UCD Start-Up Programme for Students
6th May 2015
Six early stage ventures have been selected to take part in a new start-up programme for University College Dublin (UCD) undergraduate students.
The initiative, called UCD Startup Stars, has been developed by NovaUCD and the UCD Innovation Academy, to provide a framework and support programme for UCD undergraduates who want to work together to build start-up companies.
UCD Startup Stars began with cross-disciplinary workshops delivered over a three-month period as part of the UCD Innovation Academy’s Creative Thinking and Entrepreneurial Endeavour modules. During these modules, students from across the university, learned creative thinking, teamwork, design thinking and lean business skills. At the end of this period 13 student teams pitched their start-up ideas to a panel of judges who selected 6 early stage ventures who will now proceed to the next phase of the programme.
The six successful teams, with a total of 15 team members, will now participate in an intensive 4-week mentoring programme to help them to refine their start-up ideas. This programme will start later this month at NovaUCD, the Centre for New Ventures and Entrepreneurs.
The programme will consist of a series of structured workshops delivered over the 4-week period. This will include taught content from industry experts, interactive workshops as well as regular pitching sessions. In addition to the structured workshops there will be team mentoring and opportunities to network with the NovaUCD community of entrepreneurs. Each team will also be given a cash stipend and office space at NovaUCD during the programme.
The six teams are: Clink the College Link; Sole Sense; CarGo; Contineo Solutions; Meep; and SmartCoffee.
(Pictured L-R: John Byrne (4th year commerce international) and Anna O’Flynn (2nd year economics) founders of Clink the College Link. Photo: Nick Bradshaw, Fotonic.)
