Dialogue and Knowledge Sharing as Founders Loft Visits the University of Gothenburg

How do you actually measure progress in a startup? That was the theme when Founders Loft’s business developer Alma Backendal recently visited the master’s program Knowledge-Based Entrepreneurship at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg.

Alma presented how we at Founders Loft work with KTH’s Innovation Readiness Levels (IRL) – a framework that makes it possible to clearly track the development from an early idea to a scalable and sustainable company. For several years, this framework has been an integral part of our incubator program and our business development efforts.

To deepen the understanding, the students were given a case and discussion questions on how the tool can be applied in practice from a business development perspective. This initiated many interesting conversations and reflections – an engaged dialogue where the academic perspective met the incubator’s practical experience.

As an incubator, having strong connections to academia and universities is a crucial part of our mission. This is where new ideas take shape, where research provides the foundation for future innovations – and where we meet the next generation of entrepreneurs. Through collaborations with academia, we can not only contribute with our experience and tools, but also gain new perspectives and research-based knowledge that enrich our work.

At Founders Loft, we are proud to share our experiences with the students at the School of Business, Economics and Law and to continue building bridges between academia and the innovation ecosystem. It is in the meeting between research, education, and entrepreneurship that tomorrow’s innovative companies take shape.