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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - FACE (FACE Entrepreneurship. Failure Aversion Change in Europe, more than a Communication Campaing to create a new generation of European entrepreneurs that can FACE failure and learn from it.)

Teaser

Summary

FACE Entrepreneurship (Failure Aversion Change in Europe) is an integrated communications campaign financed by the European CommissionÂ´s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme. The goal of this project is to promote ICT entrepreneurship among young Europeans by redefining and fighting against fear of failure, a barrier often preventing aspiring entrepreneurs from launching their own business.

FACE Entrepreneurship is guiding and challenging these young Europeans through a series of audiovisual content simulating the path of the entrepreneur. On a dedicated platform, FACErs access the board game and as they move along the squares, they gain gradual access to offline and online events, interviews, web series, expert advice and other elements featuring established and emerging European ICT entrepreneurs. These individuals share their story when starting up and address the main fears shared by European entrepreneurs , identified through a Delphi study developed in the framework of the project. Seven offline events will take place in 7 EU member states (Spain, Germany, UK, Ireland, Czech Republic, Finland and Denmark).

Moreover, to foster a sense of community among FACErs, we apply a gamification system which rewards users based on their participation and interaction with other members of the community.

Ultimately, we want to promote a risk taking attitude among aspiring entrepreneurs by proving failure is a normal part of the process and there is a lot to learn from it. Once the campaign comes to an end, we will elaborate a Final Road Map defining ways of reducing those fears and the path entrepreneurs need to face to start up.

Grupo Secuoya is coordinating the project which will run until August 2016 with the support of TelefÃ³nica Open Future & Microsoft Bizspark.

Work performed

Since January 2015, weÂ´ve implemented many actions which can be split into the 3 categories shown hereunder.

RESEARCH
-We set up an Advisory Board composed of a wide sample of European entrepreneurship experts
-Professor Jan Brinckmann (ESADE Business School) developed a Delphi study to shed light on the reality of being an entrepreneur in Europe and the common fears shared by these individuals
-We performed a thorough online & offline research to identify entrepreneurs we could feature throughout the campaign.

DEVELOPMENT
- We developed and launched the FACE Entrepreneurship platform
- We identified and built a multilingual and multifaceted project team
- We studied similar EU initiatives to foster synergies & best practices

COMMUNICATION
- WeÂ´ve researched and contacted 5187 influencers & collaborators to reach out to our target (1663 Universities, 1322 business schools, 18 business angels, 251 associations, 287 business incubators & 247 start-up accelerators)
- We developed a large part of the campaignÂ´s content (web series, interviews, expert advice, blog) & the SEO/SEM strategy
- We prepared and held the campaignÂ´s launch and closing event in Madrid
- We participated in events such as Start-Up OlÃ© & ICT 2015 as well as the First Celebration of Women in Computing, 4YFN, T3CH Fest and collaborated with other projects to ensure broader visibility of the project
- WeÂ´ve organized a total of 6 FACE Entrepreneurship events and participated in 7 others, a total of 13 events.
- WeÂ´ve launched a Contest for startups where a group of 25 semifinalists received mentoring.

Final results

Boosting entrepreneurship in Europe and fostering an entrepreneurial culture in the EU has been at the top of the European CommissionÂ´s priorities for some time now.

It has to be noted any and every cultural change takes a long time to process because of many factors. Entrepreneurship is not merely an economic question; the influences include the role of parents, families and organizations such as schools and workplaces. Cultural stereotypes are difficult to change which justifies the need for long term plans in public policy.

Essentially, the goal is to foster ICT entrepreneurship among young Europeans by fighting against fear of failure and redefining it as an element in the learning journey rather than something negative.

According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor of 2014, fear of failure in Europe is highest in the world despite the fact that Europeans perceive opportunities (34,8%) and capabilities (42,3%). Furthermore, only a few have entrepreneurial intentions within the next three years (12,1%). Indeed, fear of failure can be a strong inhibitor when it comes to transforming entrepreneurial intentions into entrepreneurial activity. In order for someone to start a business, two essential factors need to concur:

- Individual has to perceive opportunities in the local/global environment
- He/she needs to have a positive perception of his/her capabilities/skills

Knowing that fear of failure is the main barrier preventing these individuals from starting a new ICT business, we decided to conduct an in-depth study to better grasp the reality of being an entrepreneur and build our approach based on this. The result was a Delphi study conducted by a group of experts composed of investors, professors, entrepreneurs and mentors who identified a series of fears shared by these young European entrepreneurs:
- Financial fears
- Fear of losing it all
- Capability related fears
- Fear of losing personal freedom
- Social fears
- Self-perception fears

To summarize, fear of failure and the abovementioned fears are often the reason preventing young Europeans from starting up. Therefore, all throughout the campaign we will address all those fears and provide our public with know-how and tips on how to overcome them.

FACE Entrepreneurship has established a system to monitor and test out its initial hypothesis through an analysis of feedback taken from users of its social media. This allows us to have a constant barometer of the changing perceptions related to fear of failure from our target audience. Our Final Road Map compares the Delphi results to those obained by interviews to different expetrs as well as attendees to our events. This Final rould map also includes ideas on different actions that should be taken at a European Level.