They say time flies in good company, but I did not expect my fellowship to end so soon. This past 6 months has rushed by and suddenly I find myself having to reflect on the ups and downs of my experience at Route4U. But before I jump into that, a quick recap of the last month seems necessary.
At the Design Terminal Accelerator programme, we had yet another series of amazing workshops and 1on1 mentoring sessions. The ones that perhaps stood out for me the most were the “Introduction to UX/UI”, and “What is Growth Hacking?” Callie Wheeler gave us an energetic and insightful picture of user experience design, that sparked my genuine interest in the field. Making products that are intuitive and enjoyable for users is a huge challenge but a very rewarding task as I came to see it now. The Growth Hacking workshop was held by Zsolt Farkas, CEO of 7 Digits Agency. He came with an extremely well structured and well thought through lecture about the newest and most useful marketing software and advices on the perfect landing page as well as the optimal architecture of sales funnels. Ultimately, this workshop was the most useful for me, and it aided my work at Route4U. In addition, we also had the chance to take part in a financial modelling and a specific Adwords workshop, 1 on 1 meetings with consultants such as Bechara Kara or Zoltan Várdy and more.
I have also conducted telephone interviews with some of our subscribers, based on the questionnaire that I previously compiled. One of my favourite calls was the time I talked to an older lady who subscribed on the Route4U website. The call must have lasted more than half an hour, but by the time we hang up she strengthened my belief that what we do at Route4U is truly useful to our users, and it is indeed a product that people find helpful.
In the last month, we had quite a few public appearances. We were invited to hold a guest lecture at Convinus University by the InCube student society. They had amazing questions about Route4U and startups in general, as some of them want to work in tech. It was such a rewarding experience to talk to university students because as a fresh graduate myself I know how hard it is to decide about your future workplace. We exhibited twice in Várkert Bazár, once on the “Magyar Parasport Napja” conference, where I also had the chance to take part in a panel discussion, and once at Think Bdpst.
Furthermore, I had the pleasure of receiving a startup award on behalf of Route4U at Bálna, organized by the Budapesti Városfejlesztési Közalapítvány.
Tibor and I were also invited to Skool, a programming school for girls, to talk about smart cities, the Route4U app’s contribution to the concept and the technology itself. It was great to see young girls being so passionate about technology. They are the next generation of female engineers; it was a pleasure to get to know them a little.
Now, that I summarized what has happened in the last month or so, I can finally get back to reflecting overall on the 6 months of fellowship. Looking back; from the award gala in Bratislava, through the Design Terminal accelerator programme, to the pitches and workshops that I was able to take part in; it is hard to believe that all this has happened in only 6 months. It was such an amazing journey, full of new things to learn and new people to meet.
At the end of my very last blog post, there is nothing else left for me but to express my gratitude to everyone who made this fellowship an invaluable experience. Thank you Bridge Budapest for selecting me to take part in this great programme. Moreover, a massive thank you is in order to the Route4U team for giving me the opportunity to learn and experience the things that really fascinated me. I would also like to thank Design Terminal for teaching me the fundamentals of the startup “industry” through their workshops and mentoring sessions. And finally, I would like to thank Tibor Dobai, who always had my back from the first day to the last.
