IdeaLab’s Mentor Feedback Carousel helps to unite startup community!
On 18th of October IdeaLab hosted a Mentor Feedback Carousel which brought together over 130 people, 37 teams and 16 mentors! Teams got feedback to their idea from different experts and by the end of the event, mentors gave play money checks to the teams they liked the best. The overall winner of the Mentor Feedback Carousel was team Vetik from Tartu Biotechnology Park!
One of the awards was a direct pass to Ajujaht TOP100! Harri Tallinn, from Ajujaht gave this award to team Vetik from Tartu Biotechnology Park accelerator. Vetik helps natural cosmetic producers solve the insufficient choice of natural red colorants by bringing a new red colorant to the market. By the way – they were the last team to register to the event. This just proves that you need to get up, show up and never give up!
Vetik was also the winner of the Play Money game. All mentors got the play money checks – 100 000 €; 50 000 €; 10 000 €. By the end of the day, they all gave their favourite teams „investments“. Team Vetik got 400 000 € play money investment, team Ketita Labs got 360 000 € play money (they are working on hybrid quantum-classical neural networks) and third place was shared by teams Cartattoo, make It Smart and TRIT with 200 000 € play money investment.
Tanel Ilmjärv (team Vetik) and Harri Tallinn
sTARTUp Day programme manager Sven Illing said: „When I first visited Silicon Valley I heard a concept – pay it forward. This mindset is the backbone of Silicon Valley. It means that experienced members of the community help young founders, often without hoping to get anything out of it because they used to be young and green and they got the advice as well. Now it is time for the mentors to pay back. Also, it is motivational to hear new ideas and get to know young talents! I am happy to see that the mentoring culture is developing also in Estonia. Idealab's event offers a place to mentors and teams to network and it is crucial for the development of a startup community. The sTARTUp Day's biggest mission is to unite Tartu and Estonia startup community with the international startup community.“
Mentor Feedback Carousel was IdeaLab’s STARTER programme mid-term evaluation day that was open for all the teams that wanted to get feedback. 15 teams were from IdeaLab’s STARTER programme and the rest 22 were from the universities or different accelerators. It was a true sTARTUp community event!
„Communities function only when we are truly present for someone. 16 mentors volunteered to give their time and full attention to ambitious early-stage student teams. Being listened by a number of experienced experts is the best gift that you can get when you are making your first steps on the journey of testing your startup idea. Teams realized the value and asked for an additional round to be able to talk to many professionals“, says Maret Ahonen, UT IdeaLab Manager
Silvia Linnuste from team Pick and Drive: "Mentor Feedback Carousel gave our idea a new perspective. We heard positive feedback and also got to know some problem areas of our idea. But we also got already some ideas on how to solve those problems."
Idealab would like to thank all the mentors: Vaido Mikheim (Tartu Science Park), Taavi Tamm (STARTER@Pärnu), Sven Parkel (Tartu Biotechnology Park), Aivar Pere (University of Tartu), Urmas Tross (LMP), Martin Vares (Fractory.co), Harri Tallinn (Ajujaht), Siim Kinnas (EAS), Denis Kovalenko (STARTER alumnus), Sven Anderson (Brandlyse), Sven Illing (sTARTUp Day), Alo Peets (University of Tartu), Yrjo Ojasaar (Change Ventures), Kristian Sägi (Nevercode/EstBan), Mari-Liis Kärsten (Nortal), Mart Salumäe (Decomer Technology).
Mari-Liis Kärsten
Next up: Product & Service Design workshop on 1st of November at SPARK HUB. It will be led by Markko Karu. More information on IdeaLab website.
Contact: Riin Lisett Rei, UT IdeaLab marketing and communication manager, 737 4817, riin.lisett.rei@ut.ee
The event was funded by the European Social Fund.
The event was funded by EIT Health.
