UCL School of Management recently welcomed 27 postgraduate students from Singapore Management University for the first-ever Entrepreneurship Summer School. Organised and facilitated by the School’s Entrepreneurship team, with support from MSc Entrepreneurship alumni and current students, the one-week visit covered 8 academic sessions, including a panel discussion from London-based entrepreneurs who discussed the benefits and challenges of working within the city’s entrepreneurial space, and a Pitching Competition to conclude the week. On top of the academic sessions, the group had a chance to participate in the industry visits.

The group’s first visit was to Level39 of One Canada Square, a Canary Wharf-based company supporting fast-growth tech companies through access to high quality space, customers and talent. They were joined by Director of Level39 Amy French and CEO and Co-Founder of WyzePay, Ian Rae. Later in the week, students were thrilled to be taken on a tour of the Google HQ office in London by Head of Google Accelerator, Noa Havazelet, who also provided an insightful overview of Europe’s startup ecosystem.

In addition to academic sessions and site visits, students were also given a chance to meet with MSc Entrepreneurship alumni and current students, who supported with mentorship sessions and were on hand to share their own experiences of London’s entrepreneurship space with students. Throughout the course of the Summer School programme, students tackled important topics, such as ‘Playing and Winning the Venture Capitalist game’ and ‘Monetisation in the Tech World’, before enjoying a range of social activities including Boom Battle Bar and a pub dinner.

The Summer School then concluded with an exciting Pitching Competition, whereby students were given the opportunity to pitch their business ideas and showcase all that they had learned throughout their time at UCL School of Management. The competition offered two prizes: Best Pitch and Best Idea. ‘Equilibrium’ took home the prize for Best Idea after impressing the judges with their chronic health condition management system, while ‘Mothers First’ won the award for Best Pitch. Judges felt that their impactful pitch on the struggles of the postpartum period could strongly resonate not only with the Singaporean market, but also the UK market.

Thank you very much to all of the UCL School of Management staff involved in bringing the Entrepreneurship Summer School to life, most notably Programme Director Alina Kim, Programme Administrator Victoria Karaxha and Programme Director for MBA and Global Programmes Michael Manlagit.