Are you looking for a co-founder or hoping to grow your network?

Join us for our Innovator Networking afternoon - connect with a vibrant community of founders, innovators and key players in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. You might just meet the person you’ve been looking for!🤝

The event begins with fun icebreakers to help you connect, followed by insights from experienced founders, where you’ll have the chance to ask those questions you’ve always wanted to ask. You’ll also learn about the support available to entrepreneurs like you. If you have an idea, challenge, or need, share it during our Open Mic and enjoy plenty of informal networking to meet the right people who could help take your idea to the next stage.

This event is open to all University of Edinburgh students and alumni, as well as current students from other Scottish universities, regardless of their disciplinary background or level of experience. Whether you come with a business idea or not, this is a relaxed and safe space to embark on your entrepreneurial journey. After all, creating an entrepreneurial ecosystem that helps solve some of the world’s biggest challenges requires connected communities. And what better way to bring everyone together than in a friendly, relaxed environment?

2pm - 2:30pm

• Registration & free networking

2:30pm - 5pm

• Introduction to Edinburgh Innovations and networking
• Open Mic (if you'd like to show a slide during the open mic, email it to richard.palmer@ei.ed.ac.uk no later than 1 pm the day before the event)
• Speed networking: a fun activity to get you mixing
• Free Networking
• Guest Speaker: hear from Yana Varankova, Founder & Senior Experience Strategist at The Latent Need
• Launch Point winners announced!
• Free Networking

Yana Varankova | Senior UX Strategist & Founder

Most startups fail not because they can't build the product, but because they build the wrong one.

Yana Varankova is a Senior UX Strategist on a mission to stop founders from wasting limited budgets on features nobody wants. With a unique background in Psychology, she helps tech and games founders decode exactly what their users need before a single line of code is written.

She specialises in de-risking the dream – helping founders distinguish between strategic truth and emotional convenience.

Based in Edinburgh, Yana blends the warmth of a mentor with the rigour of a scientist, helping you turn your first click into a loyal fan.

See you there! 👋

⭐️ If you have any questions or accessibility requirements, please don’t hesitate to email us at richard.palmer@ei.ed.ac.uk. We’re committed to making our programmes as inclusive and accessible as possible.