News
Six SKEMA Ventures start-ups to take part in Startonic weekend
From 18 to 20 March, six start-ups from SKEMA will be taking part in “Startonic weekend”, an event organised jointly by three higher education institutions, SKEMA Business School, Centrale Lille and Arts et Métiers, to give preselected projects a boost. The budding entrepreneurs will be assisted by professional coaches and students with a keen interest in entrepreneurship.
What do you get if you take a group of business school scholars, add some engineering students and sprinkle in a few ambitious entrepreneurs? The brilliant Startonic weekend! This event, which was suspended due to the pandemic, is back in 2022 for a third edition, with SKEMA Ventures start-ups strongly represented. "There will be a total of eight start-ups at this Startonic, six from SKEMA plus two from Centrale Lille," said Franck Hanoh, SKEMA Ventures manager at the Lille campus, who is co-organising the event.
Breaking down silos and sharing knowledge
To help the start-ups come up with ideas and develop them, some thirty students from SKEMA, Centrale Lille and Institut Arts et Métiers will work in small groups, using a peer-to-peer community service model to look at the student entrepreneurs' proposals in the light of their own knowledge and skills. "Of course, by presenting their projects, the students from the incubator stand to gain from the skills of the engineering college and business school students," Frank Hanoh stressed. This event is a great way to break down silos and mutualise skills.
Insight from professional coaches
In addition, the programme will be interspersed with contributions on a range of themes from a team of coaches, made up of professionals and staff from the three higher education institutions. "During these brief training sessions, we will explore the value proposition, the business model, market launch strategy and start-up financing. I will be leading a session on the value proposition with input from students. We will also have contributions from a number of entrepreneurs, such as the creators of BioDemain, who will join us by video link," said Franck Hanoh.
On Sunday afternoon, the participating start-ups will present a 15-minute pitch to two panels. The presentations will be followed by a plenary session review and conclusion.
Read the Startonic weekend programme here.
