To inspire and encourage CERN people to entrepreneurship and innovation, the Knowledge Transfer Group recently launched a concept called Entrepreneurship Meet-Ups. The idea is to provide those interested in innovation and entrepreneurship with an informal arena where they can meet to learn about and discuss related topics. Some meet-ups will be mostly to discuss and inform, while others will have presentations from external experts.

“Entrepreneurship can be considered a craftsmanship. Hopefully, the meet-ups will provide the participants with valuable tools that will inspire and encourage them to move on and form their own companies. From our point of view, the meet-ups are a useful platform for getting input on how we can best help and assist CERN people who wish to bring CERN technology to society”, said Vetle Nilsen from the Knowledge Transfer Group.

Such a person is Kenneth Hole, co-founder of the CERN spin-off company TIND Technologies, who shared his experiences at the second CERN Entrepreneurship Meet-up. After a feasibility study, conducted in October of 2012, Hole and the rest of TIND Technologies decided to deliver a commercial service for the Invenio software, without much prior knowledge of neither the software, nor the library business. The challenges of starting a new company, finding a business model, and securing funding were among the topics Hole talked about at the meet-up. He was met with many intriguing questions from the participants, who were clearly inspired by TIND’s story.

Kenneth Hole making a presentation at the second Entrepreneurship Meet-up

“We have three UN libraries on our customer list now, and that is thanks to CERN and the CERN network. The spin-off agreement gives us the right to use the CERN brand that is renowned internationally and gives us credibility. We continue to work closely with the Invenio developers which makes our everyday operations a lot easier”, Hole said.

Future meet-ups, which will take place every other Wednesday at 18.00, are open for anyone connected to CERN and interested in entrepreneurship and innovation. The next meet-up will be on 13 May and take place in 61/1-009 – Room C. Upcoming topics include business models, financing and business plans. If you want to be informed about the meet-ups in the future, you can sign up for the mailing list.