Last week, BRAIN arranged Startup.ai with the concept “Shark Tank” in the Mine, inspired by the TV-show from the US. Startup.ai is an annual event with the aim of connecting students and startups together. BRAIN as an organization focuses on being a link between AI students, AI companies and AI research.
By Ida Øian
Each student was given 10 000 NOK “false money” to invest in seven different startups. They were divided into seven different groups that took turns listening to pitches from each of the startups. Lastly, they had to invest in the startups they thought were most interesting. The victory went to the startup with the most investments. The event was intended to show and let the students experience how investment works in real life. The main sponsors were SpareBank 1 SMN and PWC. As mentioned, there was a total of seven participating startups that had the opportunity to pitch their ideas to the students. These were Vake, EagleOds, NovaTech, SpillFree, Omnimod, WePost and Resolve.
The event was opened with a welcome speech by Knut Eilif Halgunset, Head of Transformation and Strategic Partners at SpareBank 1 SMN. He encouraged and engaged the students to take part in startups and pointed out that it is the students who are the future. The evening continued with the pitching rounds, followed by a Kahoot. The students had to mingle with the startups to get a good chance at winning the Kahoot, with the opportunity to win AirPods, as well as other cool prizes. The main age group was around 20-22 years old, and most were at the start of their studies. We took a status update along the way and several of the students could report that they had invested money quite evenly to the various startups.
Furthermore, the best startup of the evening was announced. VAKE secured first place, secondly Eagleodds.ai and Omnimod in third place. Finally, the students were transported by bus to Søstrene Karlsen where there was held a dinner and several prize ceremonies. This was the sixth year that Startup.ai was organized and contributes to more students having the opportunity to explore the innovation environment, gain an insight into startups and network. In addition, they get to explore the environment in a creative through a low-treshold event for students at NTNU.
