Solis BioDyne was helping innovative ideas thrive at I-Days

Once again, Solis BioDyne was present at I-Days (last year called Bioinnovation Days) to mentor young entrepreneurs and give ideas on how they can make their bioscience startup idea a reality.

This year the event took place on the 4th and 5th of November and was organized by Tartu Biotechnology Park, Bioscience Students’ Association, Estonian Medical Students’ Association, University of Tartu and EIT. The idea of I-Days is to find novel solutions to challenges in the health, food and biotechnology industry. In addition, it gives the participating teams the opportunity to develop their very own biocompany and compete in the European finals. 

During these two days the participants could participate in different workshops like design thinking and idea pitching. Also, they could listen to experience stories from professionals and work with mentors. One of the mentors was our own regional sales manager Karl Rene Kõlvart who is experienced in sales and working as a scientist. According to the moderator of the event, Karl also has a great sense of style. This skill set made him a perfect mentor for the participants who were mostly university students specializing in the field of bioscience.

“I'm really glad that this event is an annual thing for us now. It attracts young, hungry, innovative minds and lets their creative juices flow in a very well-structured idea building environment. I had the pleasure to mentor these people and to help them question some of the foundations of their ideas. All in all the event was nicely put together and there was a nice balance between learning and brainstorming,” said Karl about the event.
Karl Rene Kõlvart mentoring team Männlich.
At the end of the event the best teams were chosen by a jury based on 2 minute pitches. While this sounds simple enough, all the startup ideas this year happened to be so good that it took the judges a really long time to pick the winners. The ideas varied from eliminating cat allergy to getting people excited about gardening and from ideal workation location to lowering the amount of waste in research. 

The one team that stood out the most and won the ticket to the European final in Vienna was called Männlich. Their goal was to get men to care more about their health to increase their lifespan and quality of life. The idea was to create an app which keeps an eye on their habits and makes them compete with other men, so that they would feel the social pressure to make healthy life choices.

The Solis BioDyne team wishes all the teams the best of luck in their future startup adventures as they have the potential to be exceptional.