Applied Creative Destruction Lab with Startups

Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) Estonia has developed a practical course for current and aspiring deep-tech startup entrepreneurs. The course combines the experience of CDL’s international mentoring programme with effective practices in science commercialisation.

Participants will gain a comprehensive and systematic overview of the development of a deep-tech company throughout its lifecycle, across five business functions. They will learn how to manage company development in a balanced way, assess and mitigate risks, and anticipate common development challenges. Through practical teamwork, participants will further develop a selected part of their company development plan and learn how to use feedback to improve it. At the same time, the course provides an opportunity to expand their network within Estonia’s deep-tech ecosystem.

The course is led by Heli Valtna, a deep-tech entrepreneurship practitioner and Junior Research Fellow in Economics at the University of Tartu. Experienced entrepreneurs and mentors from Creative Destruction Lab will also contribute to the course.

The course is intended for current and aspiring deep-tech entrepreneurs, Master’s and doctoral students, researchers, technology transfer specialists, representatives of innovation support organisations, and angel investors. It is open to participants from all Estonian universities.

The course will take place in person on four Thursdays: 10 September, 1 and 22 October, and 12 November 2026, from 10:00 to 16:00 at the University of Tartu Delta Centre (Narva mnt 18, Tartu). The working language is English.

Feedback from previous participants:

“For me, the most valuable part was learning to think about innovation systematically without losing scientific rigour. The course helped make the entrepreneurial process easier to understand: identifying customer needs, developing a value proposition, estimating market size, and understanding the logic behind a pitch are not at odds with scientific rigour. Instead, they help scientific ideas move beyond the boundaries of academia.”

Doctoral student

“The course gave me a practical and comprehensive understanding of how a research-based or problem-driven idea can be developed step by step into a viable business. It helped me understand entrepreneurship as a process rather than a single idea.

The step-by-step approach taught during the course helped me realise that starting a company is not a leap into the unknown, but a manageable process that can be developed in a structured way.”

Course participant and CDL mentoring programme participant