Entrepreneur in Residence: How to be the Superhero of Innovation

Entrepreneurship is a tricky business. It requires a combination of creativity, determination, and a bit of luck. But what happens when you take that entrepreneurial spirit and place it within the walls of a larger organization? Enter the Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR).

EIR Roles Can Be Diverse

As an EIR, you can play several roles in a residence organization, and it's important to understand the context of the residence organization to be effective. The residence organization can be varied and more organizations are getting EIRs every day. Take a look for yourself, here.

Organization types with EIRs include:

• Capital Organizations - Venture capital and private equity firms.
• Academic Institutions - Universities have EIRs in a variety of academic and industry partnership settings.
• Startups - In Germany and India it is relatively common to bring in a younger professional and give them an important but not fully refined scope to own.
• Corporate - Corporations employ EIRs on their innovation teams, in their corporate venture capital practices.
• Public Agencies - Economic development organizations, local jurisdictions, and even the federal government in the United States.
• Non-profits - non-profit organizations have started to incorporate EIRs into their organizations.

It's also important to know if your role as an EIR is vertically focused or horizontally focused.

• Vertical EIR - where you run a business line within the residence or spin one out.
• Horizontal EIR - where you work on the capacity of the organization to be more entrepreneurial and innovative internally or connect intentionally with the appropriate ecosystem to enable the residence to be more successful.

Keys to Being an Effective EIR

First and foremost, an EIR must have great self-awareness. You need to be able to clearly articulate your capabilities, network, and skills. In other words, you need to know your superpower and be able to explain how it can benefit the organization.

Secondly, it's crucial to partner with a residence that has a clear and defined strategy. The leadership team must be bought into this strategy and ideally, the organization should already be executing on it. By understanding how innovation and entrepreneurship will contribute to the overall success of the organization, you can better align your efforts and make a greater impact.

Lastly, an EIR must be intentional about continuously re-skilling and up-skilling themselves. Many individuals who take on this role come from successful backgrounds in other industries. It's important to take a step back and assess the new skills needed to excel in this role and actively work on acquiring them.

EIR as an Ecosystem Enabler

As an EIR, it's important to have a strong understanding of the ecosystem in which you are operating. EIRs play the role of natural ecosystem builders, connecting and working across networks and ambiguous boundaries. This means that having situational awareness and being aware of any potential conflicts of interest or institutional agendas is crucial for success in this role.

A key part of my role is to bridge the gap between early-stage and established markets. By leveraging my experience in pre-commercial and early commercial markets, I can help my residence organization better understand and navigate these emerging ecosystems. By being intentional and authentic in our approach to nurturing these growing markets, we can better position ourselves to be a key player in these ecosystems as they mature. As a well-established company, actively engaging in the development of new and growing ecosystems, such as those related to electric vehicles and climate technology, can bring significant benefits. This can include working with other industry players to drive innovation, expanding into new markets, and playing a role in shaping the future of these industries through the introduction of new technologies and approaches.

Another example, in academic environments, there may be tension between the local economic development function, which aims to create as many technology-based businesses as possible, and the technology transfer office, which aims to retain control over commercialization. In this case, it's important for the EIR to be aware of this tension and to find ways to build consensus across different departments and groups within the organization. (s/o to Dr Andrew Atter )

More to Come

As an Entrepreneur in Residence myself (a Corporate Horizontal EIR to be precise) since January of 2020, I wish I had some of these insights and a network to rely on when I first got started. That's why I am writing a book on this topic called "The Effective Entrepreneur in Residence". These insights have come from more than two hundred interviews with other Entrepreneurs in Residence, and I hope that it can serve as a valuable resource for those entering this exciting but challenging role. Together, we can change the world, one startup mindset at a time.

Are you a current or former EIR? If you are interested in joining this community of innovation superheroes, apply at https://eir.live.