My name is Kaspar Hansen and I am the founder and CEO at Excelerate.

I am looking for a great student to take on the responsibility of all things development, with the primary focus on our platform and marketing website. Our ambition is that you mature into a CTO role with equity in the business.

I strongly urge all genders to apply :) - I am looking for someone who can already write code at a sufficient level in vue.js and PHP (learning vue.js is not complicated if you are familiar with other .js) but also someone who has the ambition of becoming CTO (leadership, management) - More on that later.

There are 5 requirements

• You must be enrolled on a master's programme.

• Darn good developer (it's a mindset)

• Your danish must be at least at C1 level

• We work from our co-working space in Copenhagen

• 15 hours a week

  
  

What we do

Excelerate has developed a pre-recruiting platform where companies can pick out university students for a thesis collaboration and subsequently hire the best ones.

A bit more detailed

Before founding Excelerate I did some research; I asked +100 students a series of questions and of those questions gave the answer that 95% of all the students would love to write their thesis with a company. In reality, just 20% of students write their thesis with a company. So the desire or demand is there.

I have since then talked to more than +100 companies, and most of them actually do take on thesis students. But they lack the proper structure to use 'thesis collaborations' as an HR / Recruitment channel. I am truly convinced that we can do it and be the solution to that issue and if we nail that, then we are in a great spot to be the first-of-a-kind platform to provide this recruitment channel.

Let's dream big for a second

There are 42.000 students who graduate in Denmark yearly - 160.000 in Scandinavia. We are not relevant for all, but I would estimate about 80%. That's 128.000 yearly. Imagine if we succeed and actually make a difference for these people. A thesis collaboration with the right company could mean:

Increase employability which is great on so many levels both personally and for companies and the society as a whole.

Work with data/code AND do something meaningful? Yes please!

So what do we sell? 

We have built a platform where students can list their thesis topic and companies can find the right student group for the perfect thesis collaboration. We charge companies a subscription fee which allows them to contact and offer the students a thesis collaboration.

On the supply side we have the students and the two main USPs are;

• Students want to finish strong.

• The pain relief we offer to students is the pill called 'anti-unemployment'. By using Excelerate as a student you increase the chance that you get a thesis collaboration with a relevant company within your field of interest. Writing your thesis with a company is regarded, together with a study job, as the most significant factor in landing a relevant job after graduation. 

On the demand side are the companies and the main USPs are;

• Talent Lead Generation

  • All companies are looking for talent. Everybody would like to attract the best and the brightest, but it is time-consuming, and it takes a lot of effort to be top-of-mind and ever-present on the universities. Excelerate is the shortcut to skipping the recruiting competition after they graduate.  

• De-risking the chance of a bad hire

  • After the 3-4 month collaboration, the company should have a solid understanding of who to hire and who not to hire. Ultimately we make the hiring manager look good towards their managers. By increasing the number of good hires they make.

• Innovation

  • Students bring innovation, new thoughts etc. But what is special about Excelerate is that it is the students who create their own thesis topic and not the company who creates an ‘assignment’. 

We are currently focusing on the following areas; Software development, Data Science, Design UI/UX, Marketing, Communication, Law, HR, Accounting and Finance. We expect to have about 1000 students signup on to the platform from IT University of Copenhagen (ITU), Copenhagen University (KU) and Copenhagen Business School (CBS) in 2022. 

The team

We are a small team - currently, 5 people; 3 co-founders, 2 developers (external) and 2 students. Working at a co-working space located in Copenhagen. 

You

In the ideal scenario - you have ½-1½ years left of your candidate program and would like to try yourself at a startup. You will be the most tech-savvy person onboard, which means the founder team will listen to what you have to say about the development.

Currently, the development is 'controlled' by our remote team in India, but we would like to, slow and steady, bring it back to Copenhagen, and you will play a big part in this. This will take time, and that is okay.

You will contribute with code and be involved in all things development-wise on the platform. When you have graduated, and as Excelerate grows, you will get a team to manage and lead. Our ambition is that you will mature into our CTO with equity in the business.

As you can see our ambitions for you are fairly high :) but you are not alone, and we will help you through this process. But with these high ambitions come high requirements:

I need a dedicated and ambitious person - but coding is not everything. 

• Type of person who other people just like straight away

• Not afraid to 'take the stage' <- at some point you will have to go on stage and talk about development.

• A fountain of positive energy

• Highly self-driven

• 100% dedication

You will be the only one in the development department for a while (in Copenhagen) which means you to succeed you have to be able to work independently and seek your 'sparing' with other developers in other communities.

Our offering

Let’s get down to business. I'm gonna be honest with you. We are not in a position to splash a whole lot of cash right now -  unfortunately, so if you are chasing that fat paycheck right now, this is not the place.

If, however, being a part of a startup team, with a lot of responsibility and opportunities sound good then this could be a great student job for you. If you are also super excited about the possibility of fast-tracking it to CTO, then this is the perfect opportunity for you.

As you can see, there are multiple 'steps' in this job.

• Step one: Now = Student developer, competitive salary. 15 hours per week.

  If you are happy and we are happy and the situation is right, then the path is laid for you to go to step2

• Step two: After you have graduated = Tech lead, Salary + equity-based split. Full-time.

  If everything goes as planned then the path to CTO is straightforward

• Step three: After you have proven yourself in a full-time position = CTO, Salary+a lot more equity-based split. Full-time.

The Timeline

In the ideal world, you would be able to join.. now, but in the real world, this stuff takes time.

Thanks for reading this far :)

Other info

Website : www.excelerate.dk

My Linkedin profile : https://www.linkedin.com/in/kasparhansen/