Startup Booster - Build your idea into a business!

What is Startup Booster?
The Startup Booster program is an incubator program with the aim of gaining traction with business ideas by students who are not certain what steps are required to start up a business successfully or would like to get their product to market faster. Success is not only about the product or service, but other factors such as your team, conducting customer meetings and market research and much more. The program puts all this into a system and gives you a framework for how to proceed, not matter where you are in the process currently! Incubator programs typically run over a longer period, and this course runs over 8 weeks, with no sessions during the autumn break.

Who can apply?
Any and all students are welcome to participate in the program, regardless of field of study. The program is suitable for students with an idea or student-run company that wants to test and further develop their idea through a structured program. It is not a requirement to have established a company or to have a team before or during the course.
*Remember to register for the course through the Google Forms in the Facebook description of the program*

Is it free?
Yes, it is free for all students! The program is delivered by the UiS LevelUp incubator, and the program and food are all free.

Program content
The program starts on Tuesday 13th September and runs for 8 weeks.
The sessions are held physically (No digital recordings) and consists of learning modules that relate to the subject we are exploring that week. This means that week 2 introduces elements of market clarification and segmentation, while week 3 focuses on various ways of making revenue of your idea. The sessions are scheduled to last 3 hours, but could run longer depending on the Q&A.

UiS LevelUps goal for the program is to get students to validate their business ideas at an early stage, build up basic skills for concept development, as well as prepare more students for setting up a company and financing.

Each weekly meeting will consist of physical lectures on that week’s topic, workshop sessions and tasks that we recommend completing before next session related to your individual projects.

Uke 1 (13.09) Introday
Get to know the program, how to work through the program and meet other innovative students.

Uke 2 (21.09) Validating your idea and finding your perfect market
How do you estimate the size of your market? This week we provide you with useful tools to identify who you are selling to and if the idea is worth pursuing.

Uke 3 (27.09) Team and competence
Is having the right team so important? It cannot be emphasized enough how essential a good team can be to your success. But can you acquire these without capital? Yes. Together, we find out what your team is lacking and how to find the right people.

Uke 4 (04.10) Pitching
Pitching an idea to a stranger can be tough! What do the customer and investor expect to hear in a pitch? We take you through the dos and don’ts on how to build the perfect pitch and impress whoever is on the receiving line.

Uke 5 (18.10) Business Model and Value Proposition
What are the different ways you can monetize your idea? What is included in a business model, and what what price should you set for your product?

Uke 6 (25.10) Patents, trademarks and company structure
This week we focus on the framework of the company. What company form (AS, ENK etc) should you choose, how do you set it up and what is a shareholder agreement anyways?
We guide you on what documents and agreements should be in place and how to protect your technology and idea from others.

Uke 7 (01.11) Salestraining
Many are bad at accepting a “no”. This is part of the game and in week 7 we venture into the land of sales techniques, prospecting customers and how best to deal with refusals and arguments when entering the business world.

Uke 8 (08.11) Pithing and final dinner
We end the program with a great dinner, a final pitch from all participants and award one student with “This year’s startup student 2022”.

Apply for the program
One can quickly apply for the program via this google form.
Søknadsfrist er 10. mars

Additional questions
Questions around the program or application process can be sent to Richard Reistad.
Richard Reistad – Fasilitator for LevelUp og inkubatorprogrammet 2022 richard.reistad@uis.no

Hope to see you all on the 13th of September!