It has been four and a half months of grinding work with KTH innovation along with juggling studies, examination and travelling. The things I have learnt and the people I have met at KTH innovation unmatched anywhere else. This blog is about my experience with KTH innovation preincubation program so far. The journey has been about doing, diving, developing myself as an entrepreneur. If you are interested in taking up a similar explorative journey, you can apply to the program here.
A close community of entrepreneurs
The best part about the program is “Pay it Forward” rule. Every team is willing to help the other teams. For example, one of the teams taught and helped me out with recruiting people. Another team wanted me to help them procuring machines from India since they had heard that it’s cheaper to do that. There are a lot of such examples of us growing together as a community. We also have a coworking space which makes it easier for everyone to engage in discussions.
The structured way forward!
There were thousands of pitching competition which I attended and a hundred more where we won. But nothing just happened after that. We would present a great idea but we never carried it forward. But here we found a structured framework, a timeline with gates and realistic milestones which motivates us to accelerate forward and develop our ideas further.
Weekly Group Meetings
Every week on a Wednesday, our batch meets up over lunch. Workshops related to entrepreneurship is conducted by the group coach along with different people at KTH innovation. This helps a lot in tuning our entrepreneurial skills.
Funding
We are grateful for having the opportunity to be funded by KTH holding. Kth holding would invest up to 250000 sek divided into various stages of your company like market study/analysis, prototyping and testing, marketing, intellectual property rights.
Legal support
We also have received legal opinions from the legal team at KTH innovation. They have assisted us in applying for a patent, also while recruiting an external consultant with the NDA documents, the equity and covesting agreements when hiring team members.
Personal Coaching
Entrepreneurship is a journey where you get stuck all along the way and its all about trying to find our way out of the mess. And it would be great to have a coach or a mentor whose experience we can rely on. We have our own personal coach who helps us develop on our business idea in all aspects.
The KTH Preincubation is a 12-month program giving access to the above-mentioned facilities. The applications are open right now. The only criteria is that you should be a KTH student, researcher or employee with an idea you want to develop. The program is free of cost and KTH innovation demands no ownership from you.
So think a little further and apply here for batch 11 now! Deadline for application is 12th February.
I love a good bowl of butternut squash soup but my newly found passion is not related to any kind of species in the cucurbit family. Rather I’m talking about the tennis-like sport where you run after a ball in a small room called squash. I had never played before coming here and now it’s part of my weekly routine.
A local gym allows KTH students to play without any kind of membership. All you need to do is book the court online before and rent/buy a racket and you are good to go! It’s a great way to release stress between classes while improving your cardio.
THS Sports also organizes a yearly tournament in November so it’s a great way to measure up against other players! Along with squash, THS Sports hosts different tournament throughout the year like volleyball, basketball, badminton, football, etc. There is also free volleyball on Monday at the campus gym, a pool with very cheap prices for students five minutes away from campus and many badminton courts close to campus.
The opportunities are (almost) endless to be active during the semester and it’s relatively easy to find friends to train with, making both your physical and mental health happy throughout the year!
In order to celebrate the end of the first term as well the start of the second one, a couple friends and I decided to organize a party in a cabin in the woods. The concept is simple: gather a bunch of people, head to the cabin and party all night. The is a catch, it is pretty far from the city center and buses stop pretty early in the night and the number of beds are limited, so sleep is forbidden. But worry not, there is plenty to do and it ends up being a night to remember.
PC: Haohao He
THS, KTH’s student union owns a cabin by a lake called Osqvik. It has a big common room, enough beds to fit about 20 people, a sauna, and a fire pit. Any student member of THS can book it, as long as it is available, and invite many people to party all night in this dreamy set up! We invited a total of about 45 people, all classmates, friends of friends, etc. and headed to the woods with our spirits up and bags filled with food and drinks.
PC: Haohao He
The night was pretty warm for January and the skies were clear so we could see the stars, a rare sight in cloudy Stockholm! We spent the night playing card games, beer pong, dancing, going in the Sauna and jump in the lake, eating marshmallow by the fire, until 6:00 am rang and the first morning bus picked most of us up. It demanded some energy drinks and good music to stay up all night, but it was well worth it!
PC: Haohao He
The next day, the last people remaining had the chance to enjoy a beautiful sunrise by the lake before cleaning the house and heading home for a well-deserved nap.
It was a great event that anyone can plan with garanteed fun and good memories! THS also organizes an Osqvik as part of the international reception, so I definitely recommend going!
Well, Great job with submitting your applications before the deadline. You must have finalised your programmes and their priority and clicked the apply button. And for those of you who couldn’t, there is always a next semester application opening soon. The job quite isn’t done yet. Here are a few points which might guide you about tasks that could be done after the application deadline until the 3rd of February.
Upload all the required documents: The documents can be uploaded on the admissions page until 3rd February. Specific courses need specific documents apart from the general documents. Do check the course pages for more information. Do not mail any documents to the university. They are not obligated to reply to you.
Keep a tight vigil on the message section:Regularly check the message tabs for any messages from individual universities regarding uploading specific documents. I messed up with this two years ago. If you want a good laugh, you can read about it here.
Scholarship Applications: Although the deadlines for a few scholarship applications end on 15th January, there are lot more scholarships that open up during the first week of February such as SI scholarships and others. You can find more information about the scholarship here.
Contact the Student ambassadors: KTH has appointed student ambassadors for every programme offered here. They can help you with any questions you have regarding the course which you are applying for. Do not hesitate to mail them.
Pay the Application Fee: Non-EU students have to pay a fee of 900 sek, while the EU students don’t have to pay. They should, however, send proof of their citizenship status.
And after this, all you have to do is keep your fingers crossed and wait for the results on 3rd April. Do write below your questions if you have and I will be happy to answer them.
Tomorrow is the start of the International Reception for the spring term! Many students from around the world will start arriving and participating in activities organized by THS and many student clubs.
PC: @kthuniversity on Instagram
The International Reception is a three-week long introduction to Stockholm and KTH for International Students. During these weeks, you can have exclusive access to many cool things to do in the city, like a tour of the famous tunnelbana stations, museum visits, day hikes, board games night and many parties! It is the perfect occasion to discover your new home as well as meet many people from all around the world! Along the organized activities for which students have to sign up for, activities are organized by Buddies, older-years students who are assigned a group or newcomers and can help them to get around as well as hang out!
This year’s Buddy team! PC: @ths_international_reception on Instagram
I remember I had a really fun time during my arrival weeks, it’s a perfect time to enjoy and do LOTS of things before classes become more demanding. If you want to know all about what’s happening you can follow the International Reception account on Instagram. Welcome to all the new students 🙂
Final exams are underway and along with them are long days and nights of studying. Spending 10 hours a day sitting in a chair and learning a whole term’s worth of material isn’t the most fun thing to do, but there are ways to make it more bearable. Getting a nice reward vaniljbulle when I complete my daily study goal is pretty nice, but a cheaper and (almost) as good alternative is changing environment once in a while. So here is my list of favorite places to study on (and off!) campus!
1. KTH Bibliotek
I think I’ll never get over how nice and cozy this library is. It has different study spaces whether you like being absolutely silent or not, good natural lighting plus it has a tree in the middle of it. What do you want more?
PC: Danika Giron
2. U-building
U-building is pretty popular, so you have to be either lucky or early to snatch a seat, but it’s a really nice place to study. It has well-lit open spaces, closed study rooms, and a nice modern design. +5 points because it’s so close to Coffice, my favorite coffee shop on campus!
PC: Alex Alvisi
3. Nils Baltzar computer room
Just across U-building is my favorite computer lab, for when I need certain softwares to complete assignments. It’s a nice cozy space, usually empty on weekends, with some couches to get comfortable AND productive at the same time.
4. Mahalo Coffee Shop
Super close to campus, this vegan café is cozy and has super good music to help you concentrate. The decor is super cute and they also sell delicious smoothies to help you with your study munchies!
PC: @the_feedery on Instragram
There are many other places you can go study at KTH. You can find a table and chair in virtually every corner, but it’s up to you to discover the places you like most!
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