StartupCafe

We were blown away last week by the Student Market, the new place for young entrepreneurs to get seen and promoted. We covered the project earlier this month, and their launch event last Thursday evening was absolutely superb.

The event was a chance for student entrepreneurs to exhibit their businesses, ranging from web apps to fashion to race car driving. With about 20 companies of all types on display, it drew an impressive crowd of around 200 visitors throughout the evening.

The Student Market is an online portal showcasing student businesses, but it’s more than just a website. It’s also events like these where student entrepreneurs can exhibit, meet each other, and speak directly to potential customers in a friendly environment. And beyond that, it’s the creation of a supportive community.

To me this event stood out for having an impressively supportive atmosphere, happy vibes, and a strong community spirit amongst a lot of people that had never met. And that takes more than just free beer and pizza (which was excellent too by the way!).

A couple new companies I’ll be keeping an eye on are Zoom Flat (coming soon at www.zoomflat.com), who were conducting market research for their new and genuinely compelling flat-finding website, and Starbit Media, a creative design/print/media studio who recently also got into book and CD publishing.

I really take my hat off to these guys – major kudos to iCUE for organising everything, as the event ran seamlessly from an exhibitor’s point of view, and I really look forward to the next ones. Major thanks also to Ian Mackay for impromptu manning our StartupCafe stand fabulously – watch out you may be hired!

P.S. If you’re a student or recent graduate running a company, why not create a free profile on the Student Market community? Drop an email to ryan@icue.co.uk for more info.