Ignite Your Start-Up Passion at UNSW

There is always a place to kindle your start-up dreams - look no further! Follow Bennett on a journey about what types of resources UNSW offers for founders.

Meet Bennett 🙋‍♂️

Some of you may have met Bennett last week. He has a problem.

See, Bennett is in his second year of uni and has an interest in start-ups, but he has no clue how to get involved 🤯

So, how might we help Bennett?

Little does he know; UNSW has a range of different resources 😲 to get him kick-started in the field of start-ups.

Here are some key resources:

💡Courses

💡Societies

💡Programs

💡BONUS: Book and Podcast Recommendations

COURSES

📚COMM1120

Starting off with courses, some of you may be familiar with COMM1120 (yes that’s right, the one and only collaboration and innovation in business). This is a course that introduces you to creative thinking tools (keen for some creativity? 🤝) and innovation processes to generate, develop and evaluate innovative ideas for complex business challenges. Through a hands-on approach, it focuses on solving big picture issues with topics such as climate change, automation📱 and COVID-19😷. Highly recommended to Bennett!

💡Innovation, Strategy and Entrepreneurship major

Next up, we have the Innovation, Strategy and Entrepreneurship major🌟 under the School of Management and Governance. This major is designed to help you meet the challenges of innovation with tangible leadership skills that you can apply in real-life situations, how to become a REAL leader🙉. Within this major, there is a diverse range of core and elective courses to choose from.

💼 COMM2222

Finally, for a more professional and practical🧑‍💼course, there is COMM2222, the Industry Experience Program. This course provides an opportunity for you to apply your academic knowledge and professional skills in a working environment to solve actual business problems. You will be able to further refine your skills in problem-solving, time management and communication. 📈

SOCIETIES

⭐ BusinessOne UNSW Consultant Program

BusinessOne’s Consultant Program 🧑🏽‍💻 is an awesome opportunity to try consulting for rapidly growing start-ups! Well, how does the program work? You will be placed in a small, high-performing team 🧑 to work on a project given by a start-up client. 🤑 The program is designed to help you foster business acumen, problem-solving and leadership skills. Basically, it's the path to becoming a beast at consulting. 📈 Not only that, but the program includes invaluable professional development via workshops on research, slide design and client management. That’s a lot of cool skills! 🤓 You might even land an internship with your client too!

If you’re interested to learn more, details of the application process from the most recent consultant cycle can be found here. 🦾 The next consultant cycle will be later in the year, so keep your eyes peeled for applications opening soon!

⭐ BusinessOne UNSW Publications

Good on you for reading this article and learning more about startups 😍, but did you know there are even more start-up-focused articles published by BusinessOne? 👀 You can explore them by clicking here. They range from personal interviews with startup founders to informational articles. ✍️ Get excited for more blog posts, which you can conveniently be notified of by joining the mailing list. 📥

⭐ Case Competitions

Want to try consulting and make bank in the future? Case competitions 🤑 are amazing opportunities for students to develop their problem-solving and presentation skills in a consulting environment!️ Not sure how this would work? 🤔

Well, teams of 3-4 are provided with a business problem to research and ideate a solution to. 💡 Case comps usually span over a week before teams propose their solution in a slide deck format to the big dogs, AKA company representatives. 🤯 Multiple presentation rounds are held with the scale of the competition ranging from local to international. ✈️ Who knew case comps could lead to a plane ride overseas? 🤭 If this sounds cool to you, you can find current case competitions on the Facebook pages of UNSW societies. ✨

⭐ Hackathons

Don’t have time for a whole week? Don’t worry, we’ve got you 😉 Hackathons are like case competitions where you and your team will be given a business problem, but the timeframe is much shorter, usually spanning over 1-3 days. ⏰

Indeed, it is scary, but as the famous quote goes, ‘Diamonds are made under pressure!’ 💎🥵

Hackathons are highly recommended for students who are keen to hone their problem-solving skills in a fast-moving and innovation-intense environment. 🧨 If this sounds interesting to you, they are usually released by societies on Facebook.

PROGRAMS

Already have the perfect start-up idea but need some help to get it off the ground? UNSW Founders has all the support you (and Bennett) need with its key programs 🔑 and services:

🏆 Peter Farrell Cup

Peter Farrell Cup (PFC) can offer you all the necessary tools, skills, guidance and support to take your ideas from that initial 💡 moment to test and pitch, and potentially launch a real business 👨‍💼💼. The PFC builds up to a final pitch competition where you get the opportunity to win a share of an incredible $20,000 cash prize pool 🤑.

🚀 Accelerators

The Founders Accelerator has 3 streams: Industry-agnostic, Health and Synthetic Biology. Getting accepted gets you $20,000💰 seed funding as a Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE), 10 weeks of accelerated learning from industry and start-up experts via workshops 🛠️, mentoring and collaborative activities 🤝, ongoing coaching, networking and educational events, support with grants, funding applications 💸, media and PR support 💪 and an opportunity to pitch your startup to investors at Demo Night 😲!

🌊 New Wave

New Wave is open to UNSW students, staff and alumni who identify as women (not Bennett 😓), at any stage of their journey. These women will have access to skill-building workshops 🔧, expert masterclasses 👩🏻‍🏫 and industry-leading mentors 👨‍💻 to form, refine and test their startup ideas. New Wave runs for two weeks, twice annually in the term breaks.

🤝 Coach & Connect

Coach & Connect can link you with an experienced start-up coach 🧑‍🍼 to accelerate and amplify success 🙌. Your coach 👨‍💼 will start by introducing you to resources , opportunities and others to champion you on your way to reaching your goal 🎯. The coaches can support your entire entrepreneurial journey from guiding you through your lean canvas 🎨 and assisting you in becoming a fully-fledged business owner 🧑‍🤝👨‍🎓.

🔬 Researchers & 🤖 Makerspace

If you are still in the development phase of realising your idea, the Researchers and Makerspace services can help you get there 🏁! The Researchers program offers knowledge exchange which connects you to relevant businesses 🏬 and facilitates a transfer of knowledge 📚 to others, alongside their Entrepreneurial Higher Degree Researchers Program and the Research Making Impact Program. While the Makerspace offers more practical assistance in the form of Arduinos 🖥️, 3D printing 🖨️ and CNC machines, the Makerspace is the place to build 🔨 your ideas.

BOOK AND PODCAST RECOMMENDATIONS

Still super keen to expand your understanding of the start-up world? Here are some extra book 📙 and podcast 🎙️ recommendations:

🚀 Book: The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

Curious about why most new businesses fail, and what’s different about the small percentage that doesn’t? 🤔 This book focuses on a business methodology that emphasises the importance of communicating with customers and constantly adapting. Some pretty cool concepts for you and Bennett to think about! 🧡

🚀 Book: Zero to One by Peter Thiel

When Elon Musk vouches that Peter Thiel’s book can show you the path to start-up success, you know it’s got to be true. 🤓 This book is all about exploring what innovation truly entails and learning to ask questions that can help you find value in unexpected places. 👀

🚀 Podcast: How I Built This by Guy Raiz

How the heck did Google get so big? If you’ve ever wondered about the foundational roots 🌱 of the biggest companies in the world, How I Built This explores every turn, success and challenge that the best entrepreneurs in the world have faced. 😲

After reading this article, Bennett’s start-up passion has been reignited🔥 He never knew there were so many resources right in front of him! 🤩

He cannot wait to try out all the fun and new things, but first, he makes sure he has joined BusinessOne’s mailing list so he doesn’t miss out on any opportunities! ✨

Authors: Alyssa Liem, Chelsea Liu, Gary Kong

Editor: Natarsha Wong