Entrepreneurial Workshop

On 30 March 2017, budding entrepreneurs of the Global Entrepreneurship Program, Hangzhou, (GEP) and The China Accelerator, Shanghai, jointly organised a four-hour entrepreneurial workshop in Zhejiang University.

After a quick introduction of China Accelerator and what they do, entrepreneurs of the Accelerator and GEP quickly gave their elevator pitches, highlighting what the problem was, their solution and also the value proposition.

With the arrival of pizza and soft drinks the participants were divided into teams of 12, each of which took part in the ‘Marshmallow Challenge’ in which teams were tasked to build the tallest structure using spaghetti sticks, string, tape and a marshmallow. After a lot of brainstorming, the program director at the China Accelerator went on to reveal some underlying principles and lessons from the Marshmallow challenge and its importance for entrepreneurs.

Soon afterwards the teams were given the main assignment and sixty minutes to understand the business model of the 10 startups from Chinaccelerator. Our GEP students became 'innovation consultants' and not only provided their critical understanding but also suggestions how to re-design the business model. The interaction not only led to insights in entrepreneurship but also new friendships between international entrepreneurs were formed.

Written by Selina Ye Xing, Zhejiang University