UCL to lead StartUp Summer

YouGov and UCL, working with StartUp Britain and in collaboration with Imperial College London, will lead the development of a pilot “StartUp Summer” scheme to stimulate, encourage and support student entrepreneurs. The initiative is part of a package of support for new entrepreneurs launched today by Prime Minister David Cameron.

StartUp Summer is an entrepreneurs’ development programme that will offer students the opportunity to develop their own innovative, business ideas into actionable, start-up business plans. The programme will be open to UCL and Imperial students with a view, in future years, to extend the programme to the national student body.

To apply, students will submit online, either a pitch for a business idea or their skills as a potential team member. Inspiring figures from enterprise will identify the top five business ideas to form the basis for the five start-up projects and act as mentors to support their development. Mentors will support the student with the chosen business idea to select their team members from applicants who have pitched their skills as team-members.

During the summer, the students will have ongoing access to university resources, a project budget and regular contact with entrepreneur mentors. Teams will develop their own business skills and proposals through a series of masterclass workshops offered by experienced entrepreneurs.

At the end of the summer, teams will have the opportunity to present as a team in a “Dragons’ Den” style environment to real investors who can provide valuable critical, but also constructive feedback and guidance.

The project team judged to show the most progress in developing their business case will win the Startup Summer prize, expected to be £15,000, for the development of their start-up business.

Professor Stephen Caddick, Vice-Provost (Enterprise) commented, “I am delighted that we have been able to join with YouGov and StartUp Britain to help develop this exciting programme to support student entrepreneurs from UCL and Imperial College London. Our ability to play a lead role in the programme is a testament to the excellent extra-curricular work carried out over the last few years by UCL Advances, our centre for entrepreneurship, led by Tim Barnes. UCL has many budding entrepreneurs and we are committed to finding a variety of mechanisms to help them create new businesses as this will be at the heart of a sustainable economic recovery and long term prosperity.”