EIR is IW’s Entrepreneur-In-Residence program (6 months), aiming at providing experienced and exceptionally talented individual professionals with an opportunity and all the necessary resources, including potentially funding from IWDF, to either start their own company or join one of the existing IW and IWDF portfolio companies in a leadership role.

Who is it for?

EIR has been designed for experienced professionals, with clear leadership skills and an impressive industry background, relevant to IW’s focus areas. We expect the EIR to be passionate for and fully committed to entrepreneurship in China, but without necessarily having a crystallized business and product or service idea, nor a team of co-founders. EIR is a program for individuals that require some time, the right resources and an excellent network in order to plan or choose their start-up project and team.

What can you expect?

You can expect what will probably be six of the most important, foundational months in your entrepreneurial career.

Incubation Services

• You will be based at IW’s incubator in Beijing’s Zhongguancun area, China’s prime technology start-up ecosystem.
• IW will provide you with access to its current projects, incubation resources and extensive network.
• In the first three months you will be spending part of your time with IW’s current projects where your experience is a good fit, and part of your time preparing for your own project, including working on idea generation, market research, competition analysis, search for co-founders, etc.
• In the latter three months you will naturally focus on either preparing your own business plan and forming your initial product team or working more and more with one of the current IW projects.
• You will also have a unique chance to participate in a wide range of mentoring sessions conducted by distinguished guests and local or international experts in their field, in a wide range of technology / product and business-related topics.

Funding

• On top of the resources, we will also be covering part of your expenses relevant to the EIR program.
• Should you decide to incubate your start-up at IW, you will be immediately eligible for typical angel round investment.

IW Community

• Following “graduation” from the program, you will also be part of the exclusive IW start-up community and continue to benefit from IW’s network and all the supporting activities that we have in store for you.

You can expect to experience all this in what is a unique start-up environment, where you will also benefit enormously from the day-to-day interaction with the other start-up teams, your fellow entrepreneurs and project team peers.

At the end of the program, we expect that you will either start your own project at IW (it will be eligible for the Acceleration) or join one of the existing IW and IWDF portfolio companies in a leadership role.

How do you apply?

At the moment, application to the EIR program is by invitation only. IW is currently sourcing the participant EIRs from within its own network around China and internationally. For any enquiries or further information on the EIR program, please email us at chuangyejia@chuangxin.com

Jump-Start is IW’s structured start-up foundational program (3 months), aiming at grooming the next generation of young Chinese entrepreneurs in the consumer internet, mobile internet and cloud computing space.

Who is it for?

Jump-Start has been designed predominantly for young first-time entrepreneurs, with exceptional talent in technology and designing products but with little prior working experience, who want to accelerate their start-up process while at the same time receive a first class education in entrepreneurship. Jump-Start is a program for small teams of two to four Founders with just an initial idea to build an exciting product or service in one of the program’s focus topics. The Founders will ideally have a Master’s degree in a related subject and some (part-time or full-time) work experience as they will need to demonstrate their technology and product skills through previous related team or individual work. They will also need to show that their product or service idea can develop into a business that is addressing the need of a high-growth potential target market.

What can you expect?

You can expect what will probably be three of the most important and beneficial months in your entrepreneurial career.

Incubation Services

• You and your co-founders will be based at IW’s incubator in Beijing’s Zhongguancun area, China’s prime technology start-up ecosystem.
• You will have access to our HR database of engineer interns’ pool, which can accelerate your initial product development.
• IW will provide you with indicatively company registration, UI/UX guidance with monthly 1-on-1 product reviews, initial market research, etc.
• You will also have a unique chance to participate in a wide range of mentoring sessions conducted by distinguished guests and local or international experts in their field, in a wide range of technology / product and business-related topics.

IW Start-Up Bootcamp

• More importantly, in the Jump-Start program we have designed exclusively for you a Start-Up Bootcamp;
• We will be taking you and your co-founders through all the start-up basics, including indicatively how to build your team, how to prepare your business plan, start-up finance essentials, product development fundamentals, etc.

Funding

• For a period of three months we will strive to give you the very best start-up education and some of our incubation resources to help you get started with your project. On top of the education and resources we will also be seed funding your project, with the final amount to be determined on a case-by-case basis, depending on the specific project’s budget which you will prepare and submit to us.
• In exchange for all the resources provided, IW will become a small, non-intrusive, minority co-founder in your company.

IW Community

• You and your co-founders will also be part of the exclusive IW start-up community and continue to benefit from IW’s network and all the supporting activities that we have in store for you post-graduation.

You can expect to experience all these services and know-how to be given to you in what is a unique start-up environment, where you will also benefit enormously from the day-to-day interaction with the other start-up teams, your fellow entrepreneurs and project team peers.

Following “graduation” from the program, you will be eligible for IW’s Acceleration program; however only a very limited number of Jump-Start teams will be admitted into Acceleration after every Jump-Start batch.

How do you apply?

Any interested team of Founders can apply for the next Jump-Start program online here. For any enquiries or further information on the Jump-Start program, please email us at zhupao@chuangxin.com

Acceleration is IW’s main incubation program (6 months), aiming at assisting experienced Founders to speed-up their start-ups and hence create the next generation of successful Chinese consumer internet, mobile internet and cloud computing start-ups.

Who is it for?

Acceleration has been designed for experienced Founders, with clear leadership skills and a solid industry background, relevant to their start-up product / service idea. The Founders can be first-time or serial entrepreneurs. Beyond the Founders, we expect a small, initial core product team to be in place and to be able to demonstrate a prototype of the product / service at this early stage. We also expect the team to have a clear vision on the product development roadmap, no matter how this may change in the future. The Founders also need to demonstrate that they have clearly identified and understand their high-growth potential target market and how to achieve early user acquisition in it.

What can you expect?

You can expect what will probably be six of the most important and beneficial months in your company’s history.

Incubation Services

• You and your team will be based at IW’s incubator in Beijing’s Zhongguancun area, China’s prime technology start-up ecosystem.
• In terms of recruiting assistance, you will have access to our extensive HR database of top engineers’ application pool, campus recruitment and interns’ pool, including assistance with screening and interview arrangements, which altogether will help you build an “A” team from the get-go.
• IW will provide you and your project team with company registration and general legal counsel, accounting guidance, UI/UX resources, marketing and public relations planning advice, etc.
• You will also have a unique chance to participate in a wide range of mentoring sessions conducted by distinguished guests and local or international experts in their field, in a wide range of technology / product and business-related topics.

Funding

• On top of the resources we will also be seed funding your project, with the final amount to be determined on a case-by-case basis, depending on the specific project’s budget which you will prepare and submit to us. In exchange of the incubation services and seed funding provided, IW will become a non-intrusive, minority co-founder in your company.
• Last but not least, we will work with you to prepare your start-up for the next round of institutional fundraising, as well as introduce your project and your team to IWDF and the early stage investment community in China and abroad.

IW Community

• Following “graduation” from the program, you and your project team will be part of the exclusive IW start-up community and continue to benefit from IW’s network and all the supporting activities that we have in store for you.

You can expect to experience all these services and know-how to be given to you in what is a unique start-up environment, where you will also benefit enormously from the day-to-day interaction with the other start-up teams, your fellow entrepreneurs and project team peers.

How do you apply?

At the moment, application to the Acceleration program is by invitation only. IW is currently sourcing the participant Founders and project teams through its own grassroots efforts all around China. For any enquiries or further information on the Acceleration program, please email us at  jiasu@chuangxin.com

At Innovation Works (IW) we aspire to be your partner of choice in starting your own company.

With the program that suits you best.

We have built three distinct incubation programs for entrepreneurs who want to start-up a consumer internet, mobile internet or cloud computing business in China:

• Acceleration, our main incubation program for experienced Founders with a clear business idea, with a product prototype and an initial team already in place;
• Jump-Start ,  our structured, educational, 3-month program for small teams of young, first-time entrepreneurs with an interesting product idea; and
• Entrepreneur-In-Residence (EIR), our program for experienced individual professionals, who are just starting to realize their entrepreneurial ambitions.

What You Can Expect From Us

Led by Lee Kai-Fu , at IW we have brought in the best early-stage-minded professionals to give you and your team support in many ways. IW will use its unique industry network and resources to help you form the best start-up team, find strategic partners and develop your target market. You can count on the expertise of the professional business team at IW to assist you in strengthening your product strategy and business plan. We have also created an extensive network of mentors and a corresponding program of mentoring sessions that is available to you and your teams. In addition to all these, IW will also give you support in recruiting, in registering your company as well as in other legal and accounting matters, in technology and product issues, and in marketing.  Everyone at IW is “hands-on” and has the passion and appetite to help you get started for the long road ahead.

IW will provide you and your team with working space in a great start-up environment, incubation services and some seed funding. It will also open the door for you to the early stage investment community in China and abroad, including IW’s own captive fund, the Innovation Works Development Fund (IWDF ).

Once we are in, we are in it for the lifetime of the company, fully aligned with the interests of the entrepreneurs and their team.

At IW we strongly believe in the merits of real incubation but we do not believe in excessive “micromanagement” or a “hand-holding” type of incubation, as this is contradictory to the very nature of entrepreneurship. While we will help you get started in a lean and efficient way with real assistance as well as guidance and advice, you and your team will still need to take the lead and be involved in all day-to-day operational matters of your company. After all, this is your own company, your idea, your product, your own entrepreneurial dream.

What We Expect From You

In order to preserve the quality of incubation and the personal nature in our start-up environment, every year IW will be incubating a limited total number of start-ups in its three programs

This is why at IW we want to work with the very best.

We are looking for the most talented entrepreneurs and project teams in the consumer internet, mobile internet and cloud computing spaces. We will only bring in Founders and project teams that work very well with each other, that can demonstrate their ability to build great products and services, that have good business sense and that understand their target market(s). Above all we want to work with entrepreneurs and project teams that are passionate but humble, persistent but patient and committed for the long road ahead, as start-ups are indeed a marathon race, not a 100m sprint.

On your marks, get set, go!