What is DC START?
DC START is Digital Campus's pre-incubator programme and one of the cornerstones of our Master's pedagogy (Digital Marketing & Brand Content, UX Design and Big Data). It enables students to move from project manager to project creator, building a personal digital project with the support of numerous professionals.
And what is the concept pitch?
The first stage of DC START, which runs over two years, involves presenting the project and its business model.
Before taking on the Elevator Pitch exercise, students — supported by expert Sylvain Bourrier (founder of Weavup) — spent 5 months working on:
- identifying a need
- developing an idea
What better setting for our 66 first-year Master's students to pitch their projects than an incubator? Facing them was a jury made up of Lyon startup founders, entrepreneurs and members of the teaching team, who challenged them on their ideas.
Innovation was very much in evidence, with a wide variety of projects and solutions addressing issues in sectors including education, catering, culture and lifestyle.
Cécilia Garayt, a jury member and founder of the startup O.U.F., praised the quality of the pitches and the in-depth work done by the first-year Master's students, which she described as "remarkable". For her, DC START is an excellent way to engage with the world of entrepreneurship and "test hypotheses by digging deeper into the project".
Next steps in the second year: testing the concept with initial target audiences, drawing up the financial plan, the commercial and marketing strategy, and creating the final prototype!