The Student Business Plan Competition gives students the opportunity to submit their business idea for a chance to win £5000 to help kick-start their business. 7 finalists were chosen from their initial concept submissions in December 2010 and have since been blogging about their experience and progress through online social media to build up each of their profiles. The finalists then went through the gruelling process of a 2-day intensive boot camp in March designed to teach them how to create a fully effective professional business plan. Following the submission of their full business plans in April, they had to pitch their final business plan to a panel of external judges in true Dragons’ Den style.
The Awards Ceremony, introduced by Deputy Vice-Chancellor Peter McCaffrey, was kicked-off with a keynote speech from Julie Meyer, one of the leading champions for entrepreneurship in Europe. With over 20 years investment and advisory experience helping start-up businesses, Julie is the well known founder & CEO of Ariadne Capital, Managing Partner of the Ariadne Capital Entrepreneurs (ACE) Fund, founder of Entrepreneur Country, co-founder of First Tuesday, dragon on BBC’s Online Dragons’ Den and weekly columnist in London’s City AM. Julie remarked on the way of the entrepreneur and how best to succeed in business, with useful tips for the student entrepreneurs in the audience. Julie was full of praise for the finalists, saying that "events like this one today are the beating heart of entrepreneurialism in the UK. It is fantastic to see what talented young entrepreneurs can achieve with the right backing and support from institutions like London Metropolitan University. The future economic growth of the country depends on encouraging young people to think big and to be innovative and dynamic business builders." Julie went on to announce the winners of the 2010/11 Student Business Plan Competition.
First place went to Uwe Dreissigacker, an LMBS BA Entrepreneur Student. Uwe impressed the judges, which consisted of Business Mentors; CEO’s and leading London Accountants, with his simple online invoicing software for small businesses called Invoiceberry.com. His software enables small business owners to track and send invoices anywhere in the world simply using their browser. Uwe was awarded £5000, consisting of cash and in-kind support from the Accelerator, London Met’s business incubator.
Second place was awarded to another LMBS student, having recently completed his MBA at London Met, Sujit Nair set up in business with co-founder Apurv Mishra, the youngest ever TED fellow, with their unique online educational platform, Dabblerr, which aims to personalise education by creating a demands for topics to be taught by certain “heroes”. Sujit received £1500 in cash and £1500 in-kind support from the Accelerator.
Third place went to Sports Therapy Graduate and London Met Staff member, Nick Gardiner, for his Fit for Sport Therapy clinic which offers bespoke CPD (continuing professional development) courses in First Aid and Sports Therapy. Nick was awarded £500 in cash as well as a Virtual Incubation Contract with Accelerator.
Fourth place was awarded to BA Events Management Student Catherine Skeggs for her Invitation 2 Events Company, who host challenge events for social interactions. Catherine was awarded £250 in cash and Virtual Incubation at Accelerator.
Uwe said of his experience throughout the competition: “This was such a great experience. I learnt valuable skills and have met interesting people. It helped to improve the experience our customers have when using our simple online-invoicing software and helped to make Invoiceberry even simpler and easier to use. It was a fun process with difficult tasks, but in the end it was all worth it!”
Richard Celm, Accelerator Manager and one of the judges on the panel, remarked on the winner: “This year’s winner ‘Invoiceberry’ presented a strong business pitch which has a lot of potential. Uwe possess many of the traits required to make this work and is comparable to some of the previous finalists who have gone on to great things. Definitely one to watch!”
The final three winners will now all be going on to a national Business Plan Competition run by FIG (Find Invest Grow) and competing against finalists from other UK universities in the Venture Catalyst Competition, where they are competing for a share in the £30,000 prize fund available.
You can still continue to follow the final three’s journey into the Venture Catalyst competition through their Facebook blogs here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/VentureCatalystCompetition.
