It may seem like a crazy idea to begin a startup during your school years, but fow an ambitious few this is the start of a new adventure. An example of such an entrepreneur-minded student? Jeroen van Gessel. He began startup Blockbook in his second year of marketing management studies at the Hogeschool Leiden. Blockbook is an online platform where students can sell (and buy) secondhand studybooks in a safe and well-priced way.
Startup Blockbook
Jeroen was occupied in NFT: the trading of online art. Through classes he learned the software language and wanted to apply the technique to different things than just art. He wanted to use NFT to solve a problem, instead of trading art. And that solution? That he found when he started selling his own studybooks and found out that a large part of the profit he made, went to the website he was selling them on. He decided that needed to change and founded Blockbook. How it works: students sell (and buy) their books on the online platform via blockchaintechnology. You buy a studybook and have acces to it through a digital key. This ensures the book is in a safe place and the sale is quite simple, via IDeal
“Make enough time for being an entrepreneur, go for it and make it a priority. Accept that you don’t have enough knowledge to overcome every obstacle, but keep on learning and you will see that you learn so much more from being an entrepreneur, then from the classes at school.” – Jeroen van Gessel
Boosting your entrepreneurship
Do you also have a cool idea for a startup on a technologic or scientific basis and ready to move to the next step? Take a look at the programs on our website. There is program Startup Play, in which you define your ideas and turn them into a business plan in six English lessons and where you find out if beging an entrepreneur is for you. There is also the Venture Academy: a 4 month long training program that improves your entrepreneural skills through coaching and reaching your goals.
Young entrepreneurs
Discussing thoughts and ideas with your peers is incredibly valuable. At PLNT Students you can be a part of a student association that is especcialy been founded for young entrepreneurs. That doesn’t mean that you also have to own a startup, you also get the tools to see if a startup is for you. There is a physical working space, The Sandbox, where you can work on your startup and follow workshops and mentoring programs. Every month there is a (free) get together at PLNT and at least twice a year there is a networking event!
