MY-WAY Activities
Web entrepreneurship ecosystem: where can you find help for your new business?
MY-WAY has designed a Map of European Web Entrepreneurship that collects the most relevant actors for a young person wishing to launch a new business.
In this map in fact you will find services, initiatives and programmes that are scattered throughout Europe and that could be useful if you want to become entrepreneur. For example, on this map you may find investors, accelerators, incubators, co-working spaces, mentors, legal services for startups, student support centres, but not those types of investors who prefer to finance more established and mature companies (such as banking institutions).
By checking this map, you will be able to really understand the entrepreneurship environment not only around you, but throughout Europe; you may find the missing piece of your business and directly contact a certain organisation.
Please note that this map is still in its pilot phase: for the moment, it covers ten European cities (Berlin, Brussels, Budapest, Dublin, Istanbul, London, Madrid, Milan, Stockholm, Tel-Aviv), but our intention is to extend this number with the involvement of you - the users! Therefore, if some entities are missing in a city that should be the part of map, please feel free to contact us (coordinator@mywaystartup.eu); we will be happy to include them.
To make the most of our map search function, please consult our Beginner’s Guide.
Capability gaps: what are the challenges of young people who want to become entrepreneurs? And what are the challenges of student support centres and student networks?
Before implementing actions to help young people become more knowledgeable and skilled to launch their business, MY-WAY conducted an online survey and face-to-face interviews to young people and student networks to identify their current needs, challenges and capabilities in different EU countries.
The target groups for the survey were: young adults - students and/or recent graduates, young researchers, university alumni members - interested in tech (web) entrepreneurship in 21 countries, while the interviews targeted student support centres and Universities (entrepreneurship support centres) in 4 countries.
The results clearly show that students need to have closer contact and support from support centres, which should fill the gaps between the main actors in the field of entrepreneurship, including the ones providing information and guidance and encouraging young people to develop their ideas and support the fulfilment of their dreams. On the other hand, student support centres and student networks often face financial challenges and lack of proper working space, and have fragmented relationships with each other.
Based on these findings, we think it is important to create a European platform to represent the student support centres in Europe to bridge the gap between these centres and external stakeholders and decision makers as well as to provide information and opportunities. In this way, student support centres can improve and enlarge the scope of their work and the approach with students and all the policy and advocacy work that is needed. This platform should be representative of student support centres and student organizations that are eligible to give support to students or represent them towards the decision making process on European level.
Check the questionnaire we promoted online, and to learn more about the replies and to read the data analysis, please check our Report on the survey results. Also, our Synergy report puts together the findings from our mapping activity together with collected data, highlighting the current needs and demands of young people, while recommending possible solutions.
Case studies – What has worked where, and could it work somewhere else?
MY-WAY partners have identified 24 case studies all over Europe of successful innovative collaboration agreements between a wide range of initiatives offering support to prospective entrepreneurs.
Our Set of Best Practices shows that student support centre challenges can be categorised into:
- Enterprise awareness,
- Promotion of student support centre activities,
- Access to enterprise skills,
- Access to finance,
- Confidence issues.
On the other hand, the support provided by student support centres and individual initiatives can be split into entrepreneurship awareness and entrepreneurship support. Entrepreneurship awareness focuses on ensuring that entrepreneurship is promoted as a visible and attractive option for young adults (for example through inspirational lectures, networking events and one-on-one meetings with business start-ups and advisors), whereas entrepreneurship support targets entrepreneurship skills and mentoring support for young and prospective entrepreneurs (for example, through business plan workshops, in-house business advisors or micro finance).
One of the main findings of this report is that student networks can position themselves as key actors within the web entrepreneurship ecosystem if they are connected with other actors within the ecosystem, such as entrepreneurship networks, entrepreneurship centres, universities and organisations that provide financial support.
Cooperation with other student support centres/organisations/initiatives can also improve the variety and quality of services provided to young entrepreneurs in form of organising regional entrepreneurship events.
Do you have a “best practice” experience that is not featured in our report? Share it with us!
Stakeholder Meetings
One of MY-WAY’s main objectives is to facilitate discussions among different actors from different European countries. One of the ways it is achieving this is the organisation of Stakeholder Meetings: one day events that gather 30-40 people of all ages, backgrounds and nationalities working in the entrepreneurship field: mentors, accelerators, student networks, incubators, investors, student support centres, and much more.
Stakeholder Meeting I
12 November 2015 – European Parliament, Brussels
The overall objective was to identify common issues related to the access of youth to entrepreneurship and short listing good practices and recommendations focusing on student support.
Read the full story here!
Stakeholder Meeting II
26 January 2016 – Management Centre Europe, Brussels
The objective this time was to put in practice what has been suggested in the first meeting. Participants discussed potential collaboration agreements with MY-WAY and with each other, with a view to implement practical action plans in their local ecosystem.
Check the presentation and links to videos and pictures here!
Student Enterprise Conferences
In the past year and a half we have learned a lot from our mapping activities, surveys, interviews, best practices analysis and from the discussions occurred during the Stakeholder Meetings. We now want to spread the word about what can work in the future for young people who want to become entrepreneurs!
For this reason, we are going to meet students all over Europe during selected Student Enterprise Conferences to discuss with them how student support centres can help them making their business idea a reality; to raise awareness about available programmes and initiatives, and to change the mindset of young adults who lack confidence.
Join us in our tour and become the entrepreneur you have dreamed of!
First Student Enterprise Conference:
20-21 February 2016
University College London
London, UK
Co-organised by Capital Enterprise, NACUE and MY-WAY
@TheSEC2016
#theSEC2016
Stay tuned for articles and blog posts on our experiences, and in the meantime click here to check the pictures from the event!
Second Student Enterprise Conference: StartUPest
MY-WAY's Second Student Enterprise Conference was co-organised with AIESEC in Budapest on 17th June at the premises of the Budapest Music Centre.
Speakers were:
- Mr. David Trayford - THE HUB
- Ms. Gabriella Lovász - Europa Media Non-profit Ltd. / MY-WAY Coordinator
- Ms. Krisztina Tóth - Europa Media Non-profit Ltd. / MY-WAY Coordinator
- Ms. Léna Molnár - President of AIESEC in Hungary
- Ms. Rita Veres - Aon Hewitt
- Mr. Nick Slater - Capital Enterprise
- Mr. Péter Kovács - xLabs, IseeQ
- Mr. Attila Szigeti - DRUKKA
- Mr. Csaba Lévay - BossConnect
- Mr. Zsolt Berta - iCatapult (former CEO)
- Dr. Sándor Kántor - British American Tobacco Hungary
- Mr. Dávid L. Papp - Comforce Zrt.
- Ms. Maria Logotheti - YES for Europe
- Mr. Drew Gerber - Wasabi Publicity Inc.
- Mr. Johnny Luk - NACUE
- Mr. Pablo Hernández - AEGEE
- Mr. Till Spanke - NACUE
Check the agenda, the live discussions that took place, and pictures from the event!
You can also view recorded videos from the presentations on the main stage!
#Yentrepreneur
#StartUPest
Third Student Enterprise Conference: We Start Lisbon
We Start Lisbon took place on the 21st of October 2016, at Reitoria Universidade Nova Lisboa and it was coorganized by my MY-WAY and Digistart, as part of the Startup Europe comes to universities initiative (SEC2U).
The day started with a panel discussion from representatives from NACUE, AEGEE, MIT/MBA, Ilannovation - Bar Ilan University's Entrepreneurship Club and YES about what role the student associations play in encouraging students to have an entrepreneurial approach towards startups ecosystems.
Later on, we learned how to deal with fear of failure and how to face it, while during the Product development workshop the students had the opportunity to learn tips and tricks about developing their products. During lunch and coffee breaks the students had the opportunity to network with the mentors, participate in a treasure hunt and also pitch their ideas.
After lunch break, representatives from the universities of UPCT, Aveiro Uni, ISEG and NOVA discussed how to promote entrepreneurship amongst their students and shared their experiences. Towards the end of the conference, the students participated in a practical workshop about how to develop their pitch for investors. In addition, Thomas Ohr from EU-Startups.com and Migue Alpoim Ruas from Doctor Spin PR talked about how should we approach media with practical examples.
After consolidating a startup on local level, next logical step is to get internationalised: the panel discussion about this topic thought us that we have to be able to understand when is the right time to do so and highlighted positive examples of startups such as Linehealth and Uniarea. The last panel brought together major ecosystem actors in Lisbon to discuss about acceleration and funding opportunities. Krisztina Toth from Europa Media talked about how MY-WAY project actively promoted and encouraged startups to get involved in EU funding opportunities.
The day culminated with the presentation of research results done by students and the announcement of the winners of the competition. It gave the possibility to students to get visibility for their startup idea and to win some awesome gadgets.
Speakers were:
Pablo Hernandez, AEGEE
Holly Knower, NACUE
Manuel Countiho, MIT/MBA
Julia Tshuva, Ilannovation - Bar Ilan University's Entrepreneurship Club
Maria Logotheti, YES
Matt Kuppers, Startup Manufactory
Edite Cruz, Beta-I
Miha Matilevski, Fail Coach
Prof Andres Iborra, UPCT
Prof Diego Caceres, UPCT
Prof Mariana Pita, Aveiro Uni
Prof Manuel Laranja, ISEG
Prof João Paulo Crespo, Vice-Rector NOVA
Thomas Ohr, EU-Startups
Rafael Pires, Portugal startups
David Trayford, Founder-thehub.hu. Team Project Coach at Singularity University
Mark Bastiaanssen, Pakketmail
Lourenço Jardim de Oliveira, Linehealth
Davis Gouveia, Start up Lisbon/ Uniarea
Diana Pati, Startups.be
Miguel Alpoim Ruas - Doctor Spin PR/ Special Projects Startup Lisboa
#WeStartLisbon
#IstartMyWay
Feel free to check the agenda for major details and also check our pictures from the event.
Are YOU a MY-WAYer?