Start-up and business owners who are examining the possibility to apply within very competitive european call, the SME Instrument, often approach me with the question: »Does my idea stand a chance?«

Question is simple, unfortunately the answer isn’t.

Even though I spent countless hours studying the call, on-line materials, talked to different evaluators and also successfully coached some of our partners who got their projects approved in Phase 1 (ICT-37) and Phase 2 (SC5-20), it is still hard to answer straightforward with»yes« or »no«.

As you will notice, this journey starts with »an idea« but many struggle already there by asking themselves, »Which one is the best one?« As an entrepreneur I know how this dillema feels like.

4 steps to approve or reject an idea

What you see is very simplified presentation for which we usually use tables (with purpose to achieve better transparency of idea flow). You will find the  infographic at the end of this post.

Idea behind is to start by setting the hypothesis you want to validate. You might wonder why? Because you want to work only on idea (project) which will have a tremendous impact on your company, is viable and interesting for the target market. If your hypothesis get confirmed during the process, then potential project gets the »green light«, othervise its »killed«.

How does it work?

Let’s set an example of hypothesis (you should adapt to your needs):

• »Our solution is a novelty on the market.« and
• »There is evident demand for our solution.«

Only now you can start to follow the process. However, there is a rule to follow: You can’t move to the next step until previous is completed. Each step also results in tangible deliverable (description, document, decision).

Step 1: Write the idea (potential project) down. Description must be short, clarifying what you want to achieve. If you have several ideas, then all of them should provide you with same type of information.
Step 2: Gather information about your solution. We use set of redesigned questions. As we don’t want this phase to take too long, we mostly gather information from internal sources and by desktop research. All answers gathered in a single document is the expected result.
Step 3: Based on gathered answers design a project fact sheet. This document is short, 1-2 pages maximum. Chapters are organized in a way that management can take fast decision about the project’s future.
Step 4: Hypothesis validation. If short presentation confirms predefined statements, then the project can get attention (time, money) it needs to become a full proposal.

Efficient way to pick the best idea

Whole process should not take more then 1-2 days. If it needs significantly more time, then there are many (too) information missing and it means high risks to approve project development. Finding this critical (yet minimum) information during the project proposal preparation might lead to »discovery«, that your solution is not realy such a novelty or it will not have expected impact on your company.

Contribute!

How do you pick your ideas? Please share and let this community grow by your experience too.