Networking to kick-start growth entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs play an important part in sustaining the Danish economy. The political interest especially concentrates on ‘high-growth entrepreneurs’ who generate new jobs and high turnover. That is why MindLab visited a range of Denmark’s best entrepreneurs to understand how government initiatives might be designed to help more growth entrepreneurs realise their businesses potential.

”If I should take an advisor seriously, then he has to know, like really know, what it means to be an entrepreneur. It doesn’t work if it is a 9-5 employee with his lunchbox. I don’t need theoretical knowledge but someone who can give me straight tips because he has tried it himself.”
IT-company

When new businesses grow from a two-man firm in a basement to being one of the most profitable companies with dreams of conquering US markets, important decisions have to be made. How does the founders let go of responsibility without loosing the feel of being in control of the company? Should they have a professional board, and who should be board members? How should a business plan be designed so it works across the Atlantic?

When growth entrepreneurs themselves are asked to explain who they think can help them to make difficult decisions, they are adamant that the person across the table has practical experience with entrepreneurship and under their drive. That is why the Danish Enterprise and Construction Authority and the Ministry of Economics and Business Affairs are currently developing initiatives, which will match competent and experienced entrepreneurs with those with the potential to be so.

MindLab involved

• 8 growth entrepreneurs
• 3 potential growth entrepreneurs
• Researchers and advisors working with innovation and entrepreneurship

Principal results

• A comprehensive catalogue of ideas, from which 8 ideas were chosen to be tested in detail.
• A prototype of a network for entrepreneus

What MindLab did

MindLab and the Danish Enterprise and Construction Authority and the Ministry of Economics and Business Affairs visited 6 growth entrepreneurs and asked them to narrate their journey to growth. When was it hard? Who helped them on their way when it was not public sector organisations? What role did professional networks, families and friends play?

Especially two elements in the project were crucial in creating concrete initiatives targeting the best entrepreneurs. Personas, which are detail-rich archetypes of entrepreneurs, and journeys to growth that mapped all events in the companies’ journeys from just established to successful enterprises.

The most important insights from the field research have now been translated into specific proposals for how to support Danish entrepreneurs. The proposals were subsequently developed into prototypes that were tested with the entrepreneurs. Here entrepreneurs were asked not only to give their immediate assessment whether it would be productive to meet other entrepreneurs. They were also tasked with considering how each specific element in the planned initiatives could be useful. It became obvious that the public sector’s involvement must fall in the background, and that the entrepreneurs themselves must run events that exude drive and entrepreneurial spirit.