Post by Enactus UvA

Last Saturday we hosted the fourth Entrepreneurship Gathering, co-organized with Enactus Vrije Universiteit and the International Talent Hub with Qiangbin Li. The turnout, the energy in the room, and the depth of discussion made this one of our strongest sessions yet. It was a pleasure to welcome so many founders, students, and early-stage teams who are building ambitious projects and learning from one another in real time. The afternoon followed a simple structure: short introductions, focused group discussions, collective reflections, and a long networking session to end the day. The format gave enough structure to guide the conversations while keeping room for everyone’s experiences and questions. Our group discussed personal growth vs. company growth, and the challenge of managing skills, time, and financial decisions in the early stages. A few takeaways stood out: - Complementary capabilities matter, but early teams also benefit when everyone understands the full range of tasks a startup relies on. Breadth builds resilience and makes collaboration easier. - Role clarity works best when paired with shared literacy. Even with defined responsibilities, teams function better when members can help each other think through problems or step in when someone is unavailable. - Founders should prioritise the learning curves that shift the company forward. Delegation is important, but it becomes effective only when the team has a clear sense of priorities and expectations. - Financial discipline is central in the early stages. Before raising money, spending should focus on validating the idea rather than scaling it. - We also discussed the importance of timing. Grants, investors, and VCs look for grounding, progress, and evidence of learning. Funding is most helpful when secured at a moment where it becomes genuine acceleration, not a distraction. - Post-funding discipline matters as much as pre-funding caution. A structured plan tied to clear milestones helps ensure that capital becomes real runway and not simply increased cost. Thank you to everyone who joined, contributed, and stayed long into the networking hour. Each gathering shows how much talent and drive exists in this community. We’re already looking forward to the next one. Thanks to everyone in team 3 for the great insights! Giordano Cattani, PhD , ANOSH R 🏳️‍🌈, Kubilay Tarhan, Romir Malik, Altan Türel, Yash Tyagi, Alireza Shariati, Jacob Raphael, Solaiman E.