importance of the editing process and are performing or administering the process carefully. Editing and Writing The relationship between filming and editing is the one between creating a raw proposal outline and the writing of an actual application. What needs to be considered is that the editor must have the same skillset as the scriptwriter to assure that the final narrative is aligned with its initial intention. Yes, changes can be requested but the decision as to which word will be cut out due to time constraints or which sentence is more important will lie in the responsibility of the editor. This means that the editor should not only be familiar with general storytelling but should also be familiar with the EIC Accelerator application process and its specific focus on disruptiveness, innovation, risk and non-bankability. Professional writers and consultancies are already deeply familiar with this process but many third party filmmakers or editors who are being hired in 2021 due to the sudden need for video pitches might not be. The Editors Tasks The main task of the editor is to take the raw footage and turn it into the required 3-minute video as defined by the European Innovation Council (EIC)’s recommendation. The general workflow and segmentation for this are: Selecting the video and, if needed, synching the external audio with the video Cutting the video down to the needed segments and length Audio enhancement Video enhancement (colour grading) Adding effects (titles, transitions, overlays of logos, etc.) Exporting the footage Feedback and revisions are quite simple but the early tasks of footage selection and the cutting to the respective times are very difficult to control if a writer does not understand editing and the editor does not understand the writing. It is common that editions are in the form of: Can you add a logo here? Can we get this part first? Can you use a different camera angle? (if multiple were recorded) Can we change the title? But what is almost impossible to edit as a non-editor is: Can you add the deleted sentence back in and remove the one you kept? Can you remove these 10 pauses throughout the video and add this sentence at the end? Can you change the order of these parts? It is hard to identify what will work best if you do not have an overview of all raw material and knowledge as to what can work in a video setting. The scriptwriter gives an outline of the story but the editor creates a story that is different from the original script due to time constraints, the quality of the material and the availability of supplementary material such as logos, footage or animations. How to Improve the Editing A key factor in preparing a well-edited pitch video is to already account for the editing in the scripting and not only prepare a script and hope that it will work in 3 minutes. Key factors to plan for the editing inside the script preparation are: Sentences that can be trimmed if needed or can be removed without hurting the narrative. Segments that allow the addition of relevant logos, animations or titles without overlapping with non-relevant sections. Omitting transitional sentences that force the editor to keep them in succession as opposed to having the freedom to change their order. Short sentences as opposed to ones that are long and complex. Thinking of visual support for certain aspects (i.e. already preparing stock or in-house footage to be used ahead of time).

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