From Students to Entrepreneurs
– When we were invited to join the MIT Entrepreneurship School last year, we saw it as a great opportunity to expand our network in an educational and innovative environment, says Hana Colakovic and Michelle Sæther, entrepreneurs and founders of Svippin.
Serial entrepreneur and world-class MIT Professor Bill Aulet is coming from Boston to Bergen 18 – 20 May to lead our Entrepreneurship School; a practical and inspirational introduction in to how the best entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs in the world work and succeed.
We spoke with Hana Colakovic (CEO) and Michelle Sæther (CTO), entrepreneurs and founders of the company Svippin who participated at the Entrepreneurship School with Bill Aulet in 2019:
Why did you attend the MIT Entrepreneurship School?
– When we were invited by Sparebank 1 SR-Bank to join the MIT Entrepreneurship School last year, we saw it as a great opportunity to expand our network in an educational and innovative environment.
Despite the fact that we were delivering our master's thesis while participating, it was very engaging and helpful for us to participate. Not only was the programme educational and valuable, we are left with good relationships with people who can help us reach our goals further and vice versa.
How has the programme helped you as entrepreneurs?
– We are educated within the subject of innovation and entrepreneurship thus we knew a bit about the subject before we participated. However, the way the theme was presented by Bill Aulet made it much more appealing.
Aulet gave a lot of relevant examples which made it easier for everyone to understand the relationship between problem-tool-solution. It was simply a fun and more up-to-date method for learning about various innovative methods and tools.
How would you describe Bill Aulet?
– Bill Aulet is incredibly talented and engaging. He presents examples that make you see different situations in a new perspective, and he often initiated open discussions about various issues - which gave room for perspectives from the participants. Aulet, presents relatively complex business cases in an easy-to-understand manner, and he is very inspiring.
We recommend everyone who has the opportunity, to participate in this interesting programme, says Hana and Michelle.
Learn more and sign up for Entrepreneurship School in Bergen 18 – 20 May.
The Entrepreneurship School is organised in collaboration with VIS.
Contact Information
Kjersti Boge Christensen
Communication Manager
Svippin
Svippin is an app that encourages users to shop locally and attend local events instead of staying at home with digital e-commerce, streaming services and home delivery of food.
In Svippin, users can check what is happening around them locally, when it is happening and where it is happening, and users are rewarded for moving.
The customers of Svippin. can market themselves and their offerings like pins or coupons in a fun and modern way, to create more activity and sales in their physical space. The vision of Svippin is to create a vibrant city life by promoting engaging activities and great deals.
The creators of Svippin wants to vitalise the cities by playing on the surroundings. The company has won several awards, among others the Innovation Award from the College of Western Norway and the Gründerhub Prize 2019 in Bergen.
Furthermore, Svippin has received support from Innovation Norway and the Norwegian Research Council. The project has completed a beta testing phase with Os city center in Vestland with great results.