Entrepreneurship & sport: a look back on the 1st week of the “outdoor” themed “Start-Up Week”, sponsored by Private Sport Shop
Start-Up Week is back on the campus of Montpellier Business School for a 6th edition. Until September 20th, this team-based Business Game challenges each week the 900 final year students of the Grande Ecole Program to start a business.
Supervised by a dozen expert coaches, the 127 teams are trying to reinvent this year the companies of the sports sector. A small novelty of this edition, the sport theme is divided into 3 sub-segments of the market to renew the challenge and concepts every week. For this first round, the apprentice entrepreneurs have focused their skills and creativity around outdoor sport.
Private Sport Shop launches the expert conferences and shares market trends
Yannick Léouffre, CEO of PRIVATE SPORT SHOP, leader of private sales of sports equipment and publishing partner, has agreed to inaugurate this sports week with an opening conference delivering the main issues and opportunities of the sports market. “The spectrum of the sports market is very broad,” explains Vanessa Motais, Chargé de Mission at the Montpellier Business School Entrepreneurship Centre. “This can range from the equipment sector, to broadcast rights, to innovations in the disciplines themselves “.
Yannick Léouffre explained to the graduating students that “there are five major market trends. Athletes are looking for more autonomy and want to practice without a club or license. The angle of well-being is gaining momentum, and it is the practice of outdoor sports which completes the podium of customer needs”.
A successful simulation resulting in eligible concepts within the incubator of the Entrepreneurship Centre
At the end of this intensive and challenging week, students played the pitch game in front of a jury of professionals. “In addition to innovation and the concept, each group had to take into account the financial realism and the launching strategy required in the context of a simulation of fundraising,” explains Cédrine Joly, Director of the Grande Ecole Program.
The top five projects competed in a final phase of pitches in front of their comrades and a jury of experts. While some students surfed the trend of dating apps, electric bikes or collaborative economy systems like BlablaCar, the first place was disputed by Altibuzz, a vibrating altimeter to tell the user when to trigger his parachute, and Lensup, a virtual reality solution that transforms the real surroundings into a video game. After a slight suspense, it was ultimately the second group, with the larger target and relying on the successes of the video game market as Pokémon Go, who won this first week of challenge.
“The projects presented this week were of very good quality and can be incubated within the Entrepreneurship Centre for students who wish to do so. This is the opportunity to remind people that the Montpellier Business School incubator is open to all: students, graduates, teachers, professionals from the region … “concludes Katherine Gundolf, Director of the Entrepreneurship Centre.
