Delivered An Immersive Bootcamp To Foster Entrepreneurship

Background

University College London (UCL) is consistently ranked among the top 20 “super-elite” universities in the world by the Times’ Higher Education University Guide and aims to foster entrepreneurial capabilities among its student, staff, PhD, postdoctoral researchers and alumni.

In particular, UCL’s flagship entrepreneurship initiative, the Explore 5000 Programme, aims to support high-potential entrepreneurial individuals in the UCL community to develop their business ideas and pitch to win £5,000 to take their ventures further.

Brief

UCL asked us to design and deliver a 2-day entrepreneurship Bootcamp to prepare participants for their Explore 5000 Programme by helping them ideate propositions and learn the basics of Lean Startup and systematic entrepreneurship processes.

Approach

Studio Zao designed and delivered a 2-day entrepreneurship bootcamp that introduced Lean Startup and Design Thinking principles with practical exercises to help participants ideate propositions and prepare for the upcoming Explore 5000 Programme.

The first day was focused on discovering the individuals’ competitive edge and using it to develop high-impact propositions. We helped the attendees go through the ideation process of starting from the problem and to develop solutions.

Participants carried forward outcomes and ideas they had from the first day to the second day, where they could get a taster of what an entrepreneurial journey would look like, including customer discovery, value proposition design and testing, pitch preparation and pitching.

Outcomes

Each team presented their ideas at the end of the second day. After the Bootcamp, they felt “very inspired at the idea of starting a business” and equipped with tools such as “the structural framework for ‘the entrepreneurial journey’ that enables me to effectively consolidate my understanding of how to progress with my idea“.