Why is it important?

Most student entrepreneurs are suffering from resource shortages, especially in funding and engineer recruitment.

What does success look like?

By setting up a student category and increasing the exposure of their ideas, they can expect easier funding and scouted from engineers.

Key Metrics to measure

・Number of proposals for this category

・Number of applause and comments from the community

・Number of proposals that could be collaborated with other engineers

・Number of proposals that participated in the next fund

Challenge brief

Student entrepreneurs have exciting business ideas and motivations to start a business, but they lack the resources to implement them. In particular, the shortage of development funds and engineers is serious, and students have few opportunities to get these resources. However, Catalysts are easier to raise money than VCs(Venture Capital) and Business Contests, and also can connect globally with engineers in this community. However, the number of proposals to Catalysts is increasing rapidly, and the community does not easily notice small-scale proposals from students. In addition, it is difficult to set a clear Roadmap while resources are scarce and to get a high evaluation from CA(Community Advisor).

Therefore, to make it easier for the community to recognize new ideas from students, we will establish a new Category exclusively for students. In addition, instead of the roadmap being ambiguous, we set a budget limit of $ 5,000. By doing so, many students can experience funding from Catalyst. In continued participation in Catalyst, funding experience, even on a small scale, is evaluated by the community. Therefore, it is important to set a budget limit.

The Category Goal is to encourage engineers to scout students who are evaluated by the community and create a new team to join the next Fund with a clear Roadmap. This is a benefit for both students and engineers to raise a large salary for engineers through Catalyst rather than from VCs or Banks.