The T1 Ideas Challenge is in full swing with over 100 students taking part🚀

We're excited to share that our Term 1 Ideas Challenge (IC) has kicked off with a bang, with 50 teams representing 15 schools being invited to participate!🤩 We received 73 applications in the end, and will be inviting anyone who missed out to try again in Term 3.

In a nutshell, the Ideas Challenge is an online extra-curricular entrepreneurial skills-building program where high school students from Years 7-12 benefit from a mix of live instructor-led sessions and self-paced learning content to build a fully-fledged startup pitch from an initial idea in just 6 weeks.

We have 17 founders flying solo, with the rest working in teams. In total there are around 125 students taking part! 

Here are some of the initial data we've put together about our first IC cohort👇

The schools represented include: Baulkham Hills High School, Bethany Catholic College Hurstville, Castle Hill High School, Chatswood High School, Cherrybrook Technology High School, Hurlstone Agricultural High School, NBSC Manly Selective Campus, North Sydney Boys High School, North Sydney Girls High School, Norwest Christian College, Santa Sabina College, St Johns College Dubbo, The Ponds High School, Willoughby Girls High School and Woolgoolga High School!

With our help every step of the way, participating students are completing three voluntary extension tasks; one for each module on offer: Planning, Prototyping and Pitching. We're currently into the Prototyping module, with assessment 2 due tomorrow at 8pm.

These are marked on a pass/fail basis, with all passing students receiving microcredentials from Macquarie University and Young Wisdom to recognise their efforts throughout the program.🏅

Teams that go on to unlock all three digital certificates and end up in our Top-10 will be invited to pitch in person at Macquarie University on Thursday 10 April from 6pm.

Doubling up as an end-of-term celebration, the pitch night is always a joy!

First online workshop

We had a great time kicking off the program via Zoom with over 40 students attending our first online session of the program. In addition to stepping through the Challenge in detail and all of the resources needed to successfully complete assessment 1, James and I also asked questions of our audience like, "What does the word 'startup' mean to you?’ (see the handy word cloud below!)

It's important to define 'startup' as we tend to take a much broader view than that of the exclusively tech-based, "global from day one" Silicon Valley dogma. Of course we're very happy working with tech startups, but equally so working with small business ideas, services, physical products, not-for-profits, initiatives and events of all descriptions; so long as they are looking to solve problems and create value in a sustainable manner.

One thing the IC promises is to introduce students to concepts they probably haven't encountered before, and may not even encounter at university (if that's where they intend to go). Module 1 used Lean Startup Methodology and specifically the Lean Canvas as the primary 'planning' tool, given its accessibility and focus on real-world validation (prioritising feedback from potential users and customers over our own ideas, opinions and biases as founders).

This is one way we as entrepreneurs learn to be a little more methodical, rational and data-driven through what can be an incredibly ambiguous, emotional and tumultuous startup journey.

We demonstrated the process to complete assessment 1 live on the call (for our favourite hypothetical startup, KidKode) and provided the completed templates as exemplars of sorts to help students succeed in their first extension tasks (which most teams have now done)!

Second online workshop

In the second call we moved on to branding and prototyping, explaining the importance of visualising your product/service in various ways as early as possible to get high quality feedback from potential users and/or customers.

It was a fantastic chat with amazing student participation - many students got to suggest what kind of prototype they might provide for assessment 2 and received some quick live feedback from us.

Once again, we provided completed examples for KidKode, both of the 1-page brand guideline and our 'prototyper' tool consisting of hand drawn sketches and high fidelity digital mockups of key screens outlining the KidKode value proposition and solution in action.

And then of course, as an innovative team trying to be more data-driven ourselves, we had to ask for some feedback:

We are so excited to see how the cohort goes through the next extension task as they work their way towards the pitch night.

Hopefully you can join us then, or at least drop us a line about how we can visit your school in Term 2 to start promoting the next Ideas Challenge for Term 3, 2025. Very happy to do free assembly, classroom, or lunchtime club visits to share this opportunity with your students (in person for Sydney metro schools).

There are also other upcoming opportunities for schools, including our popular Student Startup Bootcamp excursions and new incursion options - both virtual and in person. If you’d like to chat about any of the above, please feel free to email our team at hello@youngwisdom.com.au or incubator@mq.edu.au