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The ultimate entrepreneurial survival guide

05/02/2019

For the entrepreneurially-minded student TU/e is a veritable jungle these days. It is teeming with events, competitions, courses, projects, teams and startups you can get involved with. We are only too pleased to see this but even we, after seven years at TU, sometimes find it hard to see the woods for the trees. Luckily we have a solution! We are proud to present: the ultimate how-do-I-survive-as-a-student-who-wants-to-do-cool-things-at-TU/e survival guide.

To start with we have to distinguish two organizations from one another: TU/e innovation Space and TU/e Innovation Lab. In terms of name and logo, they are pretty similar, and their free coffee is equally weak. But that's where any resemblance ends. Innovation Lab has been created chiefly to guide the spin-offs (companies arising from TU/e research) towards a commercial launch, in addition to which they also support student entrepreneurs who have already started a company. This they do wearing their STARTUP/eindhoven hat.

TU/e innovation Space, by contrast, is more for the student who isn't this far along. In Matrix students can get together and slowly bring their ideas to life. In any manner of ways. For example, you might have an idea of your own and work it up into something much bigger by entering the TU/e Contest (it's now open again for applications!). But an idea might also come from a company and you might take it further by working with a team of students from all kinds of backgrounds.

Creative, bold and entrepreneurial

As you can see, your starting point might be entirely unrelated to your studies, but of course it might simply be something that earns you credits. This might happen through courses on the Master's (yeah, yeah, the innovation Space course is starting up again) or as part of your Bachelor's (the next round of innoSpace BEPS is also getting underway). In these ways, innoSpace aims to stimulate students to be creative, bold and entrepreneurial. It's not doing a bad job, after all there are now 23(!) innoSpace teams at work in Matrix.

And to boost that number there are special Pop-’n-Pitch events. You pitch your idea or newly started project and you get instant feedback from experienced entrepreneurs and students with a fresh take on things. Come and see this happen on February 12th and start your journey of entrepreneurial discovery.

And, last but not least, we have Kickoff/ehv, a student board for starting entrepreneurs. Kickoff organizes all kinds of events/workshops/drinks parties to help and connect entrepreneurs. Kudos, for example, for the infographic below, an excellent piece of Kickoff work! And soon they'll be recruiting to fill all their board positions. Another great opportunity for aspiring entrepreneurs to get started!

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