„Never forget to have fun. Entrepreneurship must be fun!” With this statement Sven de Vocht, professor for Entrepreneurship and director of the Antwerp Chamber of Commerce, started and ended the ‘Startup Bootcamp’ course of this year’s MIE (Master of Innovation & Entrepreneurship) program.
The Startup Bootcamp is the first official course of the MIE program at Antwerp Management School. In this one-month intense class, MIE students need to come up with a startup idea, work out a concept and eventually pitch it in front of a jury of professionals. The lean startup concept accompanied the students through the whole journey. Build measure learn - fail fast, cheap and often in order to succeed was the name of the game.
However, one of the most valuable takeaways of the course is probably the fact, that the development of a business idea must not start with the idea itself. When developing a business, the idea must always follow a pain, which means an idea itself is only as good as the solution it provides for solving a severe problem. Hence, the crucial as well initial questions an entrepreneur needs to answer are ‘Is there a pain? What exactly is the pain? Is the pain big enough and are potential customers therefore willing to pay for the pain reliever (= the business idea)?'
During class, ‘MIEs’ got to know the most important concepts of entrepreneurship and learned how to make use of different tools in order to solve those pains. Hours of testing, building and pivoting a business idea resulted in nine different startup projects, three of them are even continued as master projects. Even though the in-class activities already provided a comprehensive transfer of valuable knowledge on the subject, the exponential ramp of the learning curve happened when directly working on the own projects:
THIS YEARS PROJECTS
SHOWROOM
A platform that connects aspiring entrepreneurs and existing retailers
“Showroom provides entrepreneurs with a physical place to sell & test their products in the market in our pop up or in a retailer's store.”
Team: Margot Aerts, Oliver Allmoslechner, Yothi Ramesh Naidu
HELLOBEER
A beer & party delivery service for students
“HelloBeer is an all night long delivery service for cold drinks, snacks and partyaccessoires @ your door in 1/2 h! Ready to keep the party going!”
Team: Moritz Weischer, Maarten Dejongh, Jan Farasyn
FEMINITITIES
Lingerie made for every woman
“Feminitities is a lingerie brand made to fit the desires of women with breast cancer. We will help them feel sexy and confident in their own skin and create a community of strong women.”
Team: Axelle Be Haegel, Laurence Desmet, Sarah Rose Graber
LOKAL
Shop groceries at your favorite local businesses online
"Fresh and local quality food selected by you and delivered on a central place. LOKAL increases your quality of life #tweetpitch #LOKAL"
Team: Ward Rooseleer, Laurens Saelens, Yu Jin
FEARFREE
A shot that helps you overcome aerophobia
"Fearfree, a 50ml beverage that calms you down, recommended for people that suffer from anxiety in any kind of transport"
Team: Ferdinand Witt-Doerring, Sergio Flóres, Charles van Zuylen
MAKAGI
A web-based beauty service for men
"Makagi allows men to discover their ideal grooming routine and track their progress at the comfort of their home."
Team: Lina Montoya, Ebunoluwa Bisola-ojo, Andrea Vargas
GREEN JAR
Fresh and healthy dishes in a vending machine
“Green jar is a smart and interactive vending machine filled with healthy meals. The business can easily be adapted to niches and scaled up.”
Team: Benoit Bailyu, Olga Smelova, Gita Gabriella
SAFE LEAF
Fresh and healthy dishes in a vending machine
"SafeLeaf is the safest and most convenient way to control your home from any distance, protected by the world known Bitdefender antivirus."
Team: Pieter De Vocht, Darina Gurkina, Max van Antro
VLISSE
A portable wrinkle remover which keeps your shirts elegant
"Vlisse is a portable wrinkle remover device that offers a fantastic solution for (traveling) business people and students. Vlisse works better than any product on the market through its ground-breaking technology. Simply use the device while you are wearing your clothes, let the product get in touch with your wrinkles and see them disappear! No more steaming, ironing or any other struggles that are related to getting wrinkles out of your clothing"
Team: Erik Messemaker, Katrin Reinking, Chanika Pudhom
