Entrepreneurs’ challenge – will your students make the grade?

Are your students innovators? Do their ideas have the potential to cross-over to become successful businesses? If the answer is yes to any of these, read on. Just don’t forget to tell your students too!

Each year Tanaka Business School hosts the Entrepreneurs’ Challenge searching for the College’s most promising teams of business-savvy innovators. 

Sabrina Kiefer, who manages the Challenge, said:
“We’ve had some great successes in the past, some of whom have gone on to the next step and become commercially successful.  We’re looking for entrants from across the College.” On this year’s favourites, she added: “Some are tipping the School of Medicine to be strong contenders.  Whether they’ll be able to cut through the competition from the rest of the College is going to be interesting.  This year’s Challenge promises to be the best yet.”

Running since 2000, the Challenge is an excellent opportunity for students to build teams and make contacts that will be helpful in the future.  They also have the opportunity to learn from and have contact with experts such as venture capitalists, intellectual property lawyers, business consultants, innovation managers, accountants, designers and more.

This year the total prize fund is £55,000 made up of a number of awards at each stage of the competition.  The Challenge begins on Wednesday 10 October with the launch of the ‘Ideas Challenge’.  This runs until December and is open to students that have identified a business opportunity.  The competition’s programme of lectures and speakers equips students with specialist business insights on starting a new company and the chance to develop their ideas in one-to-one advice sessions.  Ten ideas will win £1,000, and ten runners-up will take home £250.

In January 2008 the second part of the Challenge is launched and teams are invited to register on-line to take part.  Again, mentors will be on hand to give out priceless advice.  Working together, the teams will develop a business plan for the ‘New Business Challenge’ with the chance to win a first prize worth £25,000. For those not lucky enough to win the big one, two runners-up teams will go away with £5,000 each and a further seven finalists will be consoled to the tune of £1,000.

Undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in taking part this year can attend the Challenge Launch on
Wednesday 10 October, between 1.00 and 2.00pm in Mech Eng 220.  Information is also available at:
www.imperial.ac.uk/entrepreneurship/entrepreneurschallenge