Idea Bootcamp is an extra-curricular programme delivered by the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship for University of Auckland students and staff to strengthen their ideation and validation skills and give entrepreneurship a go. It starts with exploring how ideas are created and then challenges participants to come up with venture ideas and then test and develop these ideas.

We asked two student participants to blog about their experience of Idea Bootcamp and what they got out of taking part. Idea Bootcamp ran 25 June to 6 July 2018 during the University of Auckland Inter-Semester Break.

Debbie Tan
Fifth-year student, Bachelor of Arts / Bachelor of Commerce Conjoint

Idea Bootcamp was a full-on learning experience that taught me invaluable lessons about market validation, team building, and put into practice what I have learned about entrepreneurship.

Variety
As an aspiring social entrepreneur, I appreciated how Idea Bootcamp expressed all kinds of different ‘flavours’ of business, from commercial to non-profit to other blends of businesses. From first-year to masters students, there was a huge range of people taking part in the Idea Bootcamp programme.

My team
A key part of Idea Bootcamp that I enjoyed was my team experience. We gave this journey our all. We refined our idea, talked to people and generated 272 survey results and 72 customer interviews, and (in a team with exactly zero accounting students) we even dealt with financials. I would gladly say that this is the best team I’ve had in all of my time at University. We’re all from different faculties. Idea Bootcamp made it possible for us to find each other and unite based on our common passions for nutrition and sustainability.

Amazing speakers
I enjoyed the wonderful speakers and panelists we had. They each shared useful insights and inspired us along our journey, from the very beginnings of writing up a lean canvas to validating your idea to financing your idea. I particularly enjoyed the learnings shared by Shay Lawrence from CaliWoods and Amanda Judd from Kai – they are living proof that people can make a difference and create a better future for people and the planet through business.

Our facilitator Jamie unpacked the Entrepreneurial Mindset over two intense weeks. He was a motivating and encouraging source of wisdom throughout our journey. Although Idea Bootcamp was intense, it felt like the last day came way too soon. Listening to everyone’s pitches showed me how far we had all come from day one. Just being around this group of people and talking to them has fueled me with more inspiration, motivation and hope for the next generation.

No matter what I work on in the future, I know that experiences like these will leave a lasting positive impact on me. Practicing entrepreneurship will help me continue to hone my entrepreneurial mindset. I’m above all grateful to have had this opportunity and I can’t thank the team enough for making this experience possible.

The Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship has an amazing group of people and resources for anyone with passion and a drive to bring their idea to life. If you’re wondering whether this is for you, I highly encourage you to give this a shot. You’ll be challenged, you’ll go through a rollercoaster, and face the fire and come through on the other side – and you will be all the better for it.

Yue Zhang
Third-year student, Bachelor of Health Sciences / Bachelor of Laws Conjoint

I became an Unleash Space member last year and signed up for Idea Bootcamp after participating in this year’s Velocity Innovation Challenge with a couple of friends. I was hoping to learn about how to validate potential markets because that was the major obstacle our team faced in the Innovation Challenge, but I have learned much more than just that at Idea Bootcamp.

Idea Bootcamp was intense, and yet the most precious part of my entrepreneurial journey. I was really nervous at the beginning, walking on thin ice and worrying people would disapprove of my idea. I still remember the morning we had our first pitch. I was at the Neon Foyer holding a poster with my idea written on it. After a little while, I gathered enough courage to discuss my idea with others and I actually enjoyed those conversations. Within ten minutes, I had an engineer and an IT person on my team!

In the next ten days, we developed this idea through secondary research, interviewed about 50 potential customers, drafted business proposals and presented it in front of three panelists and other teams. I learned how important it is to step outside my comfort zone – it was not that hard to talk with others about my idea!

Being creative was another important lesson I learned at Idea Bootcamp. When we first tried to build our prototype, we found most existing competitors were similar and thought we had to build something similar too. It took us some time to understand that if we just think outside the square, maybe we will find a better solution. We need to be creative if we want to be unique enough and continuously improve our business.

It was also really reassuring to work in an environment where I wasn’t afraid to take the initiative, make mistakes or hit barriers because I knew everyone was happy to support me and genuinely wanted me to succeed. Dr Jamie Newth from the Business School was our programme facilitator. He, together with many other guest speakers, covered the key aspects of starting a business. Starting a business was not as simple as I thought but also not so hard because even I, someone who has never taken an economics or finance course, was able to understand. Mai and Jenna, our programme coordinators, were always friendly, energetic and keen to help. Some investors came to talk about funding and grants too, which was helpful information. The panelists we had also gave us some really insightful advice we could use on our projects.

My team’s next step is to further develop the project we worked on at Idea Bootcamp. We are excited to enter this year’s Velocity $100K Challenge and are working on our entry at the moment! Thank you to the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Idea Bootcamp 2018 and this amazing opportunity to understand what entrepreneurship really means!

Find out more about programmes offered by the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

The participants of the 2018 Idea Bootcamp.