During annual startup festival Latitute59, the finals of business idea development program STARTER Tallinn took place on May 19th.
Once again this was a very successful event for EKA – two out of the nine finalists had team members from EKA and the grand prize of the program went to team ‘DOKAS’ which was lead by Gytis Dovydaitis. Gytis is a EKA’s doctoral exchange student from Vytautas Magnus University (Lithuania). The second team that made it to the finals was ‘KNOT NOT TOTE’ by EKA fashion design student Lisette Sivard and graphic design Ingel-Kristen Veevo.
The grand prize of the program is a monetary prize of 1000 EUR from the Entrepreneurship Office of Tallinn, additionally the participants got special prizes from supporters of the program.
The winning idea ‘DOKAS’ institutions and their visitors. It operates as a gamified loyalty system where visitors receive points and card-shaped playable art pieces by visiting events, while institutions gain data-driven insights into their target audiences and tools to award those visitors who matter the most with custom made gifts. The idea is already functioning and has been included in the Kaunas 2022 Culture Capital of Europe 2022 program.
‘KNOT NOT TOTE’ offers handmade biodegradable bottle bags which make carrying your reusable bottle comfortable and stylish – using a bottle bag reduces your ecological footprint as it makes it easier to choose tap water instead of bottled water. In addition to everyday use, Knot Not Totes could also find use in carrying reusable cups at festivals
Nine teams who made it to the finals were selected from the participants of the spring 2022 semester particiapnts from Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn University, Estonian Academy of Arts, Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre and Estonian Entrepreneurship University of Applied Sciences. The program was open to the high school students, e.g. there was a team participating from Tallinn Secondary School of Science.
STARTER in a joint program of Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn University, Estonian Academy of Arts, Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, Estonian Business School and Estonian Entrepreneurship University of Applied Sciences that leads the students from idea to business model during one semester.