Reflections & Resolutions: Celebrating One Year of Playground

Hi, I’m Rianne, Managing Director of the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Playground. I often joke that I’m a true product of Utrecht University. Having studied here, taught here, and worked as an educational consultant within the university, I’ve seen how ideas move — or get stuck — across the system. That experience led me to a central question: how can we make our university more entrepreneurial?

Not because every student should start a company, but because entrepreneurial skills matter everywhere. Students who know their value, can spot opportunities for improvement, build networks, take initiative, and work across disciplines are exactly the kind of professionals our future needs — whether they end up in research, policy, industry, or entrepreneurship itself.

My role at Playground sits somewhere between strategy and day-to-day practice. On the one hand, I think about how we work across faculties and connect the right people. On the other, I’m deeply involved in helping individuals flourish — our team, teachers, mentors, and, most importantly, students. That balance became much easier once Playground opened its doors as a physical space.

Before that, connecting with innovative teachers often felt like pushing uphill. Not because they weren’t interested, but because time is scarce. This past year, something shifted. Teachers started coming to us. They were looking for spaces where they could experiment with education, where students could work differently, and where ideas didn’t have to be fully formed yet. Students, in turn, found a place where they could explore ideas beyond the classroom, supported by coaches and mentors who helped them take the next step. Seeing that demand meet opportunity has been one of the most rewarding parts of this first year.

If I had to pick one overarching lesson from year one, it’s this: Playground became a living example of practising what we teach. I’m a big fan of Effectuation Theory — the idea that you start with what you have, involve others, learn through action, and move forward step by step. You don’t do this alone. And that’s exactly how Playground has grown:

• We supported teachers, and they sent us students with cool ideas, shared our work with others, and connected us to their networks.
• We supported students, and they came back with their friends, became ambassadors, wrote articles, recorded podcasts, brought baked treats, and made the community their own.
• We asked industry professionals and seasoned entrepreneurs for mentorship, and people volunteered their time and experience simply because they believed in what students were building.
• We invested in our team, and that care rippled outward — into how students welcomed newcomers and supported one another.

Throughout the year, we kept listening. Students asked for clearer coaching roadmaps, stronger links with UtrechtInc, better ways to use the community platform, and early funding to validate ideas. Many of those wishes have already shaped how Playground works today — and this is only year one.

Looking ahead, one thing we’re still searching for is a truly bold, interdisciplinary challenge — a “big hairy goal” that students from across the university can’t resist working on together. Think of something on the scale of the World Solar Challenge: complex, ambitious, and deeply connected to the profile of Utrecht University. With the ecosystem now in place, we’re ready for a challenge that matches it!

Do you know of an ambitious, interdisciplinary challenge that students could work on together — something too interesting to pass up? Or are you involved in an initiative that could grow into one? I’d love to hear from you. Let’s explore how we can turn it into a shared Playground project: m.e.poot@uu.nl

Hi! I’m Wiepke, one of Playground’s coaches. In 2025, my main focus was supporting students working on entrepreneurial projects — and I use that term deliberately. At Playground, entrepreneurship doesn’t only mean scalable tech start-ups (although those exist too, like FAN or Dipcook). It also includes social initiatives, early-stage ideas, students with their first paying client, and individuals driven by a strong personal mission who are still figuring out what their project could become.

2025 was the year our coaching service truly took off. We worked with over 70 motivated students teams, each bringing different ambitions, timelines, and definitions of success. What connected them all was not just their ideas, but their need for guidance, perspective, and — more often than not — support beyond what one coach or one team could offer.
One moment that stayed with me came from a pattern we started noticing together as a Playground team. Many students had strong ideas and motivation, but got stuck when it came to execution. They simply couldn’t do everything on their own — especially while studying, writing a thesis, maintaining friendships, working, and trying to have a life next to it all.

As coaches, our instinct is often to ask the right questions: about motivation, value creation, impact, or target groups. But in this case, asking questions wasn’t enough. We needed to experiment with new forms of support. That’s when we reached out to Hogeschool Utrecht (HU) to explore whether we could create a collaboration that would benefit both their students and ours.

The result was more impactful than we expected. One Playground project received development support from five HU students over four months. Two start-ups welcomed HU students as interns, working on real entrepreneurial challenges in exchange for ECTS. Suddenly, students weren’t just learning how to build something — they were learning how to collaborate with people outside their immediate circle, manage others for the first time, and translate their vision into something actionable for someone who wasn’t “in it” 24/7.

This experience taught me something fundamental about entrepreneurship in education: progress rarely happens in isolation. Collaboration isn’t a soft skill; it’s an essential one. And experimentation — even when it feels uncertain — is often the only way to move forward. By positioning ourselves as connectors within a larger system (Playground, Utrecht University, Utrecht Science Park, and the city of Utrecht), we can create opportunities that no single student or coach could build alone.

Looking ahead to 2026, my ambition is to help students navigate this system even more intentionally. Not just by coaching their ideas, but by showing them how — and when — to ask for help, and how to use the ecosystem around them as part of their entrepreneurial journey. If this first year taught us anything, it’s that when we connect the right people at the right moment, something bigger can emerge.

Our students have big ideas, but sometimes they just need a hand from someone with industry knowledge/technical skills. If you know your way around any of the areas below, your insight, advice, or connections could help a project take the next step:

• Employability & integration of statusholders
• Supplements and/or marketing
• Trading and algorithms
• Sustainable rooftops
• Connecting generations through work
• Women’s safety & app development
• Sustainable fashion
• Sports coaching & drone technology

If this sounds like you (or someone you know), let get in touch: d.w.koekenberg@uu.nl

Hello, I’m Stijn, a startup coach at Playground. In 2025, I spent the year guiding student teams, connecting them with mentors, and helping them turn early ideas into tangible ventures. Along the way, I awarded PlayGrants to 18 promising student projects, and shared insights on startup financing through guest workshops and pitch competitions.

One story that captures the year for me is that of ModelMatic, one of the very first student startups I coached at UU. The team experienced the typical ups and downs of an early-stage startup, from a member leaving to developing new services amid ongoing uncertainty. Through coaching, we worked with them to clarify their vision, test assumptions, and develop the skills to take real steps forward — preparing them for the moment they were ready to scale. That moment came when we connected them to one of our mentors, Gijsbert van den Brink. Through his network, they were introduced to the COO of one of the Big Four firms, where they ran a large and successful pilot.

What made this moment meaningful wasn’t simply the pilot’s success, but the realisation that it resulted from sustained guidance, long-term trust, and the deliberate use of experience and networks beyond the university. The mentor’s role was essential here: while coaches help students sharpen their ideas, test next steps, and navigate early uncertainties, mentors bring lived entrepreneurial experience, credibility, and access to worlds students would otherwise struggle to enter. But even after such a milestone, the question remained — where do you go from up?

During the 10th EMES Conference, which visited Playground this year, ModelMatic pitched their AI startup. One question from the audience focused on sustainability and social impact — and on how explicitly we, as coaches, encourage students to consider these dimensions in their work. It was a confronting but valuable question.

While several of the initiatives we support already have a social or sustainable focus, our emphasis had primarily been on helping students take the first steps: starting before everything is figured out, learning by doing, and working effectually. That foundation remains essential. But this moment made clear that impact should not be left to coincidence or good intentions alone. There is a responsibility — for us as coaches, and for students as future entrepreneurs and changemakers — to consciously reflect on the role their ideas play in the world.

What this year reinforced for me is that strong teams move faster and further than individuals, but that success also brings new questions. As students grow, gain access to larger systems, and work with established organizations, the choices they make carry more weight. Supporting that growth therefore also means supporting their ability to think critically about responsibility, sustainability, and long-term impact.

Looking ahead to 2026, I want to grow our mentor pool and embed sustainability and social impact more effectively into our coaching roadmap.

Playground students grow fastest when they can learn from people who have been there before. If you have entrepreneurial experience, industry expertise, or networks that could support early-stage ventures, your guidance can make a real difference — whether as a mentor, sparring partner, or missing link. We’re also looking for ideas to help us incorporate sustainability and social impact more deeply into our coaching programme. Could this be you? I’d love to connect: s.o.rademaker@uu.nl

Hi, I’m Bianca, Community Manager at Playground. 2025 has been the year we officially opened Playground, but our community has been growing since 2023. It started with a simple group chat for students involved in Playground's original design research — a way to keep them informed and connected to what we were building. Three years later, that chat has grown to over 200 members, and I get to greet them daily in our colorful space, where they come to work, connect, learn, and recharge. Everything I do — from collaborating with teachers to onboarding new students, hosting monthly lunches, and supporting student-run events — is about creating an environment where our community feels comfortable to explore entrepreneurship.

One small moment in 2025 reminded me why this work matters. On a regular Monday morning, I noticed the foyer buzzing with familiar faces: students walking in, chatting with each other and with colleagues, settling at tables with laptops or notebooks. On a whim, I brought out a polaroid camera that had been gathering dust in the office closet. Within an hour, we had captured and labelled photos of students, alumni, ambassadors, and staff — Nihal, Aidan, Tom, Jort, Kseniia, Simon, Robbert, Julien, Yeline, Jelmer, Karin, and me. Later that week, we pinned the photos to our new community wall in the main space.

It was more than just fun. Seeing all the faces together reminded me that a strong community is the foundation for entrepreneurial courage and collaboration. Belonging gives students the confidence to take risks, share ideas, and support one another — essential ingredients for learning by doing. This moment also taught me that sometimes the most meaningful impact comes from not what you planned, but what you respond to in the moment.

Looking ahead to 2026, I want to build on this foundation in ways that connect the feeling of togetherness to concrete collaboration. How can students support each other on real ventures, tinker with ideas together, and exchange knowledge across projects? How can we design experiments that make entrepreneurial journeys more interwoven, while keeping the community vibrant and inclusive?

We’d love to create more moments for our community to connect and collaborate — whether that’s joining a workshop, helping organise an event, or simply dropping by to share ideas. Even small gestures make the space feel richer and more alive, and help students experiment, tinker, and learn together.
If you’d like to add your spark to the Playground community, I’d love to hear from you: b.a.meyer@uu.nl
 

Hi! I’m Melina, Marketing & Communications Manager at Playground. Over the past year, I’ve been sharing stories — from students testing ideas and building skills, to teachers experimenting with new ways of teaching, colleagues coaching student teams, and external partners adding their perspectives along the way. You might wonder what all of this has to do with entrepreneurship — I’ll be honest: I did too, at first. Glimpsing into the work of others helped me discover how often it’s misunderstood. Too often, it’s boxed into a single word: business.

True, some students are building startups or social and sustainable initiatives. Take the story of students Tom, Aidan, and Jort, for example: they realised their original idea would compete with a tech giant, so they pivoted into a space where they could genuinely add value. That willingness to reassess, adapt, and move forward without guarantees is something I see time and again.

But entrepreneurship also appears in places where it isn’t explicitly labelled. In a Medical Humanities course, Interaction and Narratices in Care, students worked with patient stories and translated them into creative installations. There was no single “right” outcome. Instead, students collaborated, interpreted, and learned to sit with uncertainty — developing resilience, creativity, teamwork, and problem-solving skills that extend far beyond the classroom. Moments like this show that entrepreneurship isn’t only about launching ventures; it’s about how you approach challenges, reflect on process, and navigate the unknown. It’s also a mindset.

Looking ahead, I want to go further. I’m excited to explore new storytelling formats — podcasts, videos, and interactive media — and collaborate with students, teachers, university departments, and externals to capture what entrepreneurship really looks like in practice. My hope is that through these stories, more people will see that entrepreneurship isn’t confined to startups, it is a mindset and set of skills anyone can benefit from doing something — in school, work, or life.

Do you have an entrepreneurial story to share — a project, course, startup, or experience where you experimented, adapted, or learned through trial and error? I’d love to help tell it. Your story might help someone else see entrepreneurship differently, or recognise it in their own experience. Reach out and let's bring it to life: m.victor@uu.nl