EANET newsletter # 41
25 November 2016 In this newsletter:
Ø Partner in the spotlight: Kharkov National Automobile and Highway University (KhNAHU) Ø Alumni Entrepreneur(s) in the spotlight: Ilia State University alumni Ø Reflection on Global Entrepreneurship Week Ø Alumni & Startup at UC Berkeley Ø News from Network
Upcoming events: 12-‐14 December 2016 PSC 5 Meeting for EANET Partners -‐ KROK, Kiev 23-‐27 January 2017 Sustainability Training for EANET Staff -‐ FUB Berlin 20-‐22 February 2017 Strategy Workshop for Ministries -‐ HvA Amsterdam 15-‐17 May 2017 International Highlight Event -‐ ISU Tbilisi 21-‐23 June 2017 PSC 6 Meeting for EANET Partners -‐ ISU Tbilisi 26-‐28 June 2017 Sustainability Workshop for EANET Staff & Ministries -‐ ISU Tbilisi
Do you have an interesting story to share with (other) alumni entrepreneurs and EANET partners? Please send it to us at [email protected]
EANET PARTNER IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Kharkiv National Automobile and Highway University, Ukraine
KhNAHU HOSTS FIRST FORUM OF ALUMNI-‐ENTREPRENEURS IN KhNAHU By Prof. Tokhtar G.
June 2016 Kharkov National Automobile and Highway University (KhNAHU) hosted the Forum of Alumni-‐Entrepreneurs who had studied at various faculties to get different specialities. Prof. George Tokhtar, the Pro-‐Rector of university, addressed the participants and guests of the Forum and informed them about the first results of the International Association of Alumni-‐Entrepreneurs in higher education institutions of Kharkov that had been established in the framework of the EANET project. He announced the Association tasks, perspectives and lines of development. Moreover, the alumni familiarised themselves with innovations in entrepreneurship and the possibilities of their training to become successful in complicated economic situations.
The representatives of Vasyl Karasin Kharkov National University, Kharkov National University of Radio Electronics, the KROK University from Kiev took part in the Forum. Mrs Svetlana Zaripova (below), a representative of the KROK University, provided a presentation of the association of alumni, which is housed in her university, and a successfully developing business-‐league KROK. The Forum was addressed by the Head of the Business School in Vasyl Karasin Kharkov National University and Prof. Alexander Kuzemin from Kharkov National University of Radio Electronics. In addition, the participants and guests of Forum had online greetings from Michael Tuguntke, the Head of EANET project, the Netherlands, Mrs Nino Khazaradze, a representative of the Ilia State University from Tbilisi, Georgia, and Mrs
Valentina Pritnan from the university in the city of Beltsy, Moldova. New alumni became the members of the Association and received membership cards. It was unanimously decided to hold the forum annually in June. The Forum elected the Board of alumni-‐entrepreneurs in KhNAHU to coordinate its activities. ENTREPRENEURS AND TRANSPORT OFFICIALS MEET AT KhNAHU By Prof. Tokhtar Georgi , Prorector of KhNAHU Kharkov National Automobile and Highway University (KhNAHU) hosted a meeting of alumni-‐entrepreneurs, this time it was at the Faculty of Transport Systems (FTS). There were directors, managers, forwarding agents of transport enterprises of Kharkiv and Kharkiv region that transport various goods and passengers. Each alumni briefly told guests about their life of work, their enterprises, achievements and problems, their activities.
An alumnus of the Faculty of Transport
Systems of 2009 joined the meeting on the Skype. She had been working in Austria in one of the large automobile companies, dealing with the prototypes of automobile parts. It is worth noting that the Heads of the leading departments of the university tend to improve their communication with alumni to find constructive and mutually beneficial ways for joint interaction with ALMA MATER.
All the participants were informed about
the participation of the university in the EANET project, its perspectives, aims and tasks as well as activities of the Association of the alumni-‐entrepreneurs of higher educational institutions in the city of Kharkov. The alumni-‐entrepreneurs highly appreciated information about the creation of an advanced platform that would enable them to communicate and promote their transport services to the participants of the project, supporting automobile transportation of various cargoes from Moldova, Ukraine and other countries of Europe.
Встреча с предпринимателями транспортниками В Харьковском национальном автомобильно-‐дорожном университете состоялась очередная встреча с выпускниками-‐предпринимателями, на этот раз факультета транспортных систем (ФТС). Среди них – директоры, менеджеры, экспедиторы транспортных предприятий города и области, осуществляющих перевозки различных грузов и пассажиров. Каждый из выпускников кратко рассказал о своем трудовом пути, своем предприятии, достижениях и проблемах, роде своей деятельности. По Skype к участникам встречи присоединилась выпускница ФТС 2009 года, в последнее время работающая в Австрии в одной из крупных автомобильных компаний и занимающаяся вопросами прототипирования автомобильных деталей. Важно, что во встрече приняли участие и заведующие выпускающих кафедр факультета, укрепляя свои контакты со своими выпускниками в поисках конструктивных и взаимовыгодных направлений совместной работы с ALMA MATER. Все участники встречи были проинформированы об участии университета в проекте EANET, о его перспективах, целях и задачах, а также, о работе Ассоциации выпускников-‐предпринимателей вузов города. С особым удовлетворением выпускники-‐транспортники воспринимали информацию о создании, таким образом, расширенной платформы для коммуникации, что позволит им еще активнее продвигать свои транспортные услуги между участниками проекта, обеспечивая автомобильные перевозки различных грузов из Грузии, Молдавии, Украины и других стран Европы.
IMPRESSIONS AND EFFECT OF EANET THROUGH THE EYES OF A STUDENT By Karen Davtian, Khardov In June 2016 I and the team of my university together with 14 teams from six countries took part in the meeting-‐seminar in the framework of the EANET project in Kishinev. The participants of the meeting were project executives, entrepreneurs and students. It was the first time I took part in the meeting like that. At first, I felt excited, shy and not sure of my strength. However, at the beginning of the meeting a special interactive exercise was done to familiarise ourselves with each other, after that I felt like a full-‐fledged member of the project. Communication in English with new people, by the way, was very valuable experience and helped me develop communicative skills. Having completed the exercise, I was asked to say a few words about my personal impression in an interview, and I had a happy opportunity to give the first interview in my life in English. These impressions and experience I brought back in Kharkov I would keep in mind for a long time.
In addition, at the first day the organisers held a very interesting and important action. Each participant of the project could stick a paper containing brief information about oneself on the large board, and then people pointed by arrows the paths from their stickers towards the other project participants’ stickers whom they wanted to get acquainted with. Later, the board was placed on the wall in the hall of the academy, where it was up to the last day of the seminar.
However, the most interesting event for me took place the next day when a stranger came up to me and asked me to see him to Ushenko Alexander Grigorievich, the professor from Chernovtsy National University. The matter is that he deals with information technologies as it was written at the sticker. When the stranger had seen it, he had had an idea to meet the professor and discuss some issues with him because he was interested in information technologies as well. I remembered that event as it clearly demonstrated how the network worked. Having come back home after numerous contacts with foreign peers, entrepreneurs, organisers of the project, I started my training as a student of a third year in September. I became better motivated and inspired, started treating my time with care and planning it correctly, studying more seriously to gain knowledge about my future profession and entrepreneurship. In total, the expertise will enable me to set up my own automobile service centre and develop my own business.
Впечатления и эффект ЕАNЕТ
Карен Давтян
Харьков, Украина
Я студент ХНАДУ, мне 19 лет. В июне 2016
года в составе команды своего университета я
стал участником встречи-‐семинара в рамках
проекта ЕАNЕТ, в г. Кишиневе, куда приехали все
14 команд из 6 стран Европы. В их составе были
исполнители проекта, предприниматели и
студенты.
Я впервые был на такой встрече и в
начале испытывал определенное волнение,
робость и неуверенность. Но тут же было
объявлено специальное интерактивное
упражнение для знакомства друг с другом,
после которого я уже чувствовал себя
полноценным участником проекта. Общение с
совершенно незнакомыми людьми, к тому же на
английском языке, стало для меня очень
хорошим опытом и помогло развить
коммуникативные навыки. Сразу после
упражнения, меня попросили сказать несколько
слов о том, насколько оно было интересным
лично для меня, а также предоставили
возможность дать первое в моей жизни
интервью, да ещё и на английском языке. Эти
впечатления и опыт я привёз с собой в Харьков и
сохранил их на долгие годы.
А еще в первый же день встречи,
организаторы провели очень интересную и
важную, на мой взгляд, акцию. На большом
полотне каждый участник проекта приклеивал
небольшой стикер с краткой информацией о
себе, а затем, стрелочками указывали от своего
к стикерам всех участников проекта, с которыми
успели познакомиться или были уже знакомы.
После, его повесили на стенку в холле академии,
и провисело оно там до последнего дня встречи.
Но, пожалуй, самым интересным для меня было
то, что на следующий день ко мне подошёл один
незнакомый мужчина и попросил помочь ему
найти профессора Черновецкого национального
университета Ушенко Александра Григорьевича.
Дело в том, что Александр Григорьевич
занимается информационными технологиями, о
чем он написал на своём стикере. Увидев это на
полотне, мужчина захотел познакомиться с
профессором и обсудить с ним несколько
вопросов, поскольку тоже интересуется
информационными технологиями. И этот случай
я запомнил, поскольку именно тогда наглядно
увидел принцип работы сети.
Вернувшись домой, после
многочисленных контактов с зарубежными
сверстниками, предпринимателями,
организаторами проекта и приступив к учебе
с сентября уже на курсе, я стал
относиться к ней с большей мотивацией и
вдохновением, бережливо относиться к
своему времени и стараться правильно его
планировать, серьёзней учиться и своей
будущей профессии, и
предпринимательству. Ведь эти знания, в
совокупности, позволят мне в дальнейшем
не только открыть свою автомобильную
сервисную станцию, но и добиться успешной
её работы.
INITIATION at KhNAHU emphasizes Entrepreneurship as a Career opportunity By Tokhtar Georgi, ProRector KhNAHU Kharkiv, 1 September 2016
On 1 September, Kharkov National Automobile and Highway University (KhNAHU) had a knowledge celebration – the First Year Student Day – the day of the initiation of university applicants into students of KhNAHU. The scenario of the celebration was traditional – Rector addressed students and told them about the history and traditions of the university, scientific schools, famous scholars and teachers, contemporary research where students were often involved. Rector emphasized that this year KhNAHU was the fifth university among the higher education institutions of Ukraine in terms of the number of students’ awards and victories in national contests, Olympiads and conferences. Then first year students were addressed by distinguished guests: • the President of the administration of the
joint-‐stock company Kharkov Autotransport Enterprise – Mr. Strelianyi M.B.,
• the Director of the private joint-‐stock company Automotive Enterprise – 19364 – Mr. Stepko A.I.,
• the Chairman of the corporation of the bus stations in Kharkov region – Mr. Guznenko G.A. and
• the Head of the Transport Department of Kharkov Regional Council – Mr. Dulfan S.B.
They mentioned that each student would start their career through their careful attitude to time, responsibility for curriculum projects and self-‐study exercises, self-‐dependency, initiative, being keen to acquire more skills. They spoke about a necessity to study entrepreneurship as the majority of their alumni started their own businesses and were quite often successful if they had been properly trained in the university. Rector presented the best students to a symbolic student’ card and a key to unlock knowledge. Everybody enjoyed an amusing concert performed by senior students. The celebration was concluded by singing the university anthem and bright fireworks.
ENTREPRENEUR ALUMNI IN THE SPOTLIGHT By Anoesjka Timmermans Tbilisi, 18 November 2016 Tamta Gvelesiani, “Hero”, Tbilisi, Georgia
Tamta Gvelesiani, Alumni of ISU, member of ISU EANET is co-‐founder of the life-‐saving mobile application “Hero”. Hero connects patients in need of blood with blood donors with via a convenient mobile app, giving personality to an otherwise anonymous life-‐ saving “transaction”. The many accidents that happen on the roads between Batumi and Tbilisi lead to a severe shortage of blood. Newspapers have given attention to this problem last summer, which gained nationwide awareness yet not enough
stimulation for people to register at blood banks. In Georgia the blood bank needs approx. 70 blood donations per day to meet the demand for blood, whilst they only get an average of 30 donors per day. Tamta dug into this problem and came up with the idea to create an app to stimulate people to become blood donor by making blood donation more personal. Blood donors register at the app with their blood group and type. Donors come to the app with a profile and blood type needed. If someone is in urgent need of blood, his/her donors can easily been found. Tamta with her team are working on the application right now and will launch it end of November 2016. “Hero” partners with GPI Holding, Georgia’s one of the largest health insurance companies as well as some blood banks. The focus group for the customer orientation consisted of ISU students (Tamta is also a part time lecturer in Marketing & PR in ISU’s business school). Currently approx. 100 people have signed up to the app in the test phase to become a “Hero” and will be the first donors in the execution phase of the company. Being an alumni of ISU gave access to lecturers of the business school, and being part of the university gives access to the “creathons” and “makathons” organized by the FabLab, helping to structure the idea into a business. Creathons and makathons are intensive 24 hr sessions in which students and start ups create and make something from scratch, whether it’d be games or high tech prototypes. ISU’s EANET network has helped Tamta through the organization of various trainings of business skills. ISU’s EANET frequently organizes “EANET talks” in which entrepreneurs talk to students and trainings in social media for marketing communication. Entrepreneur alumni with established businesses are invited to talk about certain business subjects to help students and start-‐ups professionalize. The network now contains roughly 100 members.
Sandro Kandelaki Co-‐Founder of Augep & Director of FabLab Tbilisi And Zurab Pertaia Co-‐Founder of Augep & Teacher Entrepreneurship at ISU Alumni Entrepreneurs at Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia
Sandro (left) is Director of the FabLab, an independent start-‐up incubator located in Tbilisi, and co-‐founder, with partner Zurab Petaia (right), of Augep, an augmented reality app for restaurant menu’s. Entrepreneurship runs in Sandro’s veins, as at the age of 16 Sandro already started venturing by importing and reselling products from Amazon, later helping companies and individuals with making websites and creating a platform for so called “thons”, like “make-‐athons” and “creathons”, to connect students with business related training events about design, product development, programming, branding, sales, etc. organized by companies and universities. When government sponsored “Edulab” proved too strong a competitor, Sandro chose to expand his experience in a government job, working at the Georgian Technology and Innovation Office, helping start-‐ups. Back at Ilia State Universtiy to complete his Bachelor’s program, he got involved in Gamelab and joined FabLab. Now he heads this dynamic incubation lab for start ups, where those with aspirations to start a business can get to work on business ideas, create their (often technical) prototypes and minimum viable products and test their market. Anyone who
wants to create something can come in with or without an idea for a business, go on a problem discovery journey during one of FabLabs “observation tours” and/or work out ideas during their “board-‐days”. During the “board days” ideas are created and blossomed out in interactive ideation sessions. The many high tech facilities offered by FabLab enable the start-‐up entrepreneurs to create working prototypes, using either 3D scanning and printing, (plaster, plastic and steel molding, micro electronics and laser cutting. Sandro and his team of technical and business mentors (from corporates and university) assist the start ups with their R&D and their business models, getting them ready to make a successful launch.
FabLab currently counts roughly 100 start ups, each of which can book space via a schedule. It is accessible to everyone by simply signing up. Members pay a symbolic price for using the
equipment. Its co-‐working is free to use, which helps to promote the culture of working
together. Besides his position at FabLab Sandro is co-‐founder of Augep. His co-‐founders are Zurab Pertaia and Tamta Gvelesiani, both alumni entrepreneurs of ISU. Augep is an augmented reality app for restaurants to display the meals on the menu in holistic 3D imaging, displaying the meal as it would look when served, and listing its ingredients, calories and allergen. Started half year ago, as he was in a Chinese restaurant with friends. The menu looked like a Chinese diary and they had no idea what to order. When they ordered and got their meals, it was horrible and they ended up paying for uneaten food and getting out for hot dogs afterwards. This is an experience many people tend to have when visiting restaurants serving exotic meals or dining abroad. Sandro and Tamta went to a startup bootcamp in Istanbul to get started. Back in Georgia they joined a accellorator to create the prototype. Zurab was visiting the EANET International Highlight event in Chisinau, Moldova to share experiences with other EANET alumni entrepreneurs. The prototype was made and tested with gourmet critics. The problems encountered were adding titles to the meals, getting restaurants to upload images in the app. Restaurants are now
registering with the app and are now paying to get their menu’s in the app. The business is supported with a back-‐end website on which the restaurant has an account to upload the menu and 3-‐4 pictures per meal. The company then turn the photos into 3D images that can be displayed in the app. Now in testing phase and ready to roll out across Georgia and Armenia in January 2017. Zurab , besides being the co-‐founder of Augep, runs a hostel for Zurab likes to mingle with foreign people and thus wanted to open a guesthouse in which he can welcome guests. The guesthouse is approx. 1 hour outside Tbilisi, in the old German village of Asureti. In 1817 German settlers built this village, then called Elizabeth Town. The village is special for its cultural heritage and vinyards, left behind when they were deported to Siberia by Stalin. The unique taste of the Shala, the wine originating in Asureti, is must try in the region says Zurab. Being a member of the EANET network allowed Zurab to join the highlight event in Moldova. He shared that one of his friends, Georgi, another entrepreneur who joined the International Highlight Event at ASEM in Chisinau, managed to expand his business through the network. Being in Moldova brought him insight in how other people make their businesses and what their vision is on creating a business. He benefited especially from learning from others’ experience. Today he is still in contact with the international networks in the Facebook group. When asked these entrepreneurs what their ministries can mean for the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Georgia, they answered: è Availability of grants and financing of start up
programs. è Facilitation of networking events for startups,
and international meetings with entrepreneurs from other countries.
è More attention for Entrepreneurship teaching and training.
Global Entrepreneurship Week 2016 By Martin Haring
GEW November 14-18 2016 November 15 Ilia State university organized a makeathon in which students could develop board games and maybe later bring them to the market. During the session we connected from Amsterdam to Tblisi to show the students over there what we were doing the same time during the launchparty of the prototypes of the students of the minor entrepreneurship. We were connecting by skype. Afterwards Nino Dvalidze from Ilia Stat university reacted on this encounter: “Many many thanks for the virtual session you arranged for our GEW Makeathon group yesterday. As I have followed up to this activity, it was very well perceived by the youngsters who are quite inspired and fascinated by the activities captured through the LaunchParty in Amsterdam. Thank you very much for doing this that is very encouraging and supportive from your side.”
Images from the Launchparty in Amsterdam.
November 18 Entrepreneurial Learning Experience
In the Beatrix building in Utrecht about 200 teachers and students gathered to talk about entrepreneurial education. From 1-‐5 p.m. a diversity of workshops were offered about topics like, design thinking, business model canvas, Lego serious play, business model you, effectuation and so on. We also organized a session about graduating in your own company and how the university can facilitate students who start their own company during their Bachelor studies.
Prototype party At the studio HvA in Amsterdam during the evening eleven student companies from all over Holland showed their prototype to the public during a prototype party organized by the design thinking university from Hannover. All companies got an investment of 40.000 euros to bring their idea to the next level. A group of experts and interested people gave their feedback so the companies were helped with their questions. This session was sponsored by the ING bank, SIA and HvA.
EANET Trainer provides workshop and lecture at GEW’s “Women in Entrepreneurship” conference in Tbilisi, Georgia
By Anoesjka Timmermans Tbilisi, 18 November 2016
During the Global Entrepreneurship Week, I was honoured to join Ilia State University to provide a workshop on entrepreneurship and a public lecture on my experience as a female entrepreneur, having built a firm with global coverage in the recent past.
An interesting group of of students and entrepreneurs gathered in the morning for the workshop. A round of introductions revealed that the participants were all very actively participating in the Global Entrepreneurship Week, working out their ideas into prototypes during the “make-‐athon” and “creathon” organized for this week and now engaged in thinking through the business model. The workshop was adjusted on the spot to meet their most current needs, so the most important elements of the “Lean-‐Start-‐up” approached were explained and discussed. Next the participants were asked to map out their assumptions regarding their customers’ experiences sought and how their wants and needs were currently met, as well as what they assumed would be fears in relation to adopting the solution brought by these start ups. With assumption being the mother of all failure, the
participants were then sent out to test their assumptions by talking to and observing real customers. This session was followed by an explanation of the Business Model Canvas, its origins and its practical purpose, and the afternoon was well spent working out the various components of their business models to get a complete insight in what it would take to make and market their envisioned businesses. Mentoring this diverse and fascinating group of people was a vastly enriching experience. Who could have thought that the Bitcoin will end up in our wallet sometime soon, or that donating blood will be a social happening, or what to think of a fun and integrative board game that enables deaf kids to play with hearing kids without the frustration of not being able to participate because of their hearing-‐handicap?
Late this afternoon, after a series of interviews with the alumni entrepreneurs presented above, it was time to give a lecture about my experience with building a global firm.
Do you have an interesting story to share with (other) alumni entrepreneurs and EANET partners? Please send it to us at [email protected] DEADLINE for next issue’s input: Monday 5 December 2016