Student Innovators: Waddle Takes the Stage at Venture Builder Demo Day

Over the past few months, I've been mentoring Waddle, a student-led startup on the Masood Entrepreneurship Centre’s Venture Builder programme at the University of Manchester.

My Freshers Experience

I remember when I was a new student, moving to Manchester in 2008. I felt excited for my course, but my biggest fear was that I wouldn't fit in in the big city, and I wouldn't find any friends.

I had opted for student halls in the city centre, thinking that was a safe bet to meet new, exciting people. It turns out I'd been put in a flat with final year and postgrad students - I was the only fresher! They took me out a couple of times, but needless to say socialising wasn't really high on their priorities.

It meant that over the following weeks I really had to push myself to get out and make new friends. I had periods of loneliness, fearing I'd never meet anyone. I was fortunate that I befriended Chloe, a fellow student on my course, and she introduced me to her flatmates in Fallowfield. Encouraged, I went on to apply for a change of halls and ended up moving to a nearby Fallowfield flat around Christmas of my first year.

I ended up living with Chloe and many of those flatmates in my second year, and they became good friends throughout the uni experience.

I was lucky, but loneliness and social isolation affects many students in deeper ways, and Waddle is tackling this head on.

Tackling Student Loneliness

Through research with more than 200 students, they found that 63% want to meet new people, and most prefer doing so in group settings.

63% of students want to make more friends

Their solution? A new way to make friends, through spontaneous, disappearing meet-ups.

Think Snapchat meets Meetup.com.

Designed for university freshers, Waddle helps students connect through short, low-risk group activities such as board-game nights, matcha tastings, or casual sports sessions.

The Big Pitch

Last week, I attended the team’s first ever Demo Day at Sister, where co-founders Jonghun Lee and Firaas Nasir pitched their idea to investors and fellow entrepreneurs.

A Demo Day is a showcase event where startup founders pitch their ideas to potential investors, mentors and partners - the culmination of an accelerator or venture-builder programme. The format was popularised by Y Combinator, the Silicon Valley accelerator that helped launch companies such as Airbnb and Dropbox.

It’s been a privilege to mentor such driven and creative founders - and to see them grow in confidence as they turn their idea into a real product.

The Demo Day marked the culmination of an inspiring programme filled with bold ideas, collaboration and genuine innovation from the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Good luck Waddle!