The STARTERtallinn Grand Prix prize was won by the TalTech student team TraynMe, consisting of Argo Käsper, Toomas Tahves, Mal Kubati, and Carlo Porcelli. TraynMe has created an important improvement for 3D artists that makes rendering videos and images easier and faster. The team was mentored and coached by Kristjan Kolbre.
The STARTERtallinn Grand Prix award was presented by Krista Kink from Tallinn Enterprise Centre.
One of the two inspiration prizes was won by the team RSWL, led by TalTech student Anna Prokofjeva together with Dmitri Kostand. They developed a simple tool for people interested in creating software but having no programming skills. With this system, you can plan your own software solution and generate a program automatically. Their mentor and coach was Martin Bristol.
The second inspiration award went to the TalTech student team SportiveBuddy. The work of Elnur Valikhanli and Ali Atakan Basaran brings together sports enthusiasts and offers a range of services. The team was coached by Airi Noppel.
In addition to the three main prizes, several special prizes were from the partners and supporters of STARTERtallinn. More information can be found on the Facebook event page of the STARTERtallinn Autumn 2023 Demo Day.
The programme launched in mid-September allowed 45 teams to learn about entrepreneurship during a two-month period. Under the guidance of mentors, they also developed their business ideas and the nine best teams chosen in the preliminary rounds presented their idea in the final of the competition in front of a panel of judges. This was the last class of the 8-year programme.
‘Over the years, we have helped hundreds of teams and learned a lot about how to help find a business idea and build an initial team around it. For our part, we will continue to provide support for the entrepreneurial ideas of the students of the University of Technology through the Startup Centre of TalTech, but STARTERtallinn will not be continuing in this form,’ said Kristy Tättar, Programme Director of STARTERtallinn.
STARTER is a sub-programme of the entrepreneurship education programme (ettevõtlusõpe.ee) and it was launched in 2016. STARTER, an idea development programme with a duration of three months, takes place twice a year and includes a launch event, a series of trainings and workshops, a networking/mentoring event, coaching events, and a demo day. The programme brings together the expertise and resources of eight Estonian universities and includes more than fifty mentors, providing also cutting-edge business advice from top industry experts. The programme is funded by the European Social Fund.