Students as International Management :
Consultants for Start-ups in Paris

As part of the Blended Intensive Program (BIP) “Entrepreneurship and Interculturality,” 10 students from Fulda University of Applied Sciences, together with fellow students from our partner universities UPEC-IUT in Créteil near Paris (France) and MTU Cork (Ireland), advised five start-ups on their go-to-market strategies. The business ideas span a wide range of fields (manufacturing of automotive accessories, personalized mechanical watches, and high-quality handbag organizers; brokerage between SportTech start-ups and semi-professional sports clubs; and Digital Human Risk Management).

The students were first prepared for their task by Matthias Kretschmar (Fulda University of Applied Sciences) and Maria Gilsenan (MTU Cork) through virtual lectures on business modeling, business research, and go-to-market strategies. During this phase, the start-ups also introduced themselves and lined out their specific consulting assignments for their advisors. Over the next few weeks, the international student consulting teams worked with their respective start-ups, conducted market analyses, and developed concrete solution proposals.
 
During the week on-site in Paris, the students fine-tuned their final presentations in person within their respective teams. Véronika Taradi (UPEC-IUT) organized the students’ tourist activities in Paris alongside intercultural team-building. Well-prepared, the student advisory teams and their entrepreneurs gathered at UPED-IUT for their final presentations. The start-ups were impressed by the results and took away many valuable suggestions. The course was further enriched by a visit to Station F, the world’s largest start-up campus, as well as a start-up that manufactures high-quality furniture from industrial leftovers and waste products.