European Innovation Academy – Week 1: From Doubts to Momentum

The first week at the European Innovation Academy (EIA) in Porto
was a whirlwind of team formation, problem discovery, and our first prototype.
In just five days, we went from uncertainty to real momentum.
Here’s my daily recap with personal insights and mentor lessons.

Day 1 – Team Formation & First Doubts

Keynote: Dennis DeMeyere – “Fall in love with the problem, not your solution”

The first morning at EIA felt like stepping into the fast lane of entrepreneurship.
Around me: students, founders, and innovators from all over the world,
all ready to build a startup in just three weeks.

Team Formation

By midday, I had formed my team:

Akshaye (Australia) – already CEO of his own startup
Brendon (Australia) – electronics engineer, very hands-on

We quickly noticed a gap in our skills:
Two engineers and a CEO. No marketing, no designer.

We added two more participants to cover our blind spots:

Tourism background
Logistics background

Our first idea was in logistics –
it felt reasonable and market-relevant, but we had not validated it.

Dennis DeMeyere’s Wake-Up Call

The first keynote hit me like a reality check.

“Startups are empty containers.
Your only purpose is to solve a real problem for real people.”

Dennis explained how to identify a great problem:

Impact enough people
Really matter to them
Enable a radically better solution
Fall in love with the problem – and the people

He also shared his problem-first playbook:

Learn facts: What is the problem? Why does it exist? How do people solve it today?
Understand feelings: Why does it matter? How does the current solution feel? How painful is switching?

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” – Henry Ford

Hitting the Streets: Reality Check

Armed with this mindset, we went out to talk to potential users.
The first reality check came fast:

People had workarounds and existing solutions
Frustration was low
Switching to our idea would not feel worth it

That evening, the team met with mixed feelings:
We felt the first doubts creeping in.
Our problem might not be a problem at all.

Day 1 Learning:
Early interviews beat assumptions. A startup without a validated problem is just an idea.

Day 2 – Pivot to a Real Problem

Keynotes:

Jan Simon Veicht – Strategic Design Thinking
Isaiah Harvin – Customer Discovery & Validation

The next morning, we analyzed all interviews.
The verdict was clear:
We had a solution for a problem that did not exist.

The Pivot

After a long team discussion, we made our first major pivot:
Learning math is frustrating and inefficient.

This was a pain we understood personally,
and our early interviews confirmed real user frustration.

Mentor Assignment

On Day 2 we also got our business mentor:
Dennis DeMeyere (CTO Physna, ex-Google) –
exactly the mentor we had hoped for.

His core advice:
“Fall in love with the problem, not your solution.”

He helped us reframe our approach
and pushed us to focus on discovery instead of coding.

Keynote Insights

Jan Simon Veicht:

Real design is strategic, messy, and embodied
The 6 Moves of Strategic Design Thinking:
1. Sense – Read context, talk to real people
2. Frame – Name the tension (Desirability × Viability × Feasibility)
3. Spark – Generate ideas quickly
4. Shape – Make it tangible, prototype fast
5. Test – Invite friction, not praise
6. Commit – Decide and move

Isaiah Harvin:

Customer discovery is non-negotiable
Use hypothesis-driven interviews:
As a [user type], I want [behavior] so that [outcome].
Ask open discovery questions, like:
- “Tell me about the last time you struggled with math.”
- “If you had a magic wand, what would you change?”

By the end of Day 2, we had:

A validated problem
A clear problem statement
Our first survey and interview plan

Day 2 Learning:
Pivoting early saves weeks of wasted work.

Day 3 – Personal Branding & Problem Definition

Keynote: Jens Heitland – Personal Branding for Founders

Day 3 was a turning point, both for our team and for me personally.
It was the day we shifted from just defining a problem to thinking about how we present ourselves as founders.

Jens Heitland’s Keynote

Jens Heitland (former Global Head of Innovation at IKEA) gave a keynote that resonated deeply.
He presented a simple but powerful formula:

Visibility × Credibility = Opportunity

The idea is clear:
Founders are also brands. People invest in people first, then in products.

His advice:

Know your values and your mission
Build a personal brand hub (LinkedIn, website, blog)
Share authentic insights instead of self-promotion

This inspired me to take action:

I published my first LinkedIn post
I started building my own website as my brand hub

Team Progress

While I worked on personal branding, our team continued with problem discovery:

We consolidated our problem statement around math learning frustration
We drafted survey questions to collect quantitative and qualitative data
We prepared for the next phase: user validation

Day 3 Learning:
Building trust in yourself accelerates trust in your startup.

Day 4 – Team Change & First Prototype

Keynotes:

Mike Lee – Early Validation & Traction
Miguel Martins – Working Backwards from the Customer

Day 4 brought unexpected challenges and progress at the same time.

Team Change

Our teammate with a logistics background left the program after receiving a job offer.
This meant our team of five became a team of four.
We now had to achieve the same milestones as larger teams, with fewer people.

First Prototype

Despite the smaller team, we switched into execution mode.
I developed our first Python prototype as a proof of concept:

It demonstrated that our core concept for math learning could work
It provided a foundation for the user testing we planned

Keynote Insights

Miguel Martins – Working Backwards

Work backwards from the customer to design a product that matters
The 5 steps: Listen → Define → Invent → Refine → Test
Use a PR/FAQ to simulate a future press release and FAQ before coding

Mike Lee – Early Traction

Traction is proof of momentum, not just an idea or a prototype
Start with manual solutions if necessary
Real validation comes from committed users or revenue

Reflection

We combined both lessons into our work:

Python prototype for technical validation
Plan for early user testing to generate evidence of traction

Day 4 Learning:
A small, testable prototype is better than a large, untested idea.

Day 5 – Prototype Expansion & Multi-Platform Strategy

Keynote: Dr. Miguel Damas – Health as a CEO-Level Strategy

The last day of Week 1 was about building momentum and thinking ahead.

Execution

I continued improving our Python prototype and started designing our technical roadmap:

Plan to launch on Web, Android, and iOS
Strategy to use React Native for multi-platform support with minimal extra effort

Keynote Insights

Dr. Miguel Damas emphasized founder health as a strategic asset:

Good sleep, exercise, and recovery are not optional for high performance
Practices like cold exposure, sauna, and focus breaks improve decision-making
Sustainable energy leads to sustainable startups

We ended the week by reflecting on our progress and saying goodbye to our mentors.
Special thanks to Dennis DeMeyere for guiding us through our first pivotal week.

Week 1 Reflections

In just five days, we:

Formed a team with complementary skills
Pivoted from a non-problem to a real, validated user pain
Learned problem-first entrepreneurship and customer discovery
Built a first Python prototype and a multi-platform product strategy
Understood that founder health and early traction are as important as coding

Week 1 Learning:
Fall in love with the problem and the people, not the solution.