# **Appendix 5: Additional Details of the Control Program**

# _Selection of Content_

We organized the control group intervention design around a few simple guidelines: i) an online course, ii) relatively cheap or free to use, iii) offering general knowledge of simple investment readiness concepts and iv) providing e‐guidance toward a start‐up pitching competition. The World Bank team conducted market research together with Innovative Ventures Incorporated, a specialized investment advisor to international financial institutions and governments in private equity and venture capital funds. After this initial screening of available alternatives, the decision was made to use a paid online course since the alternatives without fee did not offer the necessary quality standards. For the paid alternatives we carefully evaluated the contents and undertook the full demo versions to understand the specific differences among the candidate courses.

The program chosen is an e‐learning course developed and distributed by the Global Commercialization Group (GCG) of the IC<sup>2</sup> Institute at the University of Texas at Austin. The group is an internationally active facilitator for growth of innovative and technology‐based businesses and it offers a wider range of technology commercialization training programs for managers around the world. The Innovation Readiness Series<sup>TM</sup> was created to bring the work of the Global Commercialization Group to a global customer base at a cheaper price vis‐à‐vis delivering training and international business development programs in‐country. Since its launch in 2011, the Innovation Readiness Series<sup>TM</sup> has trained more than two thousand entrepreneurs and students from 20 countries worldwide. The content can be offered in three different languages: English, Spanish or Russian. For the Pioneers of the Balkans cohort we opted for the English based course.

# _Course Details and Content_

The program introduces students to common terminology used in the start‐up eco‐system, and the requirements to commercialize innovations, including protecting intellectual property, describing an innovation and the benefits it provides (vs. features), navigating development, understanding competition (substitutes and direct competitive products), market validation, creating a ‘pitch’ and presenting to investors, customers and others.

This content is delivered online through 10 modules of 45‐60 minutes each. The modules have a set of slides that are read and explained via a recorded voice. Each module has detailed steps to work through for creating a business proposition and includes assignments in two formats: quizzes with multiple‐choice answers beneficiaries can take to test their understanding of the material, and in the case of some of the ten modules (i.e. technology brief and description, benefits, competition and presentation skills) written exercises to be voluntarily handed in. Finally, in the last module there is the possibility to record and upload a video sample of the planned pitch. Nevertheless, for the Pioneers of the Balkans cohort the program was customized to allow feedback only after the multiple‐choice quizzes in form of number of correct answers. Written exercise and the video of the pitch were voluntarily uploaded on the platform but were not commented or discussed with the participant.

While this program is not a substitute to one‐on‐one mentoring, it gives a basic introduction to business planning and pitching, is well‐structured and cheap alternative to a mentorship‐based investment readiness program, it is comprehensive and allows beneficiaries to create a sketch of business model 59