Matt Morley, Exeter alumni, entrepreneur and creator of online business tool, Savvy, is offering a unique opportunity for budding student entrepreneurs. The S4 programme offers a small group of students 1-1 mentoring support from Savvy and the chance to pitch for up to £5,000 of grant funding and a visit to the Savvy headquarters in Silicon Valley, US.Running on a recurring annual basis, S4 is aligned with the SETsquared Exeter Student Startup Programme to identify and nurture budding entrepreneurs from the student community at the University of Exeter.

The S4 programme will begin in February 2020 with regular mentoring and interaction with the Savvy team in order to develop a business venture, alongside catch ups and workshops led by the Student Startup team. In June 2020 students will be invited to pitch for funding and/or to meet the Savvy team in America.

Students will be ideally, but not exclusively, aiming to develop ventures which utilise digital solutions for B2B markets.

We are looking for a small group of 5-6 students to participate in the S4 programme. After the initial application, shortlisted students will be invited to deliver a 5-minute pitch to a panel which will be followed by 10 minutes of Q&A. Presentations should focus on the opportunity their business provides, why the business is viable and why/how you would benefit from the programme.

Selection will be based on a range of factors which will include;

· Participation and engagement in the Student Startup Programme during their time at University

· Their perceived “coachability” and willingness to learn

· The potential of their venture’s focus

The mentor support will be broad ranging but will aim to develop the students’ skills of problem definition, solution design, market testing and customer discovery focused on the students’ venture concept. The mentoring will be in the form of regular communications across a range of formats but to include a monthly video call. It will largely be delivered on a 1-1 basis, but where there is value in a small group of the mentees accessing common support that will also be facilitated.

The mentoring support will be positioned as additional to the Student Startup Support programme and mentees will be expected to channel the thinking and approaches developed through the interactions with Savvy to fellow student entrepreneurs working with the Student Startup team.

The S4 startup mentoring programme is only open to students currently studying at the University of Exeter.

Applications via eventbrite are open until midnight on 26th of January 2020. For more information please contact: studentstartups@exeter.ac.uk