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Late November 2023, amidst exam season, Lea Ho, the Venture Cup Lead at Start Norway, received an unexpected call from a former rival.
"Would you organize Norway's largest student pitching competition?" The caller? Jonas Morshedy, CEO at Start Norway.
Despite past clashes, fueled by their shared passion and strong opinions, the frenemies joined forces to create Venture Cup 2024 to be hosted at the largest Startup event in Norway - Startup Extreme.
Venture Cup aims to foster entrepreneurship at an early stage, and give all students an opportunity to be creative and innovative. It shouldn't matter if you come from a small town near the countryside up north, or the capital - our goal is to create an arena for students across Norway where innovation can take place.
“I've developed a new approach to entrepreneurship after joining Start. I've connected with the innovation community, met inspiring people, as well as gained insight into all the opportunities for aspiring entrepreneurs.” - Une Newermann Wick, Link Utvikling
As you can imagine, the job cannot be done by two - so in addition to convincing Lea on board, the team also consists of six other students from all around Norway. Each bringing something unique to the table, united by the passion of entrepreneurship.
A year ago, we didn't know each other. Six months ago, we were still missing half of the team. Venture Cup is three months away. So, how on earth does this work? Though, how everyone said yes to being on this very seemingly chaotic team is still a mystery.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the competition being hosted by Start Norge, and celebrates so by a new format. Five different cities in Norway will host regional qualifiers where participants can pitch with an idea or startup - to potentially advance to the semi finals at Startup Extreme, the largest startup tech conference in Norway set in the beautiful Norwegian Alps of Hemsedal.
“I often wonder where I'd be today had I not been among the fortunate ones who joined Start." - Ådne Stenberg Vik, DN Executive Network
Qualified startups will also receive one month of incubator guidance to further develop their concept. The grand price? A huge gigantic round of applause, standing ovation and eyes of admiration.
Just kidding. We are happy to announce that the winners of Venture Cup 2024 will be able to secure a cash prize up to 100 000 NOK.
It's funny to look at our own team organizing this series of regional qualifiers, semifinals, finals and realize that we operate just like a startup. Did I mention that we do almost everything digitally? Our work hours consist of calling up very busy, important business people in the middle of their workday to probably disturb them, writing like our life depends on it on application forms to potential sponsors, and emailing local coordinators and teams to call in extra resources. Whew, that was a handful to read. I can confirm that it's a handful in real life too. Thankfully, we have a strong and driven team that works together towards a shared goal - bringing Venture Cup to life.
If you think what we do sounds slightly intriguing, and this expose of how we work did not completely throw you off, hit us up! Maybe we’ll see each other on a helicopter ride in Hemsedal?
Crossing our fingers.