In 2021 we will again support Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) with the Entrepreneurship Course organised for around 800 Business Administration students. We kicked off on the 14^th of January in the form of a talk show hosted by RSM. Jitse Groen, founder and CEO of  Takeaway.com / Thuisbezorgd.nl inspired the students with his story behind the rapid growth of the company together with our Academic Director Prof. Dr. Justin Jansen. Even before COVID-19 restricted restaurants to only sell takeaway, we’re all too familiar with the delivery cyclists from Takeaway.com dressed in orange bringing our meals right to our doorsteps. It is not surprising that this scaleup topped our list with the Top250 Scaleups for two years in a row as the fastest-growing company in the Netherlands.

Teaching cases

To create a stronger connection between entrepreneurs and Erasmus University Rotterdam, Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship and RSM develop various educational cases in collaboration with Dutch scaleups such as Coolblue, Takeaway.com and YoungCapital.

All of these cases are living cases with the aim of being regular updated with new information from the company. The founders of the company concerned are actively involved by, among other things, inviting them as guest lecturers. The purpose of these teaching cases is to turn exceptional business and management experiences into powerful learning tools that can be implemented in our entrepreneurship courses.

Last year, founder and CEO of Coolblue, Pieter Zwart, showed the students a peek in the life of a scaleup entrepreneur by sharing the Coolblue Teaching Case. This year, it is time for Takeaway.com to do so.

One of the initiators of the teaching cases, Professor Dr. Justin Jansen, describes the importance of translating his research into education: ”The teaching cases are a great source of inspiration for the students. They learn what it means to develop new revenue models and to look at customer needs in a different way. Not only the deployment of rapid growth, but certainly also the challenges that comes with it are key to this end.”

RSM Entrepreneurship Challenge

During the second part of the course, the students will further explore entrepreneurship and new business models during the RSM Entrepreneurship Challenge. This challenge challenges students to develop a value proposition and turn their idea into an innovative and profitable company. During biweekly online feedback sessions, we will support the students to put the lessons on entrepreneurship into practice.

In the annual RSM Entrepreneurship Challenge, we link academic knowledge to practice, giving the students insights into how to start and run a business. The bachelor students learn about entrepreneurship-related topics, including ideation, customer discovery, value proposition, business models and pitching. The course enables students to experience what it is like to create maximum value from limited resources, by thinking and acting like an entrepreneur.