A new initiative led by the Ozmen Center for Entrepreneurship in the College of Business and the Center for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communication in Baku, Azerbaijan, supports aspiring entrepreneurs from Azerbaijan and Turkey. The program is a start-up school, which is centered around a competition comprised of several rounds.
“This year, we had 200 applications for the start-up school,” Dr. Mehmet Tosun, director of the Ozmen Center, said. “It is only the first year, and the program is already strong.”
From the initial 200 applications, 33 start-ups were selected to move on to the next round. After another review of these applications, 10 finalists were selected to present their plans to a panel of judges from Azerbaijan, Israel, Turkey and the United States. During the final round on May 19, one start-up won an all-expenses-paid trip to launch their business in the United States.
Two mentors from the Ozmen Center, Dr. Pawel Pietrasieńska, an associate professor at the Warsaw School of Economics, and Matt Westfield, entrepreneur-in-residence within the College of Business, participated in the start-up school.
“What impressed us the most is how talented and creative the Azeri and Turkish founders we met in Baku are,” Pietrasieńska said. “Our joint start-up school was attended by more than 30 teams, and their projects and assigned mentors came not only from Azerbaijan but also from Turkey, Israel, Sweden and Poland.”
The winning start-up, Abroadventure, co-founded by Hamed Noroozi, Huseyn Abizadeh
and Vugar Abdulali, serves as a platform for younger generations to volunteer internationally while helping students with internship opportunities. Abroadventure’s mission is to provide support to individuals who want to make a positive impact through cultural exchange and exposure. While on their trip to the United States, the founders of Abroadventure plan on introducing their start-up to an American audience, thus expanding their program globally.
“The winners of the competition really stood out, and they did a great job explaining their potential to reach out to other markets,” Tosun said.
The partnership between the College of Business and the Center for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communication began in 2021, but the start-up school is the first co-created initiative. The start-up school is an innovative, one-of-a-kind program, providing invaluable feedback to all competitors as well as a unique business opportunity for the finalist. Sponsors of the competition included Enterprise Azerbaijan, Pasha Bank, Kobia, Sabah.lab, and the Innovation and Digital Development Agency.
“We are already starting to discuss what next year’s competition is going to look like,” Tosun said. “We may have some add-ons, including more parties involved next year; however, it is too soon to tell what exactly it’s going to look like next year, but you can bet it’s going to be done again.”
