TSU Institute of Economics and Management has launched Level Up, a club of entrepreneurs for students of the University of Tomsk. The club's goal is to support student projects—to help finalize and promote them, and to host meetings with entrepreneurs, as well as crash courses, workshops, and consultations. The community is open for students of all Tomsk universities.
The initiative to create the club belongs to the students of the TSU Institute of Economics and Management. The head of the club, Ekaterina Prudnikova, a 4th-year student studying management, says that Level Up pursues several objectives. First, it is meant to shape a community of student entrepreneurs. They will be guided on their path to create an individual concept or a project. Another important aspect is orienteering, the search for growth opportunities at the university and beyond. Workshops are planned for once a month, but more can be organized on request. At the club's opening, one of the ideas was immediately voiced by an Institute of Economics and Management student, Danila Volozhanin: “It would be interesting to hear about financial models from a financial expert.”
The next step is the formation of a circle of experts. Present at the club's opening was a marketing specialist, Kirill Stepiko, who created a number of courses on marketing and franchising. He noted: “The club is not there to teach you, but rather to help you, consult and accompany you.”
“Business is not the focus of the club of entrepreneurship,” Ekaterina Prudnikova emphasized. “One could come here without an idea for a business or a project—you are only required to have a desire to learn something new and to nurture your skills. There is always a hint of entrepreneurship in studies, in personal affairs—you are always building a personal trajectory. We are ready to offer different options. It is also important that this is a student organization, meaning that we have a friendly ‘vibe’ here. We are on first-name terms, and experts, I think, will be on the same wavelength with us.”
Students at TSU and other Tomsk universities, such as SibMed and TPU, visited the club's opening. There they could attend presentations by experienced entrepreneurs and participate in a business quiz. The team Business Cats won the quiz and received gifts from the event's sponsors.
The student club Level Up is based at the Center of Entrepreneurship of TSU Institute of Economics and Management. The Center was founded in 2018. During its lifetime, courses on entrepreneurship for both “physicists” and “lyricists” were launched, and the university is making it possible for students to submit start-up pitches as graduation theses, participate in business accelerators and various federal programs, and apply for a new bachelor’s program “Entrepreneurship and Project Management, Captains”.
At the club's opening, the head of the Center of Entrepreneurship, Deputy Director of the Institute of Economics and Management, Viktoriya Makoveeva, noted:
“I am glad to see that among the attendees are students from various academic programs and especially from different universities: it shows that the entrepreneur community of the University of Tomsk will grow. There are a lot of grants and other entrepreneurship activities open for participation, such as accelerators and trainings—some of which focus on technologies. You can earn your first million as early as in February 2023 in the new federal project Platform for University Techpreneurship: you have two months to finalize your idea and get good funds for its implementation. This program will stay in effect until 2030, so you have great chances of receiving all kinds of support. Now it is important to finalize the idea, gather a team, establish teamwork, and interact with professionals—that is what the student entrepreneurship club is for.”
Viktoriya Makoveeva donated the book “100 Ideas for a University Start-Up”, emphasizing that sometimes it is the most unconventional ideas that give birth to the most successful projects.
All those wishing to become members of the club and receive announcements of events are asked by the organizers to fill out a form.
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Text and photo by: TSU Institute of Economics and Management