Here’s a follow-up to the previous post about Trinity’s success in the ‘Build a business in a day’ competition…
The term ‘Budding Entrepreneurs’ was certainly appropriate when our team of eight pupils from the Business Education Department at Trinity Academy won a competition hosted by Edinburgh Napier University on Tuesday, 1st September 2015.
Our team consisted of five girls and three boys. I was privileged to witness a team who were there to demonstrate their entrepreneurial talents.
The day started off with an inspiring talk from the young entrepreneur, James Brown giving his experiences of a startup business. This young man started a craft beer company just after he returned during a holiday with his Dad whilst touring on a Harley Davidson! James was fascinated by the spirits of the people he met on their journey, brewing quality bottled beers by the side of the road. He had the young audience enthralled with his passion – not only for the product, but through working with like-minded people and having fun.
After a quick break and with James’s story still in mind, our Trinity team set about on their own entrepreneurial journey and what a journey that turned out to be. Their product was a portable ice pack/heat pack that could be used to surround drinks/food. However, even more innovative was the flexible nature of the product. This flexibility enabled the product also to be used for sports injuries. The team expected the materials to consist of ‘gel’ for temperature control as well as an ‘insulator’ type material in order to prevent heat mixing. The product would be of an elastic substance in order for it to – flip inside-out – be worn on the upper arm/leg as well as covering all types of portable food/drink.
Stages/sessions were located in both the Board Room and Headquarters duly provided by the University in order to make the experience as authentic as possible. Strict timelines were issued to the young Entrepreneurs. It was inevitable that several pressure points came with the tasks/timelines, during the day, but our young Trinity team handled, each situation, admirably and the prototype came to fruition just in time, in order to be demonstrated to the judges at the Trade Fair.
After a busy and exhausting day – I thought I would share the Judges comments with you:-
“Fantastic team work, everyone answered questions and were really excited about the product. Great working prototype and excellent knowledge of how to take the product to market. Made use of everyone’s skills and their business knowledge was impressive. With a pitch like that – I would buy one!”