NCGE-Kauffman Entrepreneurship Fellowship (NKEF) Application tips

The 'NCGE-Kauffman Entrepreneurship Fellowship 2007' application is now open here. Apart from the stupidly long name this fellowship has given me more opportunities in 5 months than I have had in the last 24 years. Plus its been a huge amount of fun. So thought I would offer some thoughts on what you need to do I think will help.

The selection is in 2 stages: Application and Interview.

The application last year had to be about 3,000 words. So prepare it carefully before writing it up on the internet, have it checked by as many people as you can. The focus of the application should be on the following:

• Entrepreneurship, leadership, business
• these words mean nothing unless you can give examples showing how they apply to you
• A solid technology based business idea
• You don't necessarily have to have a technology/engineering background but it helps
• the most popular degree out of this years Fellowship is 'Product Design' because their final year projects focused on a real world need and product
• Extra marks for having a patent/ actively pursuing the idea but this is not essential
• The business plan and the customer is more important than the idea itself
• The unfortunate problem for most of us Engineers out there is that we like 'cool gadgets' thats not what the fellowship is about, its about a real business which means a customer and a market. This is most important. Whats the need the product is filling? whose need? why will they buy?
• You
• Your enthusiasm
  
• Your desire to want to start a business
• Again give solid examples of your experiences in the past
• How you're going to spread entrepreneurship when arriving back in the UK
• At you university etc.
• This was one of Gordon Browne's hopes for the Fellowship

Interview
The interview is split into 2 parts, Q&A and 10 minute presentation.
The presentation is you only, no powerpoint. Make sure you can give the presentation without referring to notes. Some people like to memorize talks word for word; I like to memorize the main points and talk conversationally. Whatever works for you. Pratice normally works for everyone.

The Q&A session will test what you really know about leadership and business (at least it did for me). Knowing isn't the most important thing - although it helps. How you respond and compose yourself is most important. One word of warning Ian Robertson, a former serial entrepreneur and Director of the NCGE is very concerned that you know who the customer for your product is be sure you have worked this out!

And good luck!!

p.s. the profile an average Fellow this year was:
Male, 25, Degree and above in Engineering or Product Design, a prototype of their idea,

Saying that I don't fall into any of those categories (except male ;o)

I think if you're female and have a great idea then you should definitely apply for the fellowship. NCGE and Kauffman are eager to bring on females to the scheme. (And the 16 boys this year would have been equally eager ;o)

Kauffman Global Scholars Program, how it began

On 22 March 2006, in UK Chancellor Gordon Brown's Budget speech he mentioned that Enterprise and Entrepreneurship would be given a new focus by the government. One way this would happened is a partnership between the NCGE and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in America. The partnership would allow 20 of the UK's top University minds the opportunity to find out about Entrepreneurship in America, with the intention of starting their own business' when they arrive back in the UK. This program was being called the NCGE-Kauffman Entrepreneurship Fellowship (quite a mouthful!)
For more info see this document

At the time I was totally oblivious to the goings on of Parliament and the NCGE. I was studying Electronics with Management in the 3rd year of a 4 year degree at York University. However around the beginning of May York University had been given the opportunity to nominate 2 candidates for the NCGE Kauffman year. Tony Ward, the head of Enterprise at York University, had asked for nominations of potential candidates from Supervisors around the University.

Out the the blue I was sent an email telling me that I had been nominated, by a lecturer I didnt know. I then recieved a second email from that lecturer to say that he hadn't nominated me but all the best with the application. This unexpected (and possibly unintended) nomination for a course I had never heard about proved to be the best opportunity I had ever recieved. I wasn't going to let it go.

Students can only apply to this program if they have a technological based business idea and a background in the Sciences or Engineering. Places are awarded to students who have this background and business idea, but they also need to have energy and drive and the desire to want to promote Enterprise back in the UK. Having gone through an intensive application and interview stage I am now one of 17 students from universities around the UK to be accepted onto the program as a Fellow.

The program is divided into two sections: 3 months in the UK and 6 months in America. The time in the UK is spent preparing for America; the time in America is spent taking intensive training courses in business, developing contacts, and an internship in a business which is in the same field as the business plan the Fellow has.

In the UK Fellows meet each other and share experiences. Each Fellow has a mentor and access, through the NCGE, to many contacts and resources which would not ordinarily be available. Each Fellow is at a different point in their business creation, and so each Fellow has different targets for when they reach America. I found myself to be the least progressed out of all the Fellows, which puts me in an incredible position to learn from everyone.

America is filled with opportunities for making contacts, learning from the most prestigious institutes and developing the business closer to reality. The time in America is broken down as follows:

• 5 weeks in Kansas City, Missouri, intensive course in business at the Kauffman Foundation.
• 1 week in Silicon Valley, learning at Stanford University and speaking to people throughout the valley
• 2 weeks in Boston, learning at the Harvard Business School.
• 12 weeeks placement with a company in the field of my business idea.
• 1 week reunion in Kansas City where Fellows share their experiences then go back to the UK.

This is the first time a program like this has been run by the Kauffman Foundation (not even students in America have had this opportunity). The Kauffman Foundation plan to run the same scheme for many different countries and because of this have decided to call it the 'Kauffman Global Scholars Program'.

What an opportunity! My only aim is to make the most of it.