From October 25th to 26th, the Faculty of Organizational Sciences successfully organized the third Week of Student Startups—an event aimed at promoting entrepreneurship and showcasing student startups. The Week of Student Startups is part of the 'Take an Idea' project, which FON organizes in collaboration with the 'Digital Serbia' Initiative and startup ecosystem partners, with support from USAID.
On the final day, October 26th, a pitching session was held featuring five student startup teams. These teams developed their ideas under the mentorship of FON faculty members as part of the second cycle of the 'Route2Launch' startup mentorship program. The teams presented their ideas to an expert panel, including Đorđe Filipović (30Hills), Dane Atanasković (The Other Guy), Bojan Popić (ICT Hub), Aleksandar Šoškić (Nordeus), Dejan Tonić (EBRD), Nevena Janković Borozan (Science and Technology Park Belgrade), Tadej Kurepa (Digital Serbia Initiative), Milena Milić (Tenderly), and the event audience.
Following the pitching session, a ceremony was held to officially announce and promote mentors for startups in the initial development phase who successfully completed the 'Expert2Mentors' training program to enhance startup mentoring skills. A total of eleven faculty members and associates from FON were promoted: Prof. Dr. Slađana Barjaktarović Rakočević, Dr. Nemanja Milanović, Prof. Dr. Ivan Luković, Ivan Todorović, Dr. Milica Jovanović, Dr. Radul Milutinović, Dr. Milan Okanović, Anđelija Đorđević Tomić, Andrea Nikolić, Ognjen Nikolić, and Ognjen Anđelić. Certificates were ceremoniously presented to all mentors by Vladimir Radovanović, Assistant Minister from the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation.
The event was marked by speeches from Vukašin Grozdić, State Secretary at the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation, Prof. Dr. Milan Martić, Dean of the Faculty of Organizational Sciences, and Nebojša Bjelotomić, CEO of the 'Digital Serbia' Initiative.
Additionally, the event featured the promotion of the book 'Startups in Focus' by Prof. Dr. Slavica Cicvarić Kostić, Prof. Dr. Miloš Milosavljević, and Dr. Milan Okanović. The book aims to promote entrepreneurship and cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset through examples of successful startup practices from the local startup ecosystem.
As an introduction to the final day, two workshops were held for students on the first day: 'How to Build a Startup Team?' and 'Design and Development of Digital Products.' The speakers were Nana Radenković, Co-founder and Program Manager at Nova Iskra, and Stefan Trkulja, Product Designer at the Uplimit startup and founder of the 'Design Zone' community.
The activities of the Faculty of Organizational Sciences within the 'Take an Idea' project focus on improving mentoring capacities at faculties, developing an academic mentoring community, increasing the number of student startup teams, enhancing the visibility of innovations developed at faculties, and promoting examples of good startup practices from the local ecosystem.
More information about the 'Take an Idea' project can be obtained through the official project website www.preduzmi.rs, and information about FON's project activities via email at preduzmiideju@fon.bg.ac.rs.
