Young Entrepreneurs 2023: Empowering the Next Generation of Entrepreneurs
Young Entrepreneurs is a non-profit, international, and hybrid program that provides entrepreneurial education for young people between the ages of 18 and 24. From practical strategies and creative exercises to hands-on learning during lectures and workshops—all the program activities aim to prepare program participants for future professional challenges in the startup world or elsewhere.
Powered by the Startup Wise Guys Foundation and Swedbank, Young Entrepreneurs 2023 will be the fourth edition of the program. In addition to supporting part of the program through funding scholarships for some of the students, Swedbank will provide entrepreneurial workshops to participants in Tallinn, who will also get to visit the offices of the prestigious bank. Moreover, EverSheds Sutherland, one of the most important law firms globally, is also a Young Entrepreneurs 2023 sponsor, allowing some students to enter the program, and leading workshops on the importance of setting the right legal basis when founding a company.
Young Entrepreneurs has a two-phase approach to learning about the startup world. Phase 1 is an online program taking place in the spring of 2023, where participants will go through the PERFORM framework, developed by Startup Wise Guys CEO Cristobal Alonso and co-author Stoyan Yankov in their book “PERFORM. The Unsexy Truth about (startup) success”. In Phase 2, the program becomes hands-on, featuring workshops, lectures, founder stories, startup office visits, outdoor activities, and a final hackathon.
Young Entrepreneurs 2023’s second phase is a 10-day entrepreneurial Summer School hosted in different cities by the program’s host partners such as the Estonian Business School (EBS) in Tallinn and the University Babeș-Bolyai (UBB) in Cluj-Napoca. The program will bring together 350 students from more than 30 nations, and the 120 most engaged participants will have the opportunity to travel to the four European cities in July and August to explore local entrepreneurial ecosystems.
Young Entrepreneurs was first launched in 2020, and three editions have already been organized. Over the years, 150 participants from 22 countries have been impacted by the program, with many becoming Young Entrepreneurs Ambassadors for the 2023 edition. These ambassadors represent Young Entrepreneurs in their home countries and assist current Young Entrepreneurs students in running program activities. After completing the program, many past participants have gone on to start their own ventures or find internship opportunities in local startups, while others have become more proactive in the university environment. These are some of the comments from the testimonials of past editions:
- Britte (24) got so inspired that after attending Young Entrepreneurs 2020, the lecture on legals pushed her to continue her legal studies and on top of that she became Startup Wise Guys’ legal associate intern.
- Vilma Margarit (19): “Young Entrepreneurs 2022 has given me the push I needed to actually start acting upon certain areas of my life.”
- Martin Višnevski (20): “It was the perfect fit because I knew very little about entrepreneurship before and I got so much wiser.”
Dozens of students from all over Europe are already applying to Young Entrepreneurs 2023, also thanks to the support of the Young Entrepreneurs university partners, such as: University of Bologna, University of Vilnius, Elte University, Riga Business School, Aalborg University, Riga Technical University, Tampere University, Boğaziçi University, LIUC University, University of Malaga and University of Tartu.
Applications for Young Entrepreneurs 2023 are open until April 30, 2023. Find out more and apply here: theyoungentrepreneurs.co
