Lviv IT Cluster, together with Oleksandr Reminnyi, startup entrepreneur and lecturer at Lviv Polytechnic National University, Sigma Software, and Sigma Software University, held the first Startup School. During the week, the best student teams developed their projects together with IT professionals.
The bachelor’s programs supported by the Cluster focus on developing students’ entrepreneurial skills while they are studying. That’s why students work with mentors to create their own projects from the first year of study. In order to support students, provide them with additional knowledge and tools to turn their projects into full-fledged startups, the Cluster and its partners held the first Startup School.
«My main personal goal was to convey to young students that their project could really be useful to someone. After all, their ideas shouldn’t just ignite, they should solve a specific problem. It is necessary to find the target audience and marketing channels to communicate with, and ultimately turn the idea into a startup», says Oleksandr Reminnyi, startup entrepreneur, lecturer at Lviv Polytechnic, author of a YouTube podcast and the book Startup Kitchen.
During their studies, the students had the opportunity to finalize their products and develop the first prototypes. In addition, they analyzed the market and demand, developed a marketing strategy, worked on the legal aspects of the future business, and learned how to pitch their product and service. The training took place in the modern space of Sigma Software.
A total of 11 teams were trained at the Startup School. Several projects were implemented by Lviv Polytechnic students, including FAID – a charity marketplace, and Mirror [R] – an AI application for creating digital clones.
«During my studies, I saw some problems in my startup that I needed to work on more. I saw new channels for finding an audience and realized that I need to focus on a narrower target audience. I am grateful to the Cluster for this opportunity», said Hlieb Tovsteniuk, a student majoring in Business Analytics & Data Science at Lviv Polytechnic and co-founder of the FAID project.
«The main thing we took from the 4 days of training was experience. I liked Ivan’s stories about real cases and Nazariy’s marketing lectures. Our team plans to further develop the project», said Khrystyna Overko, a student majoring in Robotics at Lviv Polytechnic and co-founder of the Mirror [R] project.
The students now have a few weeks to finalize their startups. Soon, the Cluster will hold a special pitching event where the teams will showcase their achievements and improved products.
Read more on the website of Lviv IT Cluster.