“Rozbehni sa!” (which could be translated into English as “Let’s start up!”) is an initiative with a mission to teach potential future entrepreneurs how to start their ventures avoiding unnecessary risks thanks to learning how to validate the potential of their business ideas.

This mission is translated into training and support activities that teach the participants how to generate new business ideas or evaluate the potential of their own ideas, how to validate the customers’ interest in their ideas before actually investing resources to start them, and how to avoid some of the common mistakes when starting a business. While the initiative is not exclusively aimed at solo entrepreneurs, it can accommodate their specific needs, and it can be estimated that a considerable proportion of the participants in this initiative were interested in starting a solo entrepreneurial venture.

The initiative offers various formats, ranging from a free online starter package (a set of training videos and case studies), through a two-stage virtual business incubation programme (aimed at business modelling, market research, prototyping) or individual business idea diagnostics (containing a four-step iterative process with two mentoring sessions), to the formats tailored to the school environments, mainly aimed at secondary and tertiary levels. So far, the initiative has reached out to more than 120 schools in Slovakia, with 7 000+ participating students and almost 300 supported business ideas.

Specifically for the context of HEIs, the initiative has developed a modular training package, “Rozbiehator Express”, which offers practical, hands-on entrepreneurship training tailored and embedded into the scope of a HE course. The course has been piloted at the Matej Bel University in Banska Bystrica.