At SDU, all types of students come together around entrepreneurship

This post is also available in: Danish

Diversity among founders creates a foundation for strong companies, according to research.

SDU Startup Station, the official startup and entrepreneurial environment at the University of Southern Denmark, is no exception. Approximately 120 active startups are affiliated here on a daily basis, and the founders’ backgrounds are often spread across the university’s five different faculties.

This is one of the strengths of the entrepreneurial environment, says Søren Land, Head of SDU Startup Station.

“As a multi-faculty university, we have students from different educational backgrounds who want to try their hand at entrepreneurship. This diversity is important because we know it can be a crucial factor in creating a strong team. At the same time, diversity allows startups to provide each other with relevant and value-adding sparring. We bring together people interested in business with engineers, chemists, doctors and humanists – and it’s an exciting talent pool to work with.”

For example, the femtech company Mewalii, which has great success with sanitary pads made from hemp, was founded by Simone Westergaard, who has a master’s degree in sports and society (SDU) and Frederikke Dahl, who has a degree in engineering (SDU).

In addition, the book club platform Book in a Box, founded by students exclusively from the Faculty of Humanities, won the award as SDU’s best startup last year.

One of the keys to success has been the dedicated business developers, explains Søren Land.

“We have in residence business developers, Makerspace-instructors and our own Startup Station-Coordinator, all closely connected to active startups. This is a huge strength because it creates a close connection between the two parties and it’s great to see how they follow each other throughout the entire process at Startup Station – and often stay connected after the startups have flown the nest.”

Although entrepreneurs succeed at SDU Startup Station, there will always be some that don’t. However, Søren Land has no doubt about the value the program creates for all participants.

“We help create sustainable businesses that ultimately benefit society as a whole. And those who don’t succeed add a wide range of valuable skills to their professionalism, making them the value-creating employees of the future.”

SDU Startup Station

-Founded in 2017

-Affiliated active students through 2023: 487

Well-known alumni companies include Mewali, Aris Robotics, HumAId, Nordic Phantoms and Echovice.