5 Reasons to Volunteer for Slush 2016

by ⋅ 3 Comments

I saw that Nadia and Safia have already talk something about Slush 2016, so now I will give you 5 reasons of why you should send your application to volunteer at this amazing event:

#1 Entrepreneurship 100%

Image result for slush entrepreneur Slush is not only an event hosting several entrepreneurs, but it’s also created by entrepreneurs and it’s a non-profit organization, that’s why they are recruiting more than 1,500 volunteers this year. So as Nadia said in her blog “The entrepreneurs were all open-minded, glad to share their ideas and ready to listen to our ideas and our feedbacks.” You will be around hundreds or maybe thousands of entrepreneurs, and you will have the opportunity to learn of them.

#2 It’s in Helsinki

Image result for helsinki

You will visit Helsinki for a week and Slush give you, where to sleep and what to eat. The only cost that you are going to have is the trip, but come on! the price is around 88 EUR, its worth it. And after the event, Slush host a party for all the volunteers, and they say it’s legendary. Also, the event is in December, so you will get the most amazing views in Helsinki. This one is maybe more for the exchange students, but for the locals it’s really near, so it’s a short trip for you.

#3 It’s one of a kind experience

I just dare you to tell me a similar experience, there’s not. Slush 2015 doesn’t count.

Image result for slush 2016

#4 The volunteer spots are highly popular

Image result for slush 2016 volunteer

So you are not only knowing more entrepreneurs, you are also knowing more students like you, other cultures, etc. If you still are not convinced, you can go to http://www.slush.org/ and research more. And if you are interest in sending your application, here is the link https://slush.me2we.network/register/1

#5 Do it NOW – Sometimes LATER, becomes NEVER

I did it, why not you?

img_20160916_195214

How to Hack Slush Meetup

by ⋅ 48 Comments

Yesterday, Nadia Benali and I went to a really good event that was organized by SUP46, at Regeringsgatan 65, called How to Hack Slush Meetup.

Slush is an event that is spreading globally with the philosophy to help the next generation of great, world-conquering companies forward1. Founders, speakers, investors and media will be present. This is the place for you as an entrepreneur to find investors, costumers and media mentioning. If you have an idea, then this is the place for you.

Check out their trailer: http://www.slush.org/trailer/

Slush

At the event, we met with several people who had really good ideas and wanted to hear our thoughts about them. One of the ideas, that actually is available today, is called Speak up- you can read more about it on Nadia’s blog post (http://intopreneur.com/?p=2488). Another idea, that is already launched in America, is called Smart Alec. The idea is that you, as a student, can easily book your perfect tutor in whatever subject that you need help with. They have tutors from various universities in America. If you’re interested in visiting their site: https://smartalec.com/

Additionally, I was able to tell about my idea to one of the people there and the response was much better then what I expected. We discussed about how it could be improved and that I should make a good presentation and try to present it at an event- and perhaps have a chance. It was fun to hear this from a person that already had established a successful start-up.

Personally I believe that Slush is an excellent event that enables entrepreneurs to go in the right direction.

So if you have an idea, you should take this oppertunity and go to Slush. You might be our next successful entrepreneur.

 

1 http://www.slush.org/about/what-is-slush/

An innovative way to fund your innovations

by ⋅ 1 Comment

I’m sure that many of you have your websites which you usually browse around on to waste time waiting for a class to start, the train come or just for the day to end. One website that I myself visit rather often because of boredom is based on an idea that other people have ideas, but a lack of financial support. I’m sure that many of you have stumbled upon this before but for you who have not, -The idea is called crowdfunding and the website in particular is www.kickstarter.com…

screen-shot-2016-09-16-at-13-29-23

A newly created idea which has not yet reached the market and has not been presented to investors can be a delicate resource of the innovator, and makes him/her in a position to decide how the next steps for this business possibility will act out. Will the idea need financial support and do you need strategic help to get started? If the innovator has a smaller idea which most likely is too small to attract investors or if one just do not want any engagement from large companies, banks or powerful people there is a different way to raise money to your idea, – crowdfunding. The number of successfully funded projects, only through Kickstarter has now reached over 100 000 and the total amount of money funded to all these projects is today 2.27 BILLION dollars (https://www.kickstarter.com/help/stats). The numbers are impressive, but if you had a really great idea, would you share it with others and use Kickstarter for financial support?

Lets say that you have invented something that you really believe in and that hopefully will revolutionize a whole market. –Would you use Kickstarter or any other crowdfunding community? Probably not, because an idea good enough will most likely attract venture capitalist firms or business angels, that hopefully will serve you with great advice and a lot of money. One problem here is that the entrepreneur need to know how to contact and approach these investors to inquire about financial support and help. If one completely lack information or ambitions to reach out to investors, then crowdfunding probably can appear as a good idea.

Another reason that I see the crowdfunding solution as suitable could be if it is used as a marketing trick, so one idea can gain attention from the existing web traffic on the website itself (in this case www.kickstarter.com) without the need of creating a popular website or social media account of its own. But this could also be an issue as I feel that many inventions asking for funding could benefit from a more serious approach. Appearing on kickstarter, just a click away from the opportunity to fund “naptuckets: the world first pants designed for napping”or “Erotic colouring books for adults” could exclude more traditional and serious investors

My impression is that crowdfunding is not for everyone, but could be an easy way to gain financial support for a fun or interesting idea at start and there is always an opportunity to move on to more serious discussions with possible investors when you already know that there is a market for your idea. The idea in itself is very interesting and it has really gotten my attention since I visit the website every once in while to look for exciting ideas or outrageous inventions. So if you are a disbeliever of the crowdfunding phenomenon, just give it a chance and at least visit www.kickstarter.com and help an entrepreneur with funding or just get some inspiration from other ambitious persons!

 

Disclaimer: I’m not affiliated with kickstarter or the naptuckets…

Slush preparation event

by ⋅ 9 Comments

Yesterday, Safia Tahar Aissa and I attended the Slush preparation. Event hold in SUP46.

What is Slush?

slush

Slush is a world-renowned event gathering start-ups, investors, media but also companies such as Google, Samsung, Facebook… who are looking around for new companies to buy.

Slush is facilitating meetings between start-ups and investors. In this event there are a lot of different investors and as they told us “Spend the time as efficiently as you can” meaning that start-ups should focus on investors they really want.

 

caremonkeyLast year, CareMonkey – an Australian start up who has a risk management system that automatically keeps medical and emergency data up to date and makes it instantly available on mobile devices- won the Slush 100 pitching competition and received a price of 650.000€ – big prize for this kind of event J-.
This year, Slush is going to be held in Helsinki on November 30 and the firs of December don’t miss that!

 

Why we went to the Slush preparation event?

Even if, at first we didn’t plan to attend Slush event, we went to the preparation phase to meet some entrepreneurs and we did get the opportunity to meet some of them and discuss their ideas and their plans.

One of their ideas was: an application that helps reduce bullying and cyber violence in the student life (Speak Up!). In this application every student could post something –anonymously or not- about an incident including the location and a photo if one has been taken and comment about what they saw.

Nowadays, people are afraid to go to talk to someone if they are facing problems or if someone in their circle is facing one and I think this application could incite them to help control all these kind of bullying or violence.

We discussed about the future of this application (develop it in the work world, as well and deploy it all over the world). This discussion was very interesting and helps us to see what the next steps were after the idea.

The entrepreneurs were all open-minded, glad to share their ideas and ready to listen to our ideas and our feedbacks.

I am looking forward to go to other event like this one. Let me know if you hear about something like that 🙂

Find more about slush: www.slush.org

KTH Innovation: Entreprenuers support on campus

by ⋅ 1 Comment

This week we have learnt that invention is the novel idea with great potential while innovation is the commercialization of the novel idea. KTH innovation comes in to help students and researchers to commercialize their results and business ideas. The first time i got know about KTH innovation was five years ago when i started my studies at KTH. It wasnt until my third year at KTH that is when i actually understood what they are about and how they help aspiring entreprenuer with their expertise in commercialization and business ideas.

How do they help

KTH Innovation main goal is to help students and researchers get their ideas to the market. Their support is free, confidential and they do not claim any ownership to your ideas. Their selection process is neither strict and nor a competition where a winner is picked. Furthermore, they believe that all ideas are worth testing and evaluating.

They support in different areas of commercialization and cover start-ups, licencing and corporate collaboration.

They also collaborate a lot with other organisation that offers support to entrepreneurs and start-ups such as STING (Stockholm Innovation and Growth), THINGS and OPEN LAB.

How can they help you?

KTH innovation can help you in very many ways. They not only help with your ides but also organizes events such as workshops and motivational lectures to help you develop as a potential entrepreneur.

If you have a create idea, get in touch with them and they will guide you and offer you great feedback on your ideas. If you take it further they will assign you a business development coach who will follow up on you and lend you the support you need all the way. KTH innovation can also help you with funding, applying for grants and stipendier.

If you currently not ready with an idea follow their Facebook page and you will be updated with the current events that might be of interest to you

Happening currently’

Bicky Chakraborty, the founder of Elite Hotels has donated five million SEK to KTH. The money is to be used in entrepreneurship programs and help in promoting an entrepreneurial mindset among students and researchers at KTH.

With this new source of funds a new programme has been created by KTH Innovation called the Bicky Chakraborty Entrepreneur Program. The program offers funding, coaching, tailored courses and mentorship to accepted entrepreneurs for one year. The application is open and for more information contact KTH Innovation or check out their website.