Business Startup is a nationwide program composed of two segments, each addressed to a different group of new entrepreneurs: one helping young people to launch and run a business, and one providing support to existing startups. The main idea behind the program delivered in partnership with Academic Business Incubators is to stimulate entrepreneurship among young people and help them to execute their original ideas for a business.

In 2015 350 students and 100 startups took part in the program.

Goals
The program's strategic goal is to stimulate entrepreneurial behaviours among young people through:

• helping them to develop businesses and launch startups and minimizing barriers to starting a business, by teaching participants about sources of financing for startup firms,
• providing students with comprehensive theoretical and practical instruction in conducting business activity by offering them advice, contacts with expert consultants and investors,
• increasing the qualifications of project participants by fostering business creativity and helping them to execute their ideas for business (by providing them with skills necessary for effective business activity,
• helping participants to achieve financial stability or income increase. We assume that 50% of the participants, 50 businesses will have started generating profits within a year from the end of the project. 

Summary
Business Startup is a full-year program.

Activities addressed to student entrepreneurs planning to start a business:

• AIP StartUP Kick-off - one-to-one sessions with the head of the Business Incubator. Entrepreneurs receive assistance in fine-tuning their business model. Each session lasts roughly one hour, 250 sessions in total in a year.
• AIP StartUP Mentoring - one-to-one sessions with experienced entrepreneurs and experts in relevant fields, with the participants meeting in person or via a videoconference. 250 sessions in total in a year.
• AIP StartUp Training - a series of small workshop sessions conducted by experts in relevant fields, on a variety of subjects related to running a business. 175 sessions to be conducted in a year.
• AIP Startup Mixer - a competition with elements of mentoring and networking. Business experts are invited to share their knowledge in discussions with participants and to choose the winner out of three entrepreneurs showcasing their business ideas in three-minute presentations. After the official part, event participants have the opportunity to mix, ask questions to the expert and make new business contacts. 12 events are held in a year, each with roughly 100 participants.

Activities addressed to existing businesses:

• AIP Business Kick-off - the purpose of Business Kick-off sessions is to diagnose the needs of the enterprise and select the set of instruments for promotion, attracting new customers or investors, etc. We also look for members of AIP BL community that might partner up with or support the new enterprises. 80 sessions in a year.
• AIP Business Mentoring - an opportunity for startups to have direct contacts with successful entrepreneurs and gain valuable advice for designing effective business strategies. 100 sessions in a year.
• AIP Business Training - workshop sessions, each for minimum 15 entrepreneurs, in various aspects of business, with successful entrepreneurs sharing their expert knowledge in relevant areas. The sessions are divided into thematic blocks: from finances, law and accounting, through pitching to investors to customer acquisition and forming partnerships. 60 sessions in a year.
• Business Mixer - a series of events, each for minimum 120 participants, aimed at selecting Startup of the Year. Along with the title, the winners receive an invitation from one of AIP BL's embassies to China, Silicon Valley of the UK. Special guests invited to the events are business gurus, successful entrepreneurs, innovators, heads of international companies. Each event ends in a networking afterparty, with participants asking questions to the expert and making new business contacts. 6 events in a year.

Activities addressed to all participants of the program:

• AIP Global - an education offered to businesses on how to operate on foreign markets. All 450 participants of the program receive support from AIP Global with regard to their activities connected with international expansion.