The Role of Start-up Events for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurship is a large-scale concept in the whole wide world. It is an ability or a skill, which lead the business on a success path. Highly prosperous companies and entrepreneurs provide a platform for people who start from the scratch by hosting events. These events are organised by profile entrepreneurs, who have knowledge of successful business creation.

A popular event in Europe called Start-up live provide better opportunity for the student, who have innovative ideas during their studies and have dream to be a successful entrepreneur. This event continues for two days on yearly basis. By joining this global community future entrepreneurs are able to gain first-hand experienced insight into forming a network in the European Start-up culture Experienced volunteers clarify how to use theories to real problems. Their mission is “We strive to be the first stepping stone of every aspiring entrepreneur helping them to succeed” (About: startup live, 2018).

Singapore is famous for organising start-up events for multinational companies. One of the event, which is hosted for enterprise there is the Singapore mega start-up weekend called SWSG. It is a 54 hours practical activity where enterprisers are able to brainstorm with others, design products and acknowledge their ideas with well-versed mentors. In the beginning, most probably on Friday, individuals start their day by coming up a strategic team. On the next day, Saturday, they get to work on a business plan. At the end of the workshop, Sunday, the innovators pitch their ideas to the audience and experts (Startup Weekend Singapore Mega 2018, 2017)

Another platform which is very popular amongst entrepreneur and is known worldwide, is F50 in Silicon Valley. F50 arranges various events in a year. It is a venture capital event where participants are given two minutes to pitch their ideas to global investors and leading players of Silicon Valley and China. This program helps the organisations and companies by venture capital financing and global market development (What we do, 2018). One of the reasons why freshers with innovative ideas across the globe move to Silicon Valley is the desire to see their dream become reality. Silicon Valley is called the centre of innovation with the hottest events. Around 12 out of 50 innovators are from Asia (Silicon Valley: East meets Tech | 101 East, 2014) .

But the questions arise as what insights a person would gain by joining start-up events and are they worth spending time at.

Primary these four features define a successful entrepreneur: Passion for the business, product/customer focus, tenacity despite failure and execution intelligence. By launching a new business, the aim interest of enterprises is to make changes in the world. So, at first place it is necessary to be passionate about a business idea (Ireland & Barringer, 2016, S. 31). The next criteria is to be aware of the products and customers, these two factors belong to the most significant elements of a business. There is no need to think about marketing, management and finance if the company does not have products that satisfy customers requirement. Furthermore, being entrepreneur means being tenacity despite failure (Ireland & Barringer, 2016, S. 34). It means seeing an opportunity in every failure. The last factor being successful, is the execution intelligence. “To open a business is very easy; to keep it open is very difficult.” (Ireland & Barringer, 2016, S. 35). However, having the ability to recognise opportunities “in the modern era of technology and coemption” is also considered as a key skill (Yousaf, Shamim, Siddiqui, & Raina, 2015, S. 26).

David Beckett says at the young creator’s summit in 2016 that technology and business have changed in the last past years, besides one aspect and that “is one person in front of an audience and the impact that can have”. Start-up platforms provide practical tools on how to pitch an idea. There are four principles that make a pitch great. Communication, focus, conscious decisions and certainty. Generally, it is about confidence, it is not about being confident on your own, it is about the audience having confidence in the pitcher. It is about having faith in the idea (Beckett, 2016). Furthermore, people learn to use words carefully and stick to the most relevant facts in a short time (McKaskill, 2009).

Almost in every start-up event, which is hosted for more than one day, participants must build up a team. Mukesh Bansal, the co-founder of CureFit, tells in a chat with ETtech that at the beginning every business has difficulties in convincing people to work for them if they do not have the money, but with a good team, things often work out well. Exactly this is the biggest challenge for entrepreneurs. It is important and difficult to find people how hold the same values, have the same passion, are willing to undertake a commitment and are good team players (Bansal, 2016). Start-up events are also platform for freshers who are looking for potential partner to launch a business with (Ireland & Barringer, 2016, S. 352). By working in teams, the participants get to know different kind of people with various ideas and learn to build a business within a short time (Ireland & Barringer, 2016, S. 353).

I personally do not believe that start-up events are meant to be beneficial for the organisers. Instead in my opinion such platforms are worth spending time at. Naturally, there are more advantages than disadvantages to pitch an idea at such places. Firstly, these programs give an opportunity to freshers to get first-hand experience from professional mentors. They meet investors, co-founders, business partners and get the chance to develop networks (Ireland & Barringer, 2016, S. 41). Secondly, participants receive honest feedback from a panel of experts. For example, Gottesman, the founder of Rover.com, took part in a start-up event due to a bad experience. There he pitched his idea to professionals, they gave him feedback and six months later he launched his conception. But to achieve something, it is important to take the feedback seriously and work on it (Ireland & Barringer, 2016, S. 92) .In fact, in a video, Dan Martell, a Canadian coach and entrepreneur, gives some reason about why people should share their ideas. By not sharing a conception publicly means risking the opportunity to come across people who “have the knowledge to save years off of your life”. Big companies do not really have the time to steal an innovation because those organisations work slow. They have their own strategy plan which is meant to last for several years and if they want to change something, there is like to be a discussion for two quarters and after that the need many years to make any changes (Martell, 2016).

Generally, it is important to select the right event, to prepare for it and to do the best with this opportunity. Investing in an event does not just mean spending money, it also costs precious time (Matveeva, 2018). This type of experience builds your character as you become more confident of your own abilities. Moreover, it opens your horizons because you make new friends. As mentioned earlier, taking a part in such events can be beneficial to your personal development. You can find out more about yourself, what your limits are and how you can overcome problems.