{"id":531233,"date":"2025-10-27T14:15:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T14:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/531233\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T14:15:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T14:15:18","slug":"manchester-students-take-their-first-steps-to-becoming-entrepreneurs-at-startup-weekend-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/531233\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester Students Take Their First Steps to Becoming Entrepreneurs at Startup Weekend 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

The event opened with inspiring talks from\u00a0Aurore Hochard<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Farah\u00a0Frikha<\/strong>, Founder of Vesta Capsules and MEC\u00a0alumna, followed by rapid-fire 30-second pitches and team formations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Throughout the weekend, participants learned how to\u00a0identify\u00a0customer needs,\u00a0validate\u00a0business concepts, and apply entrepreneurial thinking to solve real-world problems.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Saturday focused on turning ideas into\u00a0viable\u00a0products and business models, with hands-on workshops including \u201cBuilding the Startup Team\u201d led by\u00a0Dr Rob Martin<\/strong>, Lecturer in Enterprise and Entrepreneurship at MEC.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tom Parson<\/strong>, Founder of Big Echo, led \u201cBlank Page to Big Idea: Unlock Startup Ideas with AI\u201d,\u00a0a session on using AI to spark creativity and accelerate the ideation process, helping students transform concepts into\u00a0viable\u00a0business ideas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jorge\u00a0Servert,\u00a0<\/strong>Founder of\u00a0Sensium, led \u201cDeveloping the Right Product or Service\u201d,\u00a0a practical session guiding students to define and build their product or service based on real market needs, while also creating their first business plan using MEC\u2019s startup template.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Sunday, teams perfected their business ideas through sessions like \u201cMarketing & Acquiring Customers\u201d with\u00a0Eleni\u00a0Chiarapini<\/strong>, Lecturer in Entrepreneurship at MEC, and \u201cPersonal Branding for Startups\u201d with\u00a0Coralie Watson<\/strong>, Founder of Theme Socials.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lastly, students worked on their pitches in \u201cPitch Perfect\u201d with\u00a0Julia Spencer<\/strong>, Acceleration Manager at NatWest Corporate Banking. Julia shared industry experience and insight on what investors are really looking for in a pitch and how to make an idea stand out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The weekend wrapped up with final presentations to a judging panel featuring\u00a0Professor Lee\u00a0Pugalis<\/strong>\u00a0(Deputy Director of MEC),\u00a0Travis Ralph-Donaldson<\/strong>\u00a0(Innovation Discovery Manager at the University\u2019s Innovation Factory),\u00a0Stephen\u00a0Sankson<\/strong>\u00a0(Regional Director at NatWest Corporate Banking), and\u00a0Jenny Oliver<\/strong>\u00a0(CEO and Founder of\u00a0Biora\u00a0Nature Tech).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The event concluded with an awards ceremony\u00a0recognising\u00a0the top-performing teams and their innovative ideas:<\/p>\n

First place went to Veila<\/strong>, a clothing brand redefining modest fashion, led by\u00a0Sabrinel\u00a0Takheroubt\u00a0<\/strong>(AMBS, Faculty of Humanities) alongside\u00a0Nishita\u00a0Chatlani<\/strong>,\u00a0Yutong Song<\/strong>,\u00a0Danna Casta\u00f1eda<\/strong>, and\u00a0Eleanor Alphonso<\/strong>\u00a0(all AMBS and Faculty of Humanities students). The team received\u00a0\u00a33,000<\/strong>\u00a0to continue their journey to\u00a0market, focusing on direct-to-consumer growth and online marketing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Second place was awarded to\u00a0DecoRent<\/strong>, a decoration rental service for short-term stays in Manchester. The team,\u00a0Stella\u00a0Zhuoyue\u00a0Ji Chen\u00a0<\/strong>(AMBS),\u00a0Mollie Levitt<\/strong>\u00a0(School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Humanities),\u00a0Benya Irlam\u00a0<\/strong>(AMBS),\u00a0Yaowen\u00a0(Stephen) Hu<\/strong>\u00a0(AMBS), and\u00a0Chaerin (Devon) Son<\/strong>\u00a0received\u00a0\u00a32,000<\/strong>\u00a0to help expand their mission of bringing\u00a0cosy, functional spaces to students across the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Highly Commended<\/strong>\u00a0went to\u00a0isitUp<\/strong>, a speculative market app for investing in people\u2019s relationships, led by\u00a0Isaac Batho\u00a0<\/strong>(School of Engineering).<\/p>\n

\"Startup \u00a0\u00a0\"Team \u00a0\u00a0\"Team<\/p>\n

In total,\u00a020 new business ideas were formed<\/strong>\u00a0over the weekend,\u00a0showcasing\u00a0the entrepreneurial energy of Manchester\u2019s student community and\u00a0representing\u00a0students from across all three faculties, Humanities; Science and Engineering; and Biology,\u00a0Medicine\u00a0and Health.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Throughout the weekend, participants were supported by a dedicated group of mentors offering one-to-one advice and feedback, including\u00a0Oladabola\u00a0Babalola (Babz)<\/strong>,\u00a0Fernando Torres<\/strong>,\u00a0Harry Panter<\/strong>,\u00a0Sergio Gutierrez<\/strong>,\u00a0Luke Marden<\/strong>,\u00a0Jonghun\u00a0Lee<\/strong>,\u00a0Rick Watson<\/strong>,\u00a0Ramin Esmaeilzadeh<\/strong>,\u00a0Huw James<\/strong>, and\u00a0Leigh Wharton<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

About the Masood Entrepreneurship Centre:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The\u00a0Masood Entrepreneurship Centre (MEC)<\/strong>\u00a0is the University of Manchester\u2019s focal point for enterprise and entrepreneurship teaching, learning, and startup support. MEC helps students, researchers, and alumni turn ideas into real-world impact through workshops, mentorship, and venture\u00a0programmes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Learn more at:\u00a0https:\/\/www.entrepreneurship.manchester.ac.uk\/<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The event opened with inspiring talks from\u00a0Aurore Hochard\u00a0and\u00a0Farah\u00a0Frikha, Founder of Vesta Capsules and MEC\u00a0alumna, followed by rapid-fire 30-second…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[54606,748,393,172159,4884,105,2465,172157,79906,172158,16,15,29191],"class_list":{"0":"post-531233","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-arts-languages-cultures","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-environment-education-development","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-health","14":"tag-manchester","15":"tag-masood-entrepreneurship-centre","16":"tag-science-and-engineering","17":"tag-student-news","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-university-of-manchester"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115446555793652230","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}