During the finals of the Student Company project, ambitious business students pitch five completely different start-ups to a qualified jury. It is a close call, but student company Lock & Go takes the first prize home. Student Pim Koopman of the winning team: "The profit gives an extra incentive to continue with our company."
High level in the finals
Today, during the finals, five student companies are giving a pitch and will answer challenging questions of the jury. That the finals are exciting doesn’t come as a surprise to lecturer Willem Dresselhuys: “Selecting five finalists from the ten semi-finalists was quite a challenge due to the high level. The students show that they have many entrepreneurial talents!”
Because of the corona measures, the finals cannot take place at an external location. Instead the ideas are digitally pitched to the three judges. No problem for the entrepreneurs in the making. Student Boy Masius: "It's a pity we can't pitch to a large audience, but I see it as a learning moment; in business life you will often have to give a presentation online. So this is a good opportunity to practice this!"
Creative concepts
All five finalists have thought of completely different concepts: from a company that helps start-ups in the field of marketing and sales to a hairdresser cape through which you can see your mobile phone. And from a tie with a matching pocket square to sustainable ink cartridges. But the best idea comes from students Fenna Snelderwaard, Jasha de Goede, Lucas van Rijswijk and Pim Koopman from Tio Amsterdam. With their company Lock & Go, they win first prize.
Lock & Go: handy beach lockers
Imagine you are on the beach and you don’t want to leave your belongings behind when heading for the sea. Recognizable? The Lock & Go beach lockers offer the solution: store your belongings in the locker, close the locker with a 4-digit pin code and the costs are automatically deducted from your debit card via the payment system. According to the jury it’s a nice, tangible concept, which looks good and is feasible to implement within Europe. The winning group is very happy with this result and with the € 500 they have won. Student Pim: "We may use the money as extra start-up capital, because the profit gives an extra incentive to continue with our company."
Stimulating entrepreneurship
The actual start-up of a company from start to finish is of course very educational. Judge Henry Groeneveld, director of Atthis: "It’s a good thing that Tio stimulates entrepreneurship with this project by activating students to think about issues such as proposition, target group, viability and the route to success. Starting something yourself is different from reading about big companies like Coolblue, Amazon and Thuisbezorgd."
About the Student Company project
The start-up Business & Results ends in second place today and Inkt4You comes in third. During the Student Company project, second-year students of International Business Management are given the task of coming up with a product, conducting market research, drawing up a business plan and ultimately actually starting the company and selling products.