Enterprising students brave dragon's den to raise charity funds

Link:

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Multicultural cuisine and branded merchandise business plans have won two groups of budding UCL entrepreneurs start-up funding and expert advice to raise money for charity.

Ernst & Young held the first round of its annual business competition 'Profitunity' at UCL last month, at an event organised by the UCL Careers Service. The company challenges students every year to devise an innovative business venture to raise money for the youth charity The Prince's Trust.

Taste of the World, a team of first-year Economics undergraduates,  proposed selling popular international dishes at a series of multicultural campus events, while Adentify, consisting of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Economics students, aimed to produce branded merchandise for companies who distribute 'freebies' at Careers Fairs.

All teams were subjected to rigorous questioning about their business idea by a Dragon's Den-style panel. Taste of the World team leader Asif Chowdhury said: "As a first-year student in the first month at UCL, I was very much aware of the necessity of good CV contents and skill enhancing tasks to be successful when applying to internships and spring weeks in a highly competitive industry like investment banking.

"Coming to a place where most of the people I knew were new, it was very hard to decide on how to approach others regarding this competition. I thought for weeks about a business plan but could not come up with one but, as soon as I started discussing it in a group, ideas flourished. Slowly, I got five other members and held initial meetings to confirm our team. The amount of skills I have gained through working in this team is unbelievable. Each team meeting, each disagreement within the team, each new contact made is a source of learning for everyone...Everyone should at least try to get involved in a similar project or competition."

Lukasz Myszkowski of Adentify said: "We were drawn to Ernst & Young's campus event because of their brightly coloured piggy bank mascot. Some of the team entered the e-challenge last year at UCL and enjoyed it so much that we thought we'd give it another go but in a different competition. And to hear that proceeds were going to a noble cause, ensured the team would double our efforts to try and progress from the dragons den.

"On a personal note, I get very nervous before pitches and presentations and the only way to get through it well is with hard work and practice and an element of luck. We felt the best approach was to pitch with two products that we truly believed in and thought that could drawn in the necessary funds required by the Prince's Trust."

The winning teams were invited to a briefing event at Ernst & Young, where they were paired up with a mentor. Each team has been given a start-up fund from the company, to help get their fundraising activity off the ground. Their target is £5,000 for the Prince's Trust and prizes will be awarded to the most successful teams from UK universities.

To watch a video of the teams' pitches to the dragons, or to read more about the competition, follow the link at the top of this article.

Images from top: Team Adentify make their pitch to the panel; Kamran Malik from Ernst & Young puts the aspiring UCL entrepreneurs through their paces

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UCL context

UCL Careers Service provides professional and impartial career management advice for the UCL community and quality recruitment solutions to employers. It is part of The Careers Group, University of London, the largest in the country. They are located at Stewart House - click here for details.

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