Startups

"In the last 7 years I have been mentoring entrepreneurs coming from different parts of the World, but mostly from Hungary. It striked me that despite all our efforts to attract women participants, female founder applications to our incubation programs were significantly lower compared to male applicants. Also, the number of female mentors active in our program were multiple times lower than males. Most of my program staff were female - it just happened that way - and I thought that it should in itself send the signal, that we are most welcoming to female founders. We also ran campaigns prominently displaying our - few - female founders, mentors, partners in the program. The response was amazing, yet, the ratio in the applications remained unchanged. Clearly, something more needs to be done. The reasons that hold women back from the entrepreneurial space are complex.These studies attempt to uncover some of the underlying issues, and our goal is to use this knowledge to create avenues for women in entrepreneurship." Andrea Kozma, director of CEU iLab.

December 20, 2022

iLab Stories

One of the most successful CEU iLab Teams, BrokerChooser, lets users compare online brokers no matter whether they operate as single local traders or as large international platforms. They compare brokers along more than 50 dimensions, and their articles online trading provide direction in an industry where finding your way among jargons and lingos is a challenging even for professionals. Founded in 2016, they have been part of the CEU iLab ecosystem for the last 6 years, giving back what they received in the form of mentoring and opportunities for work. Here, Tibor Bedő, co-founder and CEO, and Gergely Korpos, co-founder and Chief Product Officer, talk about the very start, how they have been managing constantly changing challenges, tough situations and what CEU iLab means for them.

December 13, 2022

iLab Stories

Even one minute a day can change your life. Probably you met the words mindfulness, mental well-being or meditation in the past few years. You might have downloaded apps that were just too much and you became more stressed than before. That’s where Pine comes in: a gamified mental wellness app where you can choose from easy practices to do something for yourself every day in a simple and accessible way. CEU iLab talked to the co-founders of Pine, Anikó Farkas and Daniella Boda about their future plans, their successes and challenges, and what advice would they give to their younger selves about founding a new venture.

November 28, 2022

iLab Stories

The Budapest-based software development company, RECnGO has come up with an innovative solution – the team created an easy-to-use mobile streaming and recording software enabling real-time program production, broadcasting, and editing on mobile devices. With it, anyone can act as a one-person crew with a mobile device in their hands – instead of paying for costly studio productions. We talked to Gergely Szél, CEO of RECnGo about the journey to here, the challenges, and what to do when one encounters a challenging situation.

November 16, 2022

iLab Stories

How could nature-based technology help mitigate the effects of climate change in cities, while also contributing to biodiversity protection and human wellbeing? CEU iLab incubated startup, Physi Solutions, is working on digital technology that helps people address unsustainability challenges by re-imagining urban space with nature-based solutions (NBS). We talked to Professor László Pintér, Physi Solutions founder and partner and Former Head of the Department at the Environmental Sciences and Policy at Central European University about their successes, their challenges and their advice to aspiring sustainability entrepreneurs.

August 30, 2022

iLab Stories

We are launching an interview article series to introduce CEU iLab teams, their hopes, dreams, challenges, obstacles, and their biggest successes. And of course, we will ask them about their source for inspiration when everything seems to be falling apart, no matter whether that’s a spirit animal, a comfort food, or a run in the park. Stay tuned!

July 14, 2022

Trendwatching

A happy bowl of soup made of wool. An astronaut riding a horse in space. Teddy bears shopping for groceries in ancient Egypt. These are not the products of the imagination of an artist on magic mushrooms but the creations of a text-to-image and art generator neural network called DALL-E, although without this knowledge no one could tell the difference. What does this mean for the world of art? 

June 28, 2022

Social Issues

Plant trees. Reduce carbon emissions. Don’t throw away plastic bottles. Clear-cut, linear commands to save the planet. However, ecological systems are all but linear, and solutions can only be meaningful when implemented holistically, in line with the needs of any given ecosystem. That’s the promise of regenerative development.

May 20, 2022

Trendwatching

Mealworm cereal for breakfast, liquid nutrients for lunch just so work can continue uninterrupted, and lab-grown steak with artificial fries for dinner? As the population of the Earth is rapidly growing, and food production cannot keep up with the demand, several trends and technologies emerged to feed the hungry masses in the future. But are we ready to change our diets in the next decades to save humanity and the planet?

April 25, 2022