Case 6: BINP

BINP (Boosting Innovation in PoliBa) is a certified incubator that supports entrepreneurial initiatives of startups and spin-offs, with a particular focus on deep tech. Deep tech entrepreneurial initiatives present specific challenges, including lengthy development cycles, substantial initial investments, the need for highly specialized mentoring, and a firm reliance on partnerships with universities and enterprises.

In its first three years of activity, BINP has supported hundreds of teams, helping to facilitate equity investments of €4.3 million by venture capital funds in seven pre-seed entrepreneurial initiatives. Today, the incubator faces a strategic challenge: establishing itself as a national and international reference point while ensuring its own financial sustainability and offering high-value services to startups, investors, and other ecosystem players.

Case Context:  Your task is to design an innovative and sustainable business model for BINP, capable of ensuring its impact and economic sustainability over the long term.

Case description: We ask you to design a business model for a deep tech incubator focused on developing entrepreneurial initiatives of pre-seed and seed-stage startups and spin-offs by defining:
1.     Imagining services BINP could offer to teams and established startups/spin-offs for a fee.
o   Examples: types of paid services for startups and spin-offs (e.g., advanced mentoring packages, access to labs, intellectual property and legal services, fundraising support, prototype validation, etc.);
o   How to monetize the support offered to teams, startups, and spin-offs;
o   Defining the most suitable pricing models (subscription, fee-for-service, success fee, equity, other).
2.     Imagining services BINP could offer to Venture Capital (VC) funds for a fee.
o   Examples: scouting and business and/or technology due diligence for early-stage startups, scientific validation, incubation-as-a-service, privileged access to the deal flow of university spin-offs;
o   How to monetize the support offered to investors and VC funds and/or BINP’s relationship with universities and research institutions;
o   Defining the most suitable pricing models (subscription, fee-for-service, success fee, equity, other).
3.     Imagining services BINP could offer to other stakeholders (corporates, public bodies, universities, research centers, accelerators) for a fee.
o   Examples: open innovation programs, corporate incubation, hackathons, researcher training, technology transfer programs, startup–corporate matchmaking.
Expected Output
·        A structured and well-reasoned business model proposal for BINP.
·        A map of paid services divided by customer type (startups, VCs, other stakeholders).
·        A reflection on the value generated for each target (why they would pay and what they would receive in return).
·        An estimate of the production value, including the costs for delivering services (including potential investments, events, promotional and communication activities), consistent with the proposed business model.
Important Note: Proposals must be argued clearly and concretely, going beyond generic labels such as “consulting.” Every service, partner, and revenue stream must be described in detail and justified in relation to BINP’s strategic objectives.