On May 16th and 17th, IESE hosted the annual Search Fund Investor and CEO Summits. Attendees had the chance to connect with peers, learn from industry experts, and expand their networks within the search fund community. Highlights included an interview with David Dodson, a renowned search fund, serial investor, and author of the best-seller The Manager's Handbook, conducted by Professor Jan Simon; discussions on acquisitions and recent trends in international search funds; and CEO breakout sessions addressing critical challenges. Next stop: the International Search Funds Conference in October.

IESE Business School will host the 6th International Search Fund Conference on October 10-11 in Barcelona. The event will bring together search-CEOs, active searchers, new searchers, and investors from around the world to discuss key issues and share insights. Since 2015, IESE has hosted this biennial conference, alternating with Stanford’s Search Fund CEO Conference. These events are premier networking opportunities. IESE, the first non-North American school to offer an intensive search fund course, now one of its most popular electives, has seen over 60 graduates raise funds in 20 countries. Interested? Registration will open soon. More information here. 

IESE's Summer Entrepreneurship Experience (SEE) launched with a fresh cohort of MBA students on May 24th. Over 10 weeks, students will dive into an immersive experience to test the startup entrepreneurship path. This course offers full-time, practical, team-based work, on and off-campus, to validate a business opportunity and conduct customer discovery and development for a startup.
Guided by Professors Mathieu Carenzo and Mauricio Prieto, 22 participants from 8 groups and 15 nationalities will apply first-year MBA knowledge to topics such as value proposition, customer analysis, revenue models, performance indicators, and many more.
The SEE provides an invaluable startup pathway for MBA students, fostering entrepreneurial skills in a practical setting.

On May 15-16, Professor Mª Julia Prats attended the Corporate Venturing & Entrepreneurship Summit 2024 in The Netherlands, which brought together academia, practitioners, and government representatives to help shape a corporate venturing ecosystem. Professor Prats delivered the keynote, ‘Navigating the Corporate Venture Frontier: Challenges and Opportunities in Organizational Integration,’ and participated in the workshop, ‘Teaming up with other corporations to innovate with startups: Exploring the power of corporate venturing squads.’ 
This annual conference aims to foster interactive discussions between practitioners and academics on corporate venturing squads, focusing on concepts, utility, and best practices, while identifying essential pre-conditions for success. More information here.

On May 29th, Professor Julia Prats delivered a keynote speech at TheNTWKSummit24, held at Casa Llotja de Mar, Barcelona. This year’s theme was "From Competition to Collaboration in the Digital Era."
Professor Prats discussed the importance of collaboration in corporate innovation, focusing on squads—agile teams formed by multiple corporations to drive innovation. She shared real-world examples and explored effective squad structures for achieving specific innovation goals and challenges.

On May 28th, IESE presented its report "Analysis of a Generation of Start-ups in Spain and Portugal" at the EmprendeXXI Awards hosted by CaixaBank in Madrid. IESE showcased the findings during the final ceremony, highlighting challenges, trends, and the top 100 startups in Iberia from the 2023-24 EmprendeXXI Awards. IESE's Entrepreneurship Department has produced this report for the past six editions. 
This year, special honors were awarded in Deep Tech and Sustainability. Since its launch in 2007, EmprendeXXI has invested 8.4 million euros in prizes and actions, benefiting nearly 500 companies. 

‘Venturing On,’ hosted by Professor David Frodsham, delves into venture capital, entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurial finance. The podcast features conversations with venture capital funds, entrepreneurs, and key startup ecosystem players. The most recent episode includes an interview with Karel Obluk, who transformed AVG Technologies into one of Central Europe's first unicorns. Other recent guests include Helen McBreen from Atlantic Bridge, a global growth equity technology investment firm, and Christian Saller from HV Capital (investors behind Zalando, FlixBus, HelloFresh, and Delivery Hero, and others). Tune in for expert insights and engaging stories from industry leaders!

Entrepreneurship is seen as a solution to major social and environmental issues. This research article, co-authored by Professor Desirée Pacheco, examines research on social (SE) and environmental entrepreneurship (EE) to identify connections, gaps, and future directions. Analyzing studies from 1994 to 2019, it reveals that SE and EE, despite different origins, now share common goals. The research proposes a framework for SE and EE to collaborate more effectively, suggesting that this integration can help entrepreneurship research better understand how and when entrepreneurial actions benefit the public good.