The finals of the Student Entrepreneur Competition were held today the 16th of April. Over 50 people attended this event (which was great considering the early start!). The event was kindly sponsored by BOI, MCann Fitzgerald solicitors and F.R.Kelly Patent agents.
The winners and the Judges in the background.
The idea of the competition was to generate a business culture on campus.
As it was the first year we were never sure how it was going to go or how many would enter. The last thing we wanted was to have two competitors in the semi finals. We were delighted with the number and quality of entries, it really showed us that we were tapping into a rich seam. After the gentle encouragement to get people to enter, the rounds got more difficult and the judges started asking the questions that had to be asked - normally the questions that most of the competitors wouldn’t have asked themselves. We wanted to see the competitiors thinking outside the box and explore different business models, opportunities and solutions for their business idea.
It was great to see the teams face the issues and witness their arguments mature through the rounds. While the ideas are always important, in business the management is often what makes the difference between a failure and success. Competitors who reached the finals had been through two tough qualifying rounds. The four teams that came out of this process to reach the finals were:
- Sentiment: This business idea is based on technology developed by Hans Stam who is a final year student in Computer Science. The promotional and financial members of the team are Tina Chen (BA Finance), Andrew Gaynor (BA Finance) and Mahendranath Kumar Gangah (BA Finance & Accounting). The technology will empower marketing companies who may be looking for feedback on their product or service among their customer base. It allows the user to delve into blogs and websites which mention their product and provide feedback as to how they are percieved.
- Lingua Franca: Setup by Nicole Holmes and Aida Ennis who are studying Arts. The company will provide language services to businesses and individuals, including translation services, grinds and language teaching.
- Czars: A restaurant setup by sisters Giedre and Zaneta Visockaite to bring Eastern European cusine to Mullingar. Servicing the homesick Eastern Europeans and capturing the imaginations of the Irish. Giedre and Zaneta are studying Finance and Venture management and Finance and Accountancy respectively.
- Institute of Success: Setup by Cormac Moore. Cormac has analysed the habits of students who achieved over 500 points in the Leaving Cert and has applied the techniques of NLP to teach these habits to students. He proposes to teach methods which will help in all aspects of excelling in exams, not just memory. Cormac is studying Finance and Venture Management.
Each team produced a business plan which the judges studied at their leisure. So coming into the final presentation round of the competition they had already alloted marks for what they had seen in the plans. The teams were given 12 minutes to present and make an impression on the day. Judges had 4 minutes each to grill the teams individually on their presentations and business plans.
The judging panel as below was as diverse as the teams;
- Dennis Jennings - 4th Level Ventures
- Paul Lavery - McCannFitzgerald Solicitors
- Peter O’Reilly - Manager BOI Maynooth
- Damian Callaghan - Intel Capital
With two Venture Capitalists, a Commercial Solicitor and a Bank Manager in the mix the questions were broad and challenging. I am pleased to say that all the competitors stood up well to the interrogation.
Taking a recess to decide on the winners and after much argument/ discussion behind closed doors the decisions were announced as follows;
- 1st place prize of €6K went to Lingua Franca
- 2nd place: Sentiment €3K
- 3rd place: Czars €1K
- 4th place: Institute of Success €500
Run-away winners Nicole Holmes and Aida Ennis of Lingua Franca
Congratulations to all those who took place including the two runners up; The PillowShop and Roundhouse who were just outside the prizes in a very tough competition. special thanks also to the judges who worked on the early stages; Ray O’Neill, Deirdre Watters, Conor Boyce (F.R. Kelly and Co) and Robert Galavan.
A big thank you also to John Scanlan and Siobhan Dixon for all their help getting this important initiative off the ground.
Some interesting facts from the competition;
- Competitors are from a variety of disciplines
- All of the business are different
- 5 out of the 9 competitors are not Irish - people who travel are often more entrepreneurial!
- The most interesting point to note is that all of the teams plan to take their idea to the market, It is great to think that the competition has helped them on their journey.
Until the 2009 finals!
Owen Laverty
