A Highway Towards Your Dreams — Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs

One of the participants of Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs program, Ignas Kazlauskas, has just finished his exchange at Wayward’s company in London. During his stay, Ignas had a chance to learn from his host entrepreneurs Heather Ring and Thomas Kendall. Soon afterwards, the young entrepreneur agreed to share his thoughts and answer some questions about working at the well-known company, which is a London-based landscape, art and architecture practice — an award-winning collective of designers, artists and urban growers. So get ready for a funny and interesting interview about work, challenges, cultural differences, and crazy coincidences that happened in the hectic city.

— Ignai, how did you come to the decision to participate in Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs?

— I got interested in adaptive reuse of urban spaces, participation in city making, regeneration and cultural infrastructure. Problem was that I had little understanding of how these processes actually work. Therefore this chance to participate in the Erasmus program seemed perfect opportunity to put theory into practice and learn a huge variety of skills to actually make a difference in the world.

— What did you expect from this project at the very beginning? What were the things you were most interested in?

— I was hoping to firstly get experience and insights of how project-led urban initiatives are being developed and run. As well as to learn what stakeholders are affected by public projects and how to collaborate with them through education, production and creation.

— Have you always dreamed about becoming an entrepreneur?

— I started dreaming about an enterprise operating on various platforms in a mix of art, design, architecture and city planning 4 years ago. But I remember being fascinated with innovative enterprises from early days. It always seemed the only way to deal with issues that you care about.

— Was it hard to find a mentor?

— Not really, the programme has an extensive list of various hosts, which is very helpful. However, I decided to do my own research and contact practices directly. Few places came back to me, so I even had luxury to choose which one I like the most.

— Tell us a bit about your business. How did you come up with this business idea?

— CoArch is an urban design and research consultancy focusing on small scale projects in public space. By forming interdisciplinary teams, this organization would initiate temporary architectural workshops that would involve local community, solve various spatial issues and employ people to make places more sustainable, social and economically viable.

— How has your business idea progressed since you started working in London? Perhaps you have implemented some changes in your business idea? Or decided to change something completely?

— The biggest impact was made on the structure of workshops. During my time at Wayward I learned about the logistics, materials and costs behind their projects. This knowledge was transferred into my business plan.

— Could you describe your ordinary day? What tasks you had to do?

— There were no ordinary days, because Wayward had a variety of projects that were very different. We would often go to different places whether it was community workshops, meeting with councils or chats at the cafe. In similar way tasks would range from research on urban greening, participatory building, and community engagement to working on design brief or planning out event with members at City of London Council.

— In your opinion, what personality skills have you developed during this exchange?

— Definitely time management. Also pro-activeness, because the relationship with people I worked was very equal, thus there were no commands or orders. I therefore got a boost in my confidence and learned to initiate things myself.

— What were the biggest challenges that you had to overcome? (or maybe there were none)

— Understanding how government and policy in the UK works. It was also hard to shift to full English environment, especially because the places we would work were very different from one another.

— In several words, how could you describe the culture in London? And the working culture, does it differ?

— London is a hectic city with crazy amount of culture happening all at once. To be fair, I would often get paranoid with all the possible activities around the city so I wouldn’t get out at all. It is also really easy to meet very different people with whom you can collaborate. The working culture is very non-hierarchical, thus you feel on the same level as everyone else. There is a lot of caring for one’s mental well-being and general health. Although sometimes it feels that everything happens slower than it would be in Lithuania.

— How do you think your business idea would have grown without this project?

— Very differently of course and probably a lot slower. I wouldn’t have had a chance to learn practicalities behind projects in urban space, everything would stay on theoretic level. I also had chance to work with really talented people, who introduced me to a variety of ways to run community engagement workshops, form design briefs.

— What new business-related connections you found during your stay in London? Are you planning to collaborate in the future?

— Quite a lot! I managed to develop the relationship with interesting project called Participatory city. I got a chance to receive their research on participatory ecosystems in cities and various other data. Guys at Wayward also introduced me with a range of different designers, event producers and growers that will be essential contact points if I will need any help in these fields.

— What was the funniest or craziest thing that happened during your staying?

— During one project visit, I spent 20 minutes talking with a project designer in English, only afterwards, by asking each other’s names, we realized that we both are Lithuanians. Since then we became really good friends and possibly future colleagues!

— What could you advise to other young entrepreneurs who are still hesitating to start their entrepreneurship journey?

— I would call this project a highway towards your dreams. Despite such challenge might look daunting at first, the rewards are priceless. You might not get a lifetime partnership or launch your dream enterprise straight off, but your own personal development and amazing time is guaranteed. This is surely one of the most interesting and rewarding experiences I had.

A huge thank you, Ignai, for sharing your story with us!

If you are now wondering how to catch a chance to participate in “Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs” — learn more here!

Or maybe you are already a successful entrepreneur who is willing to share your entrepreneurship wisdom? Become a host and collaborate with entrepreneurs all around Europe!

Have any questions? Contact European Social Entrepreneurship and Innovative Studies Institute — the best team is waiting to help you find the right host! :)