Students of Metropolitan University Budapest made it to the top 10 in the first university-level startup project competition. The event was the grand finale of the Hungarian Startup University Program, which aims to promote and educate university students about the world of innovation and startup. 

The Hungarian Startup University Program 

The HSUP is a free online startup course for university students running over the course of a whole academic year. Funded by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office, the program is free and open to all Hungarian university students. Students of Budapest Metropolitan University could join the program at both Bachelor’s and Master’s level by registering for it as an elective course. 

Participants could learn about the world of startups and could acquire key practical skills and knowledge needed in this field. The program also offered a chance for students to get active and gain real-life experience of the process of starting a business. 

A year of learning and working in groups 

During the first semester, students could participate in a modular e-learning course, and they could strengthen their knowledge with the help of interactive tests. 

In the second semester, students had two choices: they could either continue their individual modular learning, or they could join a project group to work on a startup idea with other students. 

The project groups revolved around the best selected business ideas presented by students - this year, nine projects were started based on ideas submitted by students of METU. 

The groups received mentoring support from experienced METU professors, and students working in the projects were also rewarded with 4 months of scholarship funded by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office.  

Demo Day - business pitch competition 

The highlight of the group work process was the business pitch competition in August. The ten best groups were selected and invited to the ‘Demo Day’ to present their ideas to professional investors.  The stakes were high for the students: the top three groups received funding so that they can turn their business idea into reality. 

The team of METU students also made it to the top 10 with an innovative project idea. The ‘E-Slip’ is a solution that would automatically convert sales slips into an electronic format. This would provide a base for creating financial reports and overviews, and the data accumulated could be us for personalizing promotion and for big data analyses. In addition, it could also be used to cut back waste by replacing traditional paper slips. 

Professor Dr Bálint Bachmann, the rector of the university also praised the achievements of the students and the program. 

“At Budapest Metropolitan University, we aim to equip our students with practical knowledge and experience that continuously contributes to building their own brand, and which already gives them a competitive advantage by the time they graduate. We are happy that the Hungarian Startup University Program backs this approach of ours. We are very proud of our team for getting into to the competition finals, and we would like to congratulate all of the participants.” 

2021. 09. 22.