Ambitious young entrepreneurs take part in bootcamp at SETU gain support from local businesses ahead of the Enterprise Ireland National Student Awards
For the past five years, South East Technological University (WIT) hosts a student entrepreneurship bootcamp and 2021 has been no exception. Open to students from all disciplines in SETU, the bootcamp is hosted by the Technology Transfer Office with support from the ArcLabs Research and Innovation Centre and SETU lecturers. The aim is to nurture and encourage potential entrepreneurs to follow through on their goals, offer advice from peers and hear from real-life experiences about the pros, cons and experience of setting up a business.
Develop and learn
The bootcamp took place online and gave students the opportunity to develop their ideas and learn techniques which can be used to test their business assumptions. This year there were two core areas workshopped by our mentors: ideation across the UN sustainable goals (Dr Margaret Tynan, SETU lecturer in Entrepreneurship) and the lean business model canvas (Dr Pat Lynch, RIKON). In addition the students were provided with hands on learning in relation to marketing, commercialisation, pitch practice and intellectual property.
Gaining experience
Students had the opportunity to engage with successful entrepreneurs and SETU graduates, Conor Walsh from Enercon and Shana Chu from Stylwrap, to understand their experience of ‘perseverance and pivoting’. Mentors in the 2021 bootcamp were from both SETU and Maynooth University, our Technology Transfer partner, who assisted the students develop their ideas from concept to a compelling pitch.
Impressive concepts
Over 25 students participated in the bootcamp which concluded with a live 2 minute pitch session to four ‘dragons’; Prof Willie Donnelly, President of SETU, Kathryn Kiely, SETU Industry Services Manager, Jacqui Gaule, Waterford LEO and Rosemary Ward, SEBIC. Each were very impressed with the concepts and were left with the difficult decision of choosing a winning team.
The awards
Three awards were presented online; runners up Chloe McDermott Burke and Patrick O’Gorman with the overall winning team Amy Caldbeck, Laura Cole, Michael Martin.
National awards
It is now hoped that these entrepreneurs will apply their learnings from the 2021 SETU ArcLabs Bootcamp to the Enterprise Ireland National Student Awards on 12 March. If you are interested in submitting an idea to the Enterprise Ireland National Student Awards would like support from WIT’s industry experts contact [email protected].