Mid-may 2024, creativity, progress, and teamwork were at the centre of the event in Lohr. In the course of the Start-up Competition, students turned real challenges into innovative solutions for companies. An article on how the competition went and what learnings it offered to participants.
Published on 25 November 2024
Start-up Competition – What is that?
The sun was already up on this warm Tuesday morning when little by little the THWS students arrived at Starthouse Spessart. After all the participants had gathered, the event began with a kick-off in which the representatives of the companies presented their challenges. The first company, Bosch Rexroth AG, presented the problem of how human-machine interaction could be improved with the help of AI. Sparkasse Mainfranken Würzburg was looking for a way to create a digital start-up center. And Schneider Electric GmbH presented the challenge of how to best integrate and connect their foreign staff who are new to the rural district. Students could specify a preferred topic in advance. That way, two teams formed for each challenge.
The Start-Up Competition is a one-day project by Starthouse Spessart, the digital start-up center in Lohr am Main, and by EntrepreneurSHIP at THWS. Students and employees from the three companies met in mid-May to cooperate on solutions to the challenges they faced in their day-to-day work. Competent coaches were present to support the students as they worked on the problems presented by the companies. "That way, the students should learn as a team how to think as a start-up - in other words, how to get from the problem to the business case solution," Anja Güll, Starthouse manager and coach during the competition, puts it.
First impulse: teambuilding
The teams gradually came together, and the creative process could begin. The day was divided into three impulses that were intended to help find solutions. In between, there were frequent breaks with refreshments and the opportunity to network. The first impulse was designed to allow the team members to get to know each other and then to familiarise themselves with their exact problem through playful tasks. The first task, ice breaker, involved the members finding a commonality and developing their team’s name from it. This resulted in a wide variety of names, such as "Schwarzer Kaffee (Black Coffee)", because it turned out that all team members preferred black coffee.
This was followed by brainstorming and the first creative ideas for finding a solution were collected. "It is amazing that the students immediately start coming up with ideas which we as companies would never have thought about," says Benedikt Rüb, Bosch Rexroth representative. The ideas took a wide variety of approaches - from AI developments to websites and apps. By the end of the first impulse, the team members knew each other and had developed an idea for a solution to their respective problem.
Second impulse: concretising
During the second work phase, the idea had to be further developed. The first task was to fill out a business canvas. A business canvas is the modelling of a business model that concretises the competitive advantages, added values, and monetarisation of the solution. The objective was to develop concrete solutions from the ideas which presented a business case.
The second task was prototyping. The name said it: The students could choose one of four options to present their idea as a prototype. They could choose between creating a video, a physical prototype, a flyer or a wireframe, i.e. the basic structure of a website. One of the Sparkasse teams opted for the physical prototype and was able to visualise a website solution using a wide variety of materials such as buttons, fabric, or cardboard. They built separate rooms in a cardboard box to represent the various subpages of the website. It became obvious how much fun the students had getting creative. The idea behind the task was to visualise the solution idea so that it could be better imagined.
Third impulse: pitch preparation
After the first two impulses, the teams entered the home straight. At the end of the three work phases, they had to pitch their solution ideas in front of an audience. Now it was time to prepare those pitches. Firstly, the teams came up with a story that would make the solutions understandable to people from outside the field. The teams presented the problems as a role play, for example, to show how the situations occur in real life and how they can be dealt with effectively. The students also created presentations for their pitch to make it easier for the audience to follow their explanations.
And in the end: Practice, practice, practice. Each team decided who was to present what and went through the pitch in detail. The excitement was palpable, but the team members calmed each other down. Anna Italiaander, participant of the event, realised one thing: "A well-working team is half the battle. Our team has grown together." The teams were then well prepared to pitch their solutions.
The grand finale
Excitement, anticipation, and curiosity accompanied the start of the final phase of the Start-up Competition. The seats in the tent in the yard of the Starthouse slowly filled up with interested people who were eagerly awaiting the pitches and talking animatedly to each other. After a short introduction, it was time for the pitches. The individual teams competed against each other and presented their innovative ideas one after the other. No two ideas were the same.
After the pitches, a jury judged which team had the strongest solution and would therefore win the competition. Everyone eagerly awaited the announcement of the result. The winner was the team "Schwarzer Kaffee" (Black Coffee), which worked on the "International Hub" idea for Schneider Electric. International Hub is an all-in-one website designed to simplify integration for international employees. The platform is designed to enable people to network and take part in joint activities in the local area. "All the teams had great, innovative ideas and that's why the decision was very difficult for us," said jury member and coach Monika Waschik.
Added value for everyone
"We arrived without expectations and went back to the company with a lot of inspiration," Benedikt Rüb summed up the day. Thanks to the students, the companies were able to see their problems from a different perspective and thus obtain innovative solutions with which they can continue to work. Participant and student Valentina Schöllhorn also perceived this day to be a huge success: "I was able to gain completely new insights. That is why I can highly recommend participating in this competition to anyone interested - regardless of their discipline." Throughout the day, students were able to network among students and companies - a win-win situation for every participant and a good basis for the next competition held in 2025.
