Egg-celent news for student startups as Winchester Hatchery opens its doors to budding business ideas

Higher education has never been big on entrepreneurship – but that could be about to change at the University of Winchester.

Their West Downs campus is now home to the brand-new Winchester Hatchery, a ‘competitive’ and ‘fast-paced’ startup accelerator for students looking to get their business plans off the ground.

Students are invited to pitch their ideas at the university’s business school, with successful applicants becoming members of the hatchery.

There they’ll be provided with a mentor from a pool of local business leaders and a dedicated, members-only space on campus to work alongside fellow startups – all free of charge.

Spearheading the initiative is Winchester man Steven Northam, who spoke with Hampshire Biz News last summer about his own business journey as a ‘serial entrepreneur’ and his experiences as a lecturer at Winchester.

“For years now I’ve been pushing the student startup and enterprise agenda in higher education”, he said.

“It was my driver when I launched, built and later exited from IncuHive, aiming to fill that gap in the local startup ecosystem – something which I couldn’t achieve within the confines of the higher education setting.

“Over the years having supported or invested in countless startups personally and seen many go on to epic things, I’m back once again pushing to build links between business and university, supporting students in their own business startups.

“I spent the last couple of weekends kitting the room, making furniture and cutting vinyl branding to create a fun space for budding student entrepreneurs to ‘hatch’ some new business ideas.”

Steven’s old company IncuHive also chipped in alongside Action Hampshire, donating desks, chairs and other essentials for the hatchery.

He added: “I’ll shortly be on the hunt for business mentors looking to support the students in their startup endeavours and local business partners who may wish to also get involved.

“I’m looking forward to seeing what the students can do!”

A number of mentors are already on board, including Nella Pang of Omega RE, Beverley Poole of Aspire4Business, and George Scott-Welsh of IncuHive.

Steven has also assembled a team of Winchester alumni like Tony Edwards of BITsmart.tech and Mag Lepkowska of Mag’s Media who’ll be on hand to answer questions and provide insight.

• winchesterhatchery.co.uk

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