– A lot of students with a background in social science might not believe their field is relevant for the innovative community, says
Benjamin Bekken. He is creating a startup as a social science student.
By Stine Vedvik
On September 30th, Spark* hosted their annual Join a Startup Night (JASUN). This is an event for student startups to pitch their ideas to fellow peers, as well as being an event for students interested to join one of the attending startups. One of the students presenting their startup idea this year was Benjamin Bekken, a social science student currently pursuing his Master Degree in media and communication.
Social science students and the innovative community
Being in his fourth year of his education, Benjamin wishes he was introduced to the innovative community at NTNU earlier in his studies. He believes that social science students might not be aware of the opportunities they have, and that they might think that their professional backgrounds are not relevant to the innovative community.
I believe that the social science students are not aware of the opportunities they have
Benjamin Bekken
Benjamin believes this attitude is common among social science students, and that these students might not acknowledge the value of their competence in the innovative community. One of the measures Benjamin believes could draw more social science students toward thinking entrepreneurial is by introducing the students to the field earlier in their education.
By somehow incorporating entrepreneurship to the curriculum for bachelor students in social science, these students might be introduced to the opportunities in earlier and might get an interest in entrepreneurship
Benjamin Bekken
Benjamin has a great experience with the innovative community at NTNU, and encourages students that have an idea for a startup to seek out the opportunities on campus. His advice is to start as early as possible to get the most out of all the resources available.
A passion for content creation
When Benjamin was younger, he started creating videos that he posted on YouTube. He got a lot of views, and saw that there was a market for the kinds of videos he posted. Later Benjamin started his education in media science, while he also worked for a communication bureau. He got interested in entrepreneurship because of the opportunity to create something of his own based on what he is passionate about, which in Benjamin’s case is media and communication.
The opportunity to create something of my own that I am passionate about is what has drawn me into entrepreneurship.
Benjamin Bekken
While studying media science and working with content creation, Benjamin and his peer got the idea for WePost. He noticed that small businesses often had content of low quality posted to their social media, if they posted anything at all. That’s how he came up with an idea for a business model that tailors the needs of the customers based on a subscription. This way the customers get good quality content for their marketing based on their own needs.