Start-up contest for young people kicks off nationwide

The annual contest Startup Wheel 2017 was launched in Ho Chi Minh City, to encourage a start-up spirit among students and youth aged between 18 and 35 years across the country.

Speakers at the Startup Wheel 2017 event (Photo: dantri.com.vn)

The contest, which runs through August 2017, is co-held by the HCM City Youth Federation’s Business Startup Support Centre (BSSC), the HCM City Young Business People Association (YBA) and the municipal Department of Sciences and Technology.

It is divided into two categories, the first for people who have a start-up idea, but yet to establish business and the second for those who have run businesses under five years.

Some 100 semi-finalists will go through challenges of writing their business plans, designing their trademark recognition tools or promoting their products and joining the Startup Exchange. The best 10 projects will compete in the finale for the championship.

The event aims to look for long-term start-up models, thus proving start-up is not a trend, but a race with consistency and relentless efforts, said Truong Ly Hoang Phi, Director of the BSSC.

A series of events including programmes on sharing start-up ideas, experience and skills will be held during the contest to connect communities and start-up ecosystem and help project planners seek partners and co-founders.

Started in 2013, the Startup Wheel has drawn more than 2,100 start-up ideas, models and businesses, of which many projects have obtained initial achievements, such as Cheap Tickets - website for selling tickets online, Luckytel - intelligent queuing and Monkey in Black – creative café.

(Source: NDO)