Business School students enter the start-up world

Over the past four months, the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship has provided an opportunity for five Business School students to volunteer their time and expertise to help five early-stage start-ups.

This unique experience will support their growth and development through being part of a small team tackling large, global problems. It’s an opportunity that will be ultimately beneficial for both the student and the start-up.

The five start-ups involved are the winners of last year’s Velocity $100K Challenge, who have moved on to the centre’s Venture Lab incubator programme.

The teams are working on a diverse range of ideas encompassing evidence-based advice for strengthening relationships, to safer and cheaper surgery for bowel cancer.

Samuel Smith, a third-year Finance and International Business student, has been helping AVASA, a team working on a novel technology to streamline microsurgery. During his time, he has been conducting research into go-to-market strategies for this med-tech commercialisation.

Having always wanted to be the founder of his own start-up, this was an unmissable opportunity for him to gain greater insight into the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

“I’ve really enjoyed the responsibility the role puts on me. I work directly with the CEO and provide regular updates on the research I’ve been conducting as the process continues. Importantly for me, I’m providing personal recommendations on the actions I think AVASA should take to the CEO, as if I was a strategy consultant for the business.”

Sam says, “The biggest thing I’ve taken away from this is that you don’t need to know everything before you start. The act of running a business is an immersive experience in learning, and is part of the fun/risk in going out on your own.”

Similarly, Sejal Bhan, a Marketing and International Business major, took up this opportunity to gain more insight into the world of entrepreneurship. “In the future, I would be keen to have my own start-up, but in order to know whether I’m capable of any such venture like that I would like to explore first what it is like to work in an already established start-up firm.”

Sejal was paired with Electroclear, a start-up working on keeping underwater surfaces growth-free. His focus has been on researching for international validation and potential investors.

“Working in a start-up has been an enjoyable experience for me. It’s quite interesting how research is conducted in order to look for various investors, and also I get to learn a lot about the company’s products, as it is a new idea which has not been incorporated until now."

Ken Erskine, Associate Director of Unleash Space, says that, “Venture Lab aims to help teams move forward by providing funding and expertise to assist them to develop and progress toward becoming viable, valuable, sustainable businesses.

"Connecting Business School students with the Venture Lab teams was a way to achieve this, as well as giving students the first-hand experience of being in a start-up environment and applying their theory-based learning to real-life situations.”