From Western Norway to MIT, Boston

This week, 10 startups from Western Norway are at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship.

They’re here through our scaling programme ScaleupNext — built on MIT’s 24-step framework for disciplined entrepreneurship.

Photo: Nina Teng is lecturer at MIT and was an early startup employee at Grab.

— Reading about entrepreneurship is one thing. Being at MIT and hearing Bill Aulet explain the framework, Nina Teng share her experience from building Grab, and Macauley Kenney from SurgiBox, that’s something else entirely, says  Øystein Theodor Ødegaard-Olsen, Founder & CEO, Eupnea AS.

—A good idea is not enough. The real value lies in executing it into a product and a company that actually scales. This is about mindset, capabilities, and a way of operating — and it can be learned.

Start narrow, solve deeply, then expand, Nina Teng.

Photo: Øystein Theodor Ødegaard-Olsen, CEO at Eupnea with Karina Halstensen Birkelund from Farvatn who lectured at the first gathering in this year's ScaleupNext.

The participants this year includes:

Bu Composite, Cognosic, myHaircode, Eld Energy, Havdis, Link Utvikling, UPNIR, Fonix Geoscience, EcoProfit, TILT at VIS, Eupnea AS and Framdrift Innovasjon.

Some are already generating revenue. Others are still at the idea stage, but that difference matters less than you might think - because the way you work is what matters.

Photo: Participants from Bu Composite and Eld Energy in MIT classroom.

The loop that drives progress

At MIT, entrepreneurship is treated as a discipline.

Start with the end user.
Go out and test your assumptions.
Collect data.
Learn.
Adjust.
Repeat.

Not once, but continuously.

This week has been an eye-opener, both for our own company, but also as a glimpse of what Norway could be if we dared to start and scale more companies, Cecilie Efford, myHaircode.

Photo:Hana Colakovic (Link Utvikling/Atlas Accelerator) with Cecilie Efford and Dorcas Mihio (myHaircode) at MIT.

A shared experience

— For me personally, this week has been inspiring, and I’m looking forward to applying several of the learnings in my role as a mentor for tech startups, says Hana Colakovic, Creative Director, Link Utvikling AS, and Partner at Atlas Accelerator (left in picture).

 —What stood out in particular was the professors’ ability to bring in highly relevant examples and truly engage us as participants.

Kudos also to GCE Ocean Technology for bringing together such a great group for this cohort. Thank you for the invitation!

Photo: Bill Aulet is the Managing Director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship and Professor of the Practice at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Built to scale

ScaleupNext connects startups from Western Norway with proven methodology and hands-on learning at MIT.

The goal is to help more companies move from idea to scalable business faster, and with fewer wrong turns.

The programme is made possible with support from Sparebanken Norge through Agenda Vestlandet.

Next cohort

We’re now recruiting for the next ScaleupNow programme this fall for companies ready to scale.

If you’re building a company and ready to challenge how you build it we’d love to hear from you.