StartupRealities

Startup No 200 Exec Ed For All is an online education company which produces quarterly digests (summaries) of new developments in a dozen MBA-type subject areas (Marketing, Finance, Leadership, etc.). The digests come in two formats: email newsletter and audio podcast. The novelty-focused series forms a continuous top-up programme in which every week one of 12 quarterly newsletters and podcasts are published on a rolling basis. The company's target market are business executives and practitioners who have graduated from university at least five years earlier. In effect, the company democratises access to high-end executive education, as the cutting-edge business-related programmes that leading business schools sell at USD 2,000 per day of training are now opened up to the mass market for an annual subscription of USD 50-100. INTERVIEW WITH THE CEO: "Most MBA alumni and masters graduates find it frustrating or a waste of time when they sign up for a regular online or on-campus ...

Startup No 199 - #StartupRealities 2020 series ApprenticeEntrepreneurs is an education and training company which runs rotational 5-year apprenticeship placements at startups for entrepreneurially-minded 18-year-olds. After 5 rotations at 5 different startups, the graduates of the programme receive a diploma which the company deems equivalent to a university degree. The programme duration varies in some cases: occasionally 16-year-olds get admitted into a 7-year entrepreneurship apprenticeship. For university graduates with an arts and humanities background the programme is shortened to 4 years; while university graduates in business and engineering complete the programme and receive the diploma in 3 years. The last year of placement is usually combined with a stint at a world-renowned accelerator, e.g. Y Combinator, TechStars, 500 Startups, SeedCamp or Wayra. CEO QUOTE "Learning by doing is our motto. Budding entrepreneurs are best taught by being put in the thick of it, rather t...

Startup No 198 - #StartupRealities 2020 series DecentralizedTutoring is a global online education company that supports university students enrolled in online programmes by organising local physical meetup study groups and project groups supervised by qualified tutors. The company works with a range of students enrolled in online courses delivered by Code Academy, Coursera, EdX, FutureLearn, Kadenze, Khan Academy, Skillshare, Udacity and Udemy. Online MBA programmes such as ThePowerMBA, Quantic MBA and AltMBA also have their community groups and team project groups supervised by the company. CEO QUOTE "Everything is moving online these days. Yet, human interaction remains most intimate and efficient in face-to-face format. Students appreciate both the support of our tutors and the physical venues where we organise group meetups in the neighbourhood of the student. Convenience, teamwork and intimacy are our keywords." - said DecentralizedTutoring founder and CEO Decima Tuton...

Startup No 197 - #StartupRealities 2020 series BoatyMcBoatBase is a restaurant chain which operates a central hub of restaurant catering facilities and a flotilla of boats that function as restaurant venues while cruising in open water off coastal cities. The hub base stocks up the boats with a fixed menu of dishes and drinks, similar to the way onboard airplane catering works for business class passengers. Once stocked up for the day, the cruising boat restaurants pick up and drop off customers from centrally located stands at downtown sea or river piers at regular intervals. BUSINESS MODEL The business model of BoatyMcBoatBase is viable in major cities where it is cheaper to operate ships in open waters than to buy or rent expensive waterfront real estate for restaurant venues. At the same time, labour costs are lower as the food is not cooked on site by expensive chefs, but is prepared in the factory-size facilities of the out-of-town hub bases. Waiters and staff costs are similar ...

Startup No 196 - #StartupRealities 2020 series Applied Entrepreneurship Platform is a global university network which promotes the teaching of entrepreneurship to all university students, irrespective of their academic background and university major. The network is at the same time also a faculty platform for entrepreneurs who are interested in and good at teaching; and a membership platform for budding entrepreneurs and potential future startup founders.  South Korean TV series "Startup" (Image source:  Wikipedia ) The universities who are members of the network offer at least one Entrepreneurship course to every single bachelors and masters student and make it known to their students that they are expected to take one course, usually called Applied Entrepreneurship. CEO QUOTE "Clearly we don't believe that every single university student will become an entrepreneur. What we expect is that every single university student will develop an entrepreneurial mindset. We...

Startup No 195 - #StartupRealities 2020 series CampusAtHeart is a real estate developer that builds new cities centred around a "university city" hub. The company normally obtains commitments by at least three higher education institutions to set up campuses in a new "university city" before giving a project the go-ahead. The company's policy is to attract diverse participants that offer university programmes in different price ranges. The anchor institutions usually include at least one of each of the three categories: the campus of an existing university; a joint-venture campus by two or more universities; and a newly-founded higher education institution. CEO QUOTE "Young people make a city come alive. When there are multiple university campuses at the heart of a city, the city starts living. All pieces come together once the university hub is up-and-running: residential housing gets built in concentric circles around the campuses; restaurants and service...