How experimenting with different ideas can help you find success

Mateusz Andrulewicz is a second year Business Management student with an entrepreneurial mind and acts as a great example of someone who has experimented with different ideas to find eventual success.

We caught up with Mateusz during his summer internship at Google, Dublin to reflect on how he has created opportunities for himself - find out how to cope when things don't go to plan and why bouncing back is key to your own success.

Mateusz's story...

I applied for the Ideas Fund when I was in my first year at uni. The idea I had at the time was a personal image consulting business for men. Together with a friend we wanted to use our knowledge about classic menswear to help men improve their personal image. Our application was successful and shortly after we started to advertise our business online heavily. Business wise, the idea was a failure, however I do consider the overall experience as a massive success for two reasons. Firstly, although it wasn't a pleasant feeling to fail it gave me a better understanding of what viability is. Nowadays, when I come up with an idea I think long and hard before I decide to allocate a portion of my time to it. Secondly, the experience initiated my passion for advertising.

Following the Ideas Fund, I got involved with the new UoB Start-Up society which I co-founded. This is probably the most satisfying and rewarding 'job' I have ever done. Our mission is to make entrepreneurship accessible to everybody and to have fun at the same time. At the end of the year I was offered an opportunity to take the lead and further develop the society.

Over the summer I have been interning with Google in Dublin as an associate account stategist for the Polish market. I absolutely love the job as it involves a mixture of advertising and sales which aligns perfectly with my interests. I am doing my best to secure a full time offer from Google as I'm positive this experience will really set me up for the future.

As for my last year at university, I’m planning to fully focus on Startup Society; last year I had 4 part-time jobs, the society as well as university-related responsibilities so this year I want to take a step back and make sure Startup Soc will still function once I graduate. Together with the whole committee we set the bar high for the coming year so I also don’t have much choice here :)

I would definitely encourage everybody to get involved in ANYTHING while studying. There is so much exciting stuff going on at uni and you wouldn’t believe how such things can change your life. For me another turning point was when I participated in the 2016 Boot Camp organised by B-Enterprising on campus. It was a 3-day competition which was packed with so much knowledge that it took me a week to process it all. After a week I got to work. The rest is history. I’m 100% sure that if it wasn’t for Boot Camp, I wouldn’t be the president of Startup Society and I definitely wouldn’t be at Google right now. So, find your Boot Camp; I’m sure there is something available for everyone. For those of you who are interested in startups or would simply like to be more entrepreneurial, I strongly recommend joining Startup Society and following us on Facebook to ensure that you’re up to date. There is a lot of entrepreneurial fun planned for the coming year!

Take your idea and apply for up to £500 here - B-Enterprising Ideas Fund

Interested in joining the Boot Camp with Virgin? Find out more here