If you have ever wondered what it actually takes to turn a campus idea into a start-up with staying power, Vanessa Cheung delivered the answer, clearly, concretely, and with zero fluff at the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE)'s Start-up Explorer + HSUHK Entrepreneurship Challenge (E‑Challenge) 2026 Briefing on 6 March 2026. The Start-up Explorer Series is CIE's ongoing line-up of start-up talks, workshops, and seminars for anyone keen to learn by doing.
This time, the talk was opened with Dr Holly Chung (Associate Director, CIE) introducing the E‑Challenge 2026 roadmap and what participants can expect. Then Vanessa's playbook brought it to life.
During this Start-up Explorer workshop, Vanessa, a proud HSUHK alumna and a member of the newly established CIE Alumni Entrepreneurship Network@HSUHK, shared practical, easy-to-apply tips on building a strong team, rooted in her own journey of participating (and winning big) in CIE's E-Challenge back in 2019, when she herself and her team were just year-one students.
Her key lesson was simple but powerful: providing actionable strategies on team formation and corporate governance with honest reflections on overcoming challenges. By spotting different strengths early, assigning roles with intention, and staying honest about expectations, teams can move faster, argue less, and keep momentum when challenges inevitably show up.
The sharing also gave our HSUHK students a quick, approachable guide to the basics young founders often find intimidating. As a Corporate Governance and Compliance (BBA‑CGC) graduate back at HSUHK, Vanessa offered clear pointers on common company types and the steps to get started, turning "we have an idea" into a plan that's structured and actionable.
Students left with sharper next steps, stronger team instincts, and the reassuring sense that successful founders do not start perfect; they start prepared.