StartupRealities

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...

StartupRealities No 43 NorthKoreaWorks is a staffing agency which recruits young North Korean workers under contract with the North Korean government and places them in travel and hospitality jobs in the US and Europe. Part of the workers' salary is paid as tax to the North Korean government but workers are free to save the rest in their personal US/European bank account. CEO QUOTE "Airlines and hotels love employing North Korean staff: they are hard-working, dependable and very respectful to customers. By working with us, the young North Koreans also have a chance to see the world, which the remaining 99% of North Koreans can only dream of," said NorthKoreaWorks founder and CEO Kim Wonk. "We sometimes get accused of supporting an authoritarian regime but do you see anything wrong in giving young people a chance, vocational training, foreign language skills and an opportunity to open up their mind. Who knows who the next leader of North Korea may be. He or she...

StartupRealities No 37 AutismActivism is a recruitment and placement agency that places autistic people to work remotely in technical roles at startup companies. People on the autistic spectrum are often very quantitative but have challenges in personal communication, so remote work suits their lifestyle and best utilises their potential. CEO QUOTE "Giving autistic people technical roles at startups is a great win-win solution. Autistic people are an underutilised resource in society. They often have superb computer programming, mathematical and computational skills which are wasted if the person is not employed in a relevant role. On the other hand, startups around the world face a talent shortage exactly in these areas. We bring the two together and ... Voila!" said AutismActivism founder and CEO Antoine Acton. Autism awareness ribbon (Source: Wikipedia )