The Ideation Bootcamp is part of the Master in Innovation and Entrepreneurship (MIE) curriculum, and MIE students' first chance to really get hands-on with the practical side of venture building at ESMT.
Run by DEEP – ESMT's hub for entrepreneurship, innovation, and Deep Tech – the Ideation Bootcamp sees participants collaborate with fellow students and research talent to explore technologies, challenges, and market opportunities, form teams, and shape an initial venture proposition.
It is stage one of the founder journey you can go on as an ESMT MIE student.
It gave me incredible insights and showed me what ESMT can provide to make the whole journey possible.
The Bootcamp has a lot of emotional value for me because I wanted to test whether entrepreneurship was really for me.
What is the Ideation Bootcamp?
Explore venture ideation experience, early teams, and informed founder commitment.
Previously called the Sustainability Bootcamp, the Ideation Bootcamp has been renamed because it is a program with venture ideation at its core.
It is a mandatory part of the first-year MIE curriculum. All MIE students take part, joined by students from the inter-school GETT exchange program.
Over the course of 2.5 days in March, students form teams to identify problems, find initial solution concepts, create a landing pages, and pitch presentations – all with expert guidance from DEEP, ESMT's Institute for Deep Tech Innovation.
What you will gain from the Ideation Bootcamp
DEEP has designed the Ideation Bootcamp to give every student a practical first experience of venture ideation, with access to the tools, experts, and ideas that build founder journeys.
You will:
- Gain experience ideating in cross-disciplinary teams
- Work with real technologies and market challenges
- Go from idea to venture story in 2.5 days
- Benefit from expert feedback
- Build clarity on whether the MIE founder journey is right for you
Your founder journey in the Master in Innovation and Entrepreneurship
ESMT's MIE is a master's degree designed to shape entrepreneurially minded students into hands-on innovators and builders. Throughout the course of the degree, you will have the option to take part in a venture-building founder journey – ideating, researching, testing, and launching your own business idea.
Ideation Bootcamp FAQs
What is DEEPs involvement with the Ideation Bootcamp?
The Ideation Bootcamp is run by DEEP: ESMT's hub of entrepreneurial, innovative, and Deep tech thinking.
DEEP contributes technologies, opportunity areas, and expertise from across its activities, giving students different starting points for developing ideas.
Is the Ideation Bootcamp worth ECTS points?
Yes, as a mandatory part of the Master in innovation and Entrepreneurship curriculum, the ideation Bootcamp is worth 2 ECTS points.
Learn more about the Master in innovation and Entrepreneurship curriculum
Do I have to apply to join the Ideation Bootcamp?
If you are a member of the Master in Innovation and Entrepreneurship (MIE) at ESMT, you will automatically be a part of the Ideation Bootcamp.
The Bootcamp is restricted to students from the MIE program, and students from the Global Economic Transformation & Technology (GETT) program (a joint master's exchange program run by ESMT along with EDHEC Business School, and Imperial College London).
Therefore, you cannot apply to join the Ideation Bootcamp as a solo program; instead you must apply to join the MIE (or GETT).
Learn more about Master in Innovation and Entrepreneurship admissions requirements.
Can students from any degree program join the Ideation Bootcamp?
The Ideation Bootcamp is just for students in the Master in innovation and Entrepreneurship (MIE) at ESMT, and GETT exchange students.
Other ESMT master's and MBA students cannot join the Ideation Bootcamp. However, they can join the later Ideation I and Ideation II programs.
Do I need to have my business idea ready before the Ideation Bootcamp?
No, you do not need to have a business idea locked in before the Ideation Bootcamp (IB).
While you are welcome to pitch and test your own idea, DEEP also provides technologies, opportunity areas, and expertise from across its activities, helping you find a range of starting points for developing new ideas during the IB.
How can I develop my business idea further?
The Ideation Bootcamp is designed to give every Master in Innovation and Entrepreneurship (MIE) student a practical first experience of venture ideation, while identifying the teams and individuals who may choose to continue into Incubation I and Incubation II.
Students who wish to develop their idea further can join Incubation I and Incubation II as electives later in their MIE journey.
What other hands-on opportunities are there in the MIE?
Your Master in Innovation and Entrepreneurship (MIE) degree has multiple options to get hands-on with venture building as well as with innovative corporate thinking.
You can learn more about the practical elements of the program here: Practice Immersion in the MIE
Deep tech ventures are booming; the demand for sustainable innovation across industries is growing every day, and we need to build ourselves toward that change.
I think the blend of business and science is both beautiful and essential for the future.
There's also a lot each field can learn from the other. Science could learn from business that great ideas don't need to be perfect – business is the vehicle that gets them out into the world, and waiting for perfection means never getting started. And business could learn a lot from science: open-mindedness, creativity in problem-solving, and most importantly, the discipline of the scientific method – forming a hypothesis, testing it, learning from the result, and iterating.
This is actually where both fields converge more than people realize. The lean startup methodology, for example, is essentially the scientific method applied to business development. Build, measure, learn. It's the same logic, just a different lab
Want to join the Innovation Bootcamp?
The Innovation Bootcamp (IB) is an opportunity for Master of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (MIE) students at ESMT. Join the MIE to join the bootcamp!
