Young Entrepreneurs Summer School – from an idea to an investment proposal
It’s not even a secret – the world needs ever more young talents. We at Startup Wise Guys realized that we can educate and build the entrepreneurial spirit in students’ minds, hence why for the second time we organized the Young Entrepreneurs Summer School in collaboration with Estonian Business School, recently held in Tallinn.
The young Entrepreneurs program is an intensive 7-day program for high school and university students eager to learn more about entrepreneurship and what it takes to build a startup. 🚀
This year 15 students joined the program to learn about business strategies, problem-solving skills, sales, and digital marketing from 23 amazing mentors. During the week students went through 10 lectures and 8 workshops, as well as heard 5 founders’ stories, and had a chance to visit 3 startups offices to understand the startup kitchen from the inside. The week culminated in a 48-hour hackathon during which students put the gained knowledge to work.
“They stepped outside of their comfort zone, dealing with more than usual workload or lecture load, and pushed the gas pedal hard during the hackathon, applying all of the knowledge they gained over the week,”
shares Razvan Suta, Young Entrepreneurs Head of the Project.
“And the bonding experience was amazing for them, forming friendships and professional relationships that will last a lifetime. It will be exciting to see in the future how this community of young entrepreneurs evolves and how each of them becomes entrepreneurial role models to follow, in their home city/country.”
During the week, students were exposed to a vast network of people. Mentors like Cristobal Alonso and Stoyan Yankov joined to teach about the PERFORM methodology, Dan le Man introduced the students to the principles of public speaking and pitching, Johanna Mai-Riismaa talked about business modeling, and Katrin Kiviselg about all things sales. We also had Herty Tammo joining and covering the topic of financing for startups, James Heller the importance of legals for startups, Farid Singh ideation and experimentation, as well as Mari Heleen and Mikkel Faaborg talking about digital marketing.
Besides the mentorship and founder stories, students got to visit offices of three successful Estonian startups CoModule, Wolf3D, and EstateGuru, and look behind the scenes at how these startups work on solving these challenges:
📌 CoModule – connecting bicycles & scooters to the internet to offer an immersive ride experience, reduce carbon footprint and decrease commuting times worldwide.
📌 Wolf3D – bringing humanity into VR/AR and games.
📌 EstateGuru – facilitating short and mid-term financing to SME-s and property developers.
Young Entrepreneurs Summer School culminated with a 48-hour Hackathon where students developed four sustainability-related ideas tied to EdTech, Smart Mobility, MedTech and Marketplaces. Even though this was the first experience for these students working in a startup environment and developing their own ideas, a few days after the final hackathon presentation one of the teams received an investment proposal in the form of various resources and financial support for future development and execution.
“There are many students who want to start their own business or build their own startup but don’t know where to begin. The Startup Wise Guys program is a must-attend for them to kick off their entrepreneurial journey. This program is designed for those who want to grow, and if you want to shift your fixed mindset to a growth mindset and become the person you truly want to be, then come and join the SWG family.”
SharesSabuj Howlader, Young Entrepreneurs participant.
