For schools · One day, two days, or your own problem
The Startopia Buildathon.
A real venture, built in a day, by twenty-five of your students. They arrive at half past nine and leave at five with a problem they have proved is real, evidence from people they interviewed themselves, something working they built, and a pitch delivered to a panel.
Why this is different
Most enterprise days end with a poster. This one ends with evidence.
A typical enterprise day gives students a brief, an afternoon and a presentation slot. Nobody speaks to a person who actually has the problem, and the winning team is the one that presents best. A Buildathon runs the sequence a real founder runs, compressed into a day. Students prove a problem is real by interviewing people about it, build something that works, put it in a stranger's hands, and defend it to a panel. Teams are scored on evidence produced, not on polish.
The one rule that changes the day
No team builds anything until it has interviewed people who have the problem. Three interviews on the one-day, five on the two-day, and the build does not open until they are logged. It moves the room from opinion to evidence before lunch, and it is why what students say at five o'clock is defensible.
What every student leaves with
What every student leaves with.
Six things, all held on file and exported to the school.
How a venture actually gets built
Land, learn, test, iterate, build, pitch.
ProofScaling, scored 0 to 5 on each
The four things a team has to prove.
Desirability
Real, named people have this problem, and at least one of them disagreed with the team.
Feasibility
Something works, a stranger can use it, and the team is honest about what is faked.
Viability
Who pays, how much, and why that number rather than another.
Usability
A person got value from it without anyone from the team standing over them.
Three ways to run it
Three formats, doing three different jobs.
They differ on how long the room has and where the problem comes from. Everything else, including the scoring and the pitch, is identical.
Why schools choose the School Challenge: the other two formats give you evidenced enterprise provision. This one also gives you five competing solutions to a problem you are already paying somebody to think about, and fifteen logged interviews about it conducted by students with no stake in defending how things are currently done. Your school is granted a free, non-exclusive licence to use, adapt and implement any solution produced on the day - you keep whichever solution you want.
For a deeper cohort
Want the four-day version?
The Startopia Bootcamp takes the same sequence across four days. We delivered it at the American University in Cairo in July 2026.
Set out before anything is agreed
What the school provides, and how we keep students safe.
The school provides
Room
One space holding five table clusters, with a projector or large screen. The live scoreboard needs the screen all day.
Staff
One member of school staff per twenty students, present throughout. We are never alone with students.
Devices
One device per team on wifi, plus a screen the demos can be shown on at the panel. Phones are enough for the interview logging.
Students
Twenty-five, ages 12 to 18. Nothing needs organising in advance. Send us the class list and any grouping constraints, and teams form in the room.
Judges
Two people from your school or parent body, free from 16:10 to 16:45. We provide the third and chair.
Materials
Paper, pens, sticky notes and one whiteboard per team. We bring all printed workbooks and evidence logs.
Consent
Written parental consent for photography, held by you and copied to us in advance, for any student who will appear in anything.
Two-day only
Users outside the original group for day two, at least three per team, arranged and supervised by you.
Safeguarding, non-negotiable
Your DSL leads
Your own Designated Safeguarding Lead holds overall responsibility for your students throughout. Any concern goes to your DSL immediately and is recorded in writing.
Named lead on our side
Louis Ravenscroft is Startopia's Designated Safeguarding Lead, holds current safeguarding certification, and is the named facilitator on the day.
School-supervised throughout
Startopia never has unsupervised contact with students. Your staff are present in every block.
No student registration
You hold the cohort list. We collect no student contact details at any point.
Interviews stay supervised
All one-day validation happens in the room in view of staff. Any visitor interviewed by a team is interviewed at the team table, never alone.
Photography by consent only
No images captured or used without confirmed written parental consent held by you.
First names only
No surnames, year groups or school ID numbers appear in any evidence log, export, report or case study.
What arrives, and when
After the day.
Priced per cohort of twenty-five, not per student
Investment.
Priced per cohort of twenty-five, not per student, in AED for UAE and GCC delivery. Travel and expenses at cost outside Dubai. The cost does not move if a student is absent.
Book the free masterclass
Sixty to ninety minutes, no cost, no obligation.
If it's right for your school we agree a Buildathon date in the room afterwards. If it's not, you have had a good session and we will say so.