Newsletter #5

July 10th, 2025

Mentoring Programme: Growth through Guidance 

Between November 2024 and May 2025, the first cycle of the Ecosys4You mentoring programme successfully supported 9 mentor-mentee pairs. The programme focused on early-stage entrepreneurs and students with business ideas. Activities ranged from business planning and competitor research to branding and vision development. 

Key outcomes: 

• 2 companies officially registered 
• 2 participants planning to found a company 
• 1 patent application 

👉 Next mentoring round starts in October 2025 with the matchmaking event on October 7th. The application is already open: Apply via the form before 30 September 2025. 

Course: Entrepreneurial Mind in Action (EMA) 

The first pilot of the “Entrepreneurial Mind in Action” (EMA) course took place from March to June 2025. Spread over three modules, it engaged participants from Slovenia, Bulgaria, and Germany in a virtual learning environment hosted by DOBA. 

Modules included: 

1. Entrepreneurial fundamentals
2. Ideation & creation 
3. Sustainable business models 

Participation highlights: 

• 33 active learners
• High satisfaction with materials and guest lecturers in webinars 
• Strong interest in entrepreneurship and international collaboration 

👉 Next EMA-Course starts in November 2025.  

Internship Programme: Real-World Insights

The 2nd round of internships started in Varna on June 5th. The international internship programme provides valuable cross-border experiences. And the 3rd round is open for Application. 

👉 If you are a Bulgarian or Slovenian student interested in an internship in the Ruhr OR the other way around, just write us an E-Mail via info@ecosys4you.eu! We help to organize and provide further internships until May 2026. For further information look here: https://www.ecosys4you.eu/participate/internships/the-ruhr-varna-25-26/# 

Hackathon Highlights: Mind Diving Varna

The second Ecosys4You Hackathon, titled Mind Diving Varna, took place in Varna from July 5th to 6th, 2025 under the coordination of our partners RAPIV BULGARIA and AWARE7 GmbH. What a competition – 3 Challenges, 5 Teams, 3 Mentors, 15 participants and 3 winners.

1. place went to our youngest team - two passionate high school students and one university student dream about „the best water“, Aquapure delivers - a distillation and mineralization of water to ensure the most qualitative drinkable water at an affordable price. The team shared a prize of 1000€ 
2. place went to the largest and most diverse team of 5 young people who pulled their competencies to make life happier. Utilising AI technology, they developed a business model for a personal psychological assistant and shared 500€.  
3. a special prize went to a team tackling cybersecurity education with a virtual reality game. In 24 hours the team programmed a workable prototype and impressed our colleagues from RAPIV BULGARIA so much, that they decided to award them additional 200€. 

Project Meeting in Maribor (15–16 May 2025)

From May 15th to 16th, 2025, we met in Maribor at DOBA Business School for our third annual project meeting. We evaluated our first round of activities, developed them further, and discussed the consolidation of activities in a scenario workshop. Further, we started planning for the final event and report.  

📰 Ecosys4You in Slovenian Media

The project recently received media attention in Slovenia, highlighting its contribution to regional development and youth entrepreneurship. The article praised the collaborative effort between educational institutions and start-up ecosystems. 

📄 New Publication: Beyond Startup Formation

We are excited to announce the release of our new Open Access paper “Beyond Startup Formation”. It explores how entrepreneurial ecosystems can go beyond business creation to foster sustainable regional development. Just follow the link: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/02690942241311805  

More information about the project timeline and partners: 
www.ecosys4you.eu