The autumn season of the University of Tartu’s IdeaLab started on 20 September with Idea Hackathon, which was also the opening event of the STARTER programme and the new Fast Track Tartu programme piloted by members of the Tartu startup community.

 The Idea Hackathon was led by Harald Lepisk and Taavi Tamm. Everyone with a business idea had an opportunity to pitch and others could join the team whose idea they like best. The idea can be developed further either in the Starter programme or an entrepreneurship education course

IdeaLab manager Maret Ahonen said that this year’s Idea Hackathon is different from previous ones because it is organized together with Tartu startup community members.

Lauri Sokk, the head of Smart City Tartu of Tartu City Government said that “We want to validate whether bringing all the organizations together helps the teams to better understand what is going on in the startups of Tartu. If this event proves successful, we could turn the whole Tartu startup ecosystem into an accelerator programme, which helps teams with cool ideas to reach their goals,”.

Idea Hackathon was a success with 200 visitors and 30 ideas! At the end of the night, there were special awards for the best pitches and ideas:

•   Special award for the entrepreneurial spirit – Sander Aavik

•   Great pitch award – Mihkel Keerdo 

•   EIT Health special award and IdeaLab’s award for a great idea – Stella Tiit

•   EIT Health special award – Rain Mürkhain

•   Most entertaining pitch - Jinnie and Aleksandra

The Starter programme is funded by the European Social Fund.