What do fabric softener, dumplings, a keyboard, a mouse and OCD have in common? Startup Weekend 2024

From April 5 to 7 2024, Assistant Professor Blaž Zupan, PhD, a regular member of the Department of Entrepreneurship, and Assistant Professor Mojca Svetek, PhD, organized the now traditional Startup Weekend, where 100 students from various faculties of the University of Ljubljana participated. Combining different fields was recognized by the students as an advantage: “The best thing is the connection between facsimiles, different types of people, different views, what you lack you can make up with them and vice versa. This seems to me to be the biggest advantage,” said Karin.

Some presented the idea from the beginning, others were assigned to teams based on personal preference. Mentors who nurtured and helped develop entrepreneurial minds, Assistant Professor Mojca Svetek, PhD and Teaching Assistant Barbara Hvalič Erzetič, PhD from the School of Economics and Business, Anushka Beltram, entrepreneur and founder of Kaleo Explore, Janez Gorenc, PhD, student and external colleague at the Department of Entrepreneurship at the School of Economics and Business, were certainly proud of their mentees at the end of the weekend.

Members of the jury, Simona Rataj, Head of the department for strategic marketing of intellectual property rights, Špela Rozman Dolenc, president of the Ljubljana University Incubator, Primož Erjavec, co-founder of the start-up company Deltahub, and Aleš Pustovrh, PhD, investor, founder and researcher, had a very demanding task: to choose the four best among 31 groups.

“Before I say who you are, if you are not among those we will mention, don’t worry. At the end of the day, the one who will make a business out of it will win”, said Pustovrh even before the award.

In the ‘Health’ category, which was supported by the EIT Health organization, the group that presented the application “Me and my OCD” was selected from among eight and awarded with 1000 euros. In the general category, instead of three teams, they chose four, which made the most progress during the weekend. The winning teams developed a softener in the form of tablets “Purelix” with the aim of reducing waste packaging, a personalized keyboard where they found a way to effectively reduce costs, a personalized mouse where they combined customer requirements through 3D printing, which so far existing competitors have not been able to achieve combine and “Fejst knedli”, a package of ingredients for making homemade dumplings with new and unusual fillings.

But the end of the weekend and the awarding of the flattering title meant only the beginning of further work and the development of ideas, so that the innovations will actually become available on the market.

Danica Tajčman, EFnews

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