Academic Incubators of Entrepreneurship and The Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation are jointly seeking talented young people in the hi-tech field. Hi-Tech Startup is a new initiative enabling support, testing and emergence of new ideas on the market. Students and graduates of Warsaw colleges can enter the competition until September 28.
Hi-Tech Startup aims to develop methods of cooperation between the startup community and the academic and business worlds. Thanks to the Hi-Tech Startup project, young innovators have a chance to find work in organizations interested in their ideas, sell their concepts to investors, or start their own businesses. The project supports the development of innovation in the Polish economy because its long-term goal is to retain the skills and knowledge of young people in Poland, creating a center of excellence for hi-tech startups in our country.
"For years we have been supporting microentrepreneurs, but now it's also time for startups," stresses Krzysztof Kaczmar, President of The Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation. "The potential among young people in the field of new technologies is enormous. This is proven, for example, by the Polish winners of the global competition Citi Mobile Challenge. We believe that there are many more such gems among young people. And they only need the support of professionals regarding how to turn an innovative concept into a profitable business. How to go from being an innovator to being an entrepreneur. Here we see a role for us. Together with AIE and the Research Institute of the Warsaw University of Technology, we would like to play the role of mentors and accelerators of innovative enterprises."
The Hi-Tech Startup competition consists of four stages: recruitment, development of business models, pre-incubation, and development of sales of the most promising companies, lasting 10 months altogether. In the first stage, the 50 most promising projects will be selected. The award committee will evaluate innovativeness, development strategy of the future company, real possibilities of bringing the idea to life, and potential profitability. In the next stage, competition participants will receive support in the form of training and workshops, and then they will have an opportunity to test their businesses. In the last phase, the 10 most promising projects will be able to start operations based on their respective concepts. Finally, the three best will present their products/services to representatives of business, local governments, and media during the project's gala finale in February 2016.
"AIE's mission is to promote entrepreneurship among young people. Linking business and science is a global trend which is not yet sufficiently developed in Poland. We want to create an image of our country as a center of excellence for hi-tech startups, which will help both our economy and young people, who will not have to go abroad in search of opportunities for development," says Jacek Aleksandrowicz, founder of AIE and Entrepreneurial Poland.
Honorary patronage over the competition has been assumed by the President of Warsaw.
In order to take part in the project, the application form available on www.hitechstartup.pl has to be filled out by the end of September 2015.
