Ventures · meedup GbR
Companies seta real task.Students solve it.
meedup connects engaged students with companies. It rests on a database of more than 1,000 student initiatives and a network of over 10,000 students across Germany.
Network
- 4challenges completed
- 1challenge running now
- 1,000+student initiatives
- 10,000+students reachable
The problem
Companies outside the well known target industries barely reach top talent. Those not counted among consulting, technology or automotive rarely appear on a graduate’s shortlist. An unfilled position nonetheless incurs cost every month.
At the same time selection itself is unreliable. An application shows how someone presents themselves, not how they work. Work samples and practical projects, by contrast, have been considered the most predictive selection method for later professional success for decades.
- 2.8 %of graduates name wholesale and retail as a target industryMaastricht University, 2016
- €73,000is what an unfilled position can cost per year at worstStepStone, 2022
- 89 %of hiring failures come down to missing soft skills, not missing expertiseForbes, 2025
- 80 %of talent build their soft skills in practical formatsNSLS, 2022
The model
Instead of a job posting, a company sets a real task from its own operation. Student teams work on it over a defined period and present their solution to the company’s jury at the end.
Three things happen at once that would otherwise take three separate initiatives: visibility with an audience the company barely reaches, concrete solutions to a real problem, and a recruiting head start, because the teams have already shown how they work.
Course of a challenge
The process is deliberately lean. For the company the effort is limited to a kick-off conversation, agreeing the frame, and the jury. Everything in between is handled by meedup.
From kick-off to jury
4 SchritteKick-off meeting
Analysing pain points and goals, plus a first outline of the challenge.
Your benefit
A tailored challenge design for genuine new impulses.
Setting the frame
Target group, schedule, prize money and scope are defined precisely.
Your benefit
A turnkey package for clarity, quality and internal alignment.
Mobilising the network
The challenge is placed precisely with the right talent.
Your benefit
Maximum reach within the relevant audience.
Jury and selection
The best teams present their solutions and the company picks the winners itself.
Your benefit
Direct access to innovative concepts and to top talent.
Benefit for the company
A challenge pays into employer branding, recruiting and the actual work at the same time. That combination is what sets it apart from a careers fair or an advertising campaign.
- 01
Better reach
Top students across Germany know the company afterwards and see it as a possible employer.
- 02
Easier recruiting
The teams have effectively completed a selection process. The lengthy intake procedure is unnecessary while their way of working is nonetheless known.
- 03
Varied solutions
Several teams develop different answers to the same problem. The best of them can be adopted directly.
The network
Access to the teams is the real core of the model. It rests on a self-built database of more than 1,000 student initiatives across Germany, from student councils and student consultancies to founding and engineering societies.
That way a challenge does not go to an anonymous crowd but to students who already demonstrate that they engage beyond their coursework. This is exactly the group companies are looking for, and exactly the one that is hardest to reach through conventional channels.
- 1,000+student initiatives in the database, nationwide
- 10,000+engaged students reachable through them
An example
A company from food retail faces exactly the problem described above. Many know it as the supermarket around the corner, few think of the career opportunities at its headquarters. The challenge therefore asks: how do we break that image among top talent?
It goes out with tiered prize money and a fixed runtime. The best concepts go to the company’s jury, which picks the winners itself.
- €1,000prize money for first place
- €500for second place
- €300for third place
My role
As co-founder I own product and business model. That covers developing and validating the model in the market, deriving and prioritising product requirements, and building the advisory board.