4YFN backs the first Startup Weekend for university students in Barcelona

• 90 students from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), ESADE and the Istituto Europeo di Design (IED) will participate in the activity
• Students will develop projects from the ground up in just 54 hours and take part in talks and work sessions with experts from the digital sphere

November 26, 2015

4 Years From Now (4YFN), the Mobile World Capital Barcelona business platform for the growing community of global technology startups, organised the first Startup Weekend specifically aimed at universities in Barcelona. The event, focusing on the creation and development of startup projects, will be held at the MediaTIC building (Barcelona) from 27 to 29 November, and is expressly addressed to university students. The activity features collaboration by the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), ESADE and the Istituto Europeo di Design (IED), with support provided by Startup Weekend and UP Global, two platforms promoted by Google for Entrepreneurs.

4YFN is committed to promoting the values of entrepreneurship and innovation amongst students and strengthening their ties to the professional world. To this end, 4YFN applies the Startup Weekend dynamic to a new sphere, enabling the 90 young participants to enjoy an authentic startup creation experience. This initiative has produced great success stories, such as Kantox, a company that arose from Barcelona’s Startup Weekend and has already secured more than 15 million euros in financing.

This university edition of Startup Weekend will feature students from the UPC, ESADE and the IED, who will work in multidisciplinary teams. The goal is for all the groups to have a member with development and programming knowledge, an expert in business development, and a specialist in marketing and product development.

Intensive Entrepreneurship

In just 54 hours students will go through all the stages involved in the development of an Internet-based business idea. On Friday students will begin with “open-mic” sessions at which they will present their business ideas to the other participants. Following a vote on the best proposals, each student will choose the project they wish to develop, and working groups will be formed.

On Saturday the event will focus on the development of the startup projects and will feature specific training and consulting sessions, with specialised mentors like María Santolaria, Head of Innovation at Banc Sabadell; Oscar Sala, from Digital Business at the CaixaBank Lab; Emilio Avilés, entrepreneur and founder of SlashMobility; and David Pérez, co-founder of PopPlaces. The final projects will be presented before the contest’s panel of judges and the other participants on Sunday afternoon.