Ideas competition for pupils seeks the best start-up ideas

Joint project Gründergeist #Youngstarts Münsterland calls for participation until September 4

Get a taste of entrepreneurial air and get started with your own ideas: The joint project Gründergeist #Youngstarts Münsterland is calling on school students from all over Münsterland to take part in a major ideas competition. The competition is looking for useful, funny, new and clever ideas - from sustainable straws and apps to new recycling technologies. Ideas can be submitted in the form of a video or one-page text at www.youngstarts-gruendungsidee.com. The deadline for applications is September 4. 

Inspiring young people with a founding spirit and motivating them to get started - that is the goal of the Gründergeist #Youngstarts Münsterland project, which, in addition to the ideas competition, also provides know-how from experienced founders via the project homepage and the associated social media presences on Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram. "Video tutorials, start-up aids and impressions of regional start-ups are available online, providing the best basis for qualifying for the ideas competition, which will take place on September 28 at the Trafostation in Münster," says Jennie Wolf from the Gründergeist #Youngstarts Münsterland project. She also appeals to parents: "Support your children's founding spirit and encourage them to participate in the ideas competition." 

From all the applications, five will be shortlisted on September 28 and will be allowed to present their idea live. There are vouchers for a trip on the MS Günther, cinema vouchers and exclusive start-up picnic boxes with non-cash prizes from the participating start-ups to be won. The three best teams will also be supported with an intensive workshop to further develop their start-up idea. 

The Start-up Weeks, which the Gründergeist #Youngstarts Münsterland project held with students in recent months to prepare them for the competition, have already shown that many ideas are slumbering in the minds of the young people. 17 teams from four schools took part, got to know young start-ups from Münsterland and worked out their own ideas with start-up experts. 

And the example of Nour Idelbi from Münster shows how quickly a small idea can reach market maturity: The 17-year-old currently attends the Freiherr-vom-Stein-Gymnasium (Freiherr-vom-Stein High School) in Münster and was allowed to get a first taste of entrepreneurship last year as part of the Start-up Week at her school. Then she quickly set up her team for SafeSpace. Her idea: a platform and community whose functions are designed to help young women in particular get home safely, for example through verified ridesharing or emergency functions. At the end of June, SafeSpace successfully made it to the winner's podium at the "STARTUP TEENS Challenge" in Berlin: With 1st place, the five-member team from Münster was now able to secure 10,000 euros in prize money for the further development of its idea and app.

"We hope that the ideas competition will produce many such successes and that we can use them to open a door here and there for students," says Jennie Wolf.

All information on how to participate in the ideas competition is available on the project homepage: www.youngstarts-gruendungsidee.com 

More about Gründergeist #Youngstarts Münsterland

The joint project Gründergeist #Youngstarts Münsterland, which strengthens the start-up intensity in the Münsterland and opens up new start-up potential and target groups with target group-specific offers, is being funded by the European Union and the NRW Ministry of Economics as part of the ERDF call "Regio.NRW". 

Münsterland e.V. is implementing the project pillar for the school sector as lead partner in cooperation with the Gesellschaft für Wirtschaftsförderung im Kreis Warendorf (gfw) and Technologieförderung Münster GmbH.

www.youngstarts-gruendungsidee.com 
www.youngstarts-muensterland.de