Every great venture starts with a spark. A “what if?” moment scribbled in a notebook or debated over coffee with a confidant. Ask experienced founders what they would do differently, and one answer appears again and again: they wish they had started earlier. In one recent survey, more than 85% of small business owners said they regretted not starting their business sooner.
At the same time, the number of successful startups is quite sobering. Around 90% of these businesses fail, with most closing within their first few years.
In that context, early access to guided, low-risk entrepreneurial journeys is becoming a much-needed advantage.
For InnoEnergy Masters+ students, those sparks of ideas do not need to wait until after graduation. The Green Seed Journey (GSJ) is where ideas stop living only in slides and notebooks and start being tested as real ventures. Over six months, students move through an online entrepreneurial ecosystem that mirrors real venture building. Starting with problem discovery and market research, they then move on to solution validation, and the experience culminates with the best teams pitching their concepts at the InnoEnergy Connect Event in Stockholm.
The impact of this approach is already visible. More than 125 companies have been created by Masters+ alumni, many of whom used programmes like GSJ to experiment with ideas and build early networks.
This year’s winning team, Datlantis ReGen, showed first-hand the type of ambition that GSJ encourages. Founded by Miguel Marques, with teammates including Masters+ student Kian Grossard Amin, their solution focused on rethinking the future of AI infrastructure with subsea data centres powered by ocean thermal energy conversion. These offshore modules are designed to operate without land, water or cooling power, and to reuse heat to generate clean electricity. The concept aims for up to a 50% reduction in energy use, significantly lower operating costs, and zero water consumption. The team earned first place in the 2025 competition, receiving a five-thousand-euro prize, access to incubation services and a place at the Green Seed Journey Camp for advanced venture development.
“I realised what we study can make an actual impact during the Green Seed Journey”
For Kian Grossard Amin, the experience reshaped his view of his studies and the potential to make a real difference.
“I think that the moment I realised that what we’re studying could make an actual impact on the energy transition was during the Green Seed journey. We had many ventures trying to build on various aspects of the energy industry. And we could join a different venture and try to build our own startups to try to do the whole research from the beginning and make our impacts actually feasible and see what could actually happen with what we’re doing and make actual change.”
By placing students in the mindset of identifying a problem worth solving, this experiential learning builds entrepreneurial confidence and helps them understand how their technical knowledge can fuel genuine solutions.
Fellow InnoEnergy Masters+ Sustainable Energy Systems programme student, Mart van Gassel, echoes Kian’s sentiment.
“You can create your own venture, and you get help. They show you how to make something you believe in happen and how to work it out as a company. I think that’s a key thing on how to make whatever you believe in work and how to have an impact on the world.”
Ecosystems like GSJ not only develop students’ technical abilities but also help them see themselves as contributors to the energy transition rather than spectators.
“Technical knowledge is very important for a start-up to survive”
Another strength of GSJ is that it mirrors the structure of real start-ups, giving students a chance to try on roles that fit their skills and ambitions.
The Competition unites students and professionals with entrepreneurial minds. Participants align their roles with their expertise, interests, and unique experiences to make a meaningful impact.
As Entrepreneurs, Year 2 Masters+ students and alumni can launch ventures of their own. They test the appeal of their ideas, work with experienced advisors, and attract talent with complementary skills to take their plans to the next level. As Talents, Masters+ students and other master’s students from anywhere in the world can browse ventures, join teams and gain hands-on experience inside a start-up environment. Investors, typically MBA and management students, act as venture capitalists, evaluating plans, placing virtual investments and offering feedback. And Advisors are experienced professionals, venture capitalists, CEOs and alumni who guide teams through key decisions.
For Kian, this structure created the perfect entry point.
“I wanted to join a technical team as I believe that technical knowledge is very important for a start-up to survive. I got contacted by the venture owner, which allowed me to ask all the questions I had before deciding to join the team. I took on the role of a mechanical engineer responsible for 3D and CFD modelling.”
From the venture side, the benefits are equally clear. As Datlantis team member Luis Miguel Pereira explains:
“The GSJ competition allowed our team to put our passions and skills into action, giving us a framework to build a business with real potential. It also helped us see where we could grow. Once we had skin in the game, all the concepts from our master’s studies started to truly make sense.”
Together, these perspectives show how GSJ turns a student project into a genuine rehearsal for founding.
“Problem validation was the most difficult stage”
Like real founders, GSJ teams face the challenge of pressure-testing their assumptions. For Kian, this meant finding ways to gather feedback while protecting a technically complex idea.
“Personally, I found that the problem validation was the most difficult stage for our venture. Because our solution was very technical, we did not want to disclose too much information to other competitors or potential clients. This meant we had to be careful of what information we were sharing, while getting the information we needed.”
Learning how to strike this balance is a critical entrepreneurial skill, particularly for deep-tech innovators working with sensitive intellectual property.
How The Green Seed Journey Turns vision into a venture:
InnoEnergy offers the Green Seed Journey Competition as a supporting and complementary initiative to the existing study programs. It gives students the chance to practice entrepreneurship in a supportive environment.
Beyond the competition phase, top teams continue their development through the Green Seed Journey Camp. This three-day training experience helps early-stage founders understand investor expectations, whilst strengthening their strategy and valuation. Alumni entrepreneurs can also apply for GSJ Grants, which support prototyping and living expenses required to join accelerators or incubators. Together, these opportunities provide a practical bridge between student innovation and real-world commercialisation.
Journeys like this give future founders a head start. To find out if it can offer you yours, read more here
