Startup Lab starts semester with Idea Hackathon

On 26 September, the University of Tartu Startup Lab organises an Idea Hackathon that starts off the new semester’s business ideas incubation programme Starter Tartu. Students and recent graduates of all secondary schools and university curricula are invited to the event to pitch their ideas or join the teams.

The hackathon is primarily aimed at students who are interested in entrepreneurship and want to bring their ideas to life. The participants form teams and work together intensively to find an initial solution to a problem.

Ermo Tikk, the manager of Tartu Startup Community, will speak about the Tartu startup scene and how to start a business. Health startup founder Kadri Haljas will talk about entrepreneurship in healthcare and how she turned her research project into a successful startup, Triumf Health.

Speakers introduce ideas of different fields and all participants will have a chance to present their own ideas. Ideas in the field of healthcare are particularly welcome, as the winners will have the opportunity to travel to the Medical University of Łódź in Poland and present their ideas to local experts at the “Forge of Talents”.

Throughout the semester, the Starter Tartu teams will work on their business ideas and participate in various interactive workshops coached by experienced startup founders and mentors. The programme ends with the Kaleidoskoop business ideas competition, in which the top 10 teams will have an opportunity to present their ideas in the Kaleidoskoop finals at the Startup Day 2020.

The Starter alumnus and Kaleidoskoop winner of the last season, Elchin Aghazadal, who studies innovation and technology management at the School of Economics and Business Administration of the University of Tartu, has only good words to say about the programme. “Startup Lab and its Starter Tartu programme is a perfect opportunity to start working on your business idea. Thanks to various workshops and the support and supervision of mentors we were able to test our idea and shape it into a working business model,” said Aghazadal.

One of the highlights of the Starter Tartu programme is the Mentor Feedback Carousel that brings together all the teams and around 20 experts in different fields. The teams receive feedback and advice from the experts. At the end of the event, the mentors will select a team whose business idea they see as having the biggest potential.

Everyone interested is welcome to the Idea Hackathon on 26 September at 15 at Spark Hub (Narva mnt 3, Tartu). More information can be found on Startup Lab website and on the Facebook event page. The event is supported by the European Social Fund.

Further information: Andres Vaher, Marketing and Communications Specialist, Startup Lab, University of Tartu, +372 5558 7359, andres.vaher@ut.ee