SOAS students win recognition in contest for young entrepreneurs
20 March 2013
Two SOAS student have won recognition for their entrepreneurial talents at UCL’s 2013 U-Create Design Make Sell competition.
BA History student Smera Nadeem and MSc in Finance and Financial Law student Majed Khashogji won the overall team category and best products category, respectively.
The competition, run jointly by UCL Advances and NACUE, inspired Smera and Majed to innovate as they competed against each other in teams comprised of students from different London universities including UCL, UCA, LBS and SOAS.
Tasked with creating a product to promote Citrus Saturday – an opportunity to run your own lemonade stand – the teams spent a total of six days across three weekends taking part in a range of workshops covering idea generation, understanding customers, collaboration, sales and pitching.
Smera was part of a team that created No.1’s Big Idea, which turns the sensation of bitter tastes to sweet and Majed’s team designed an International Corner, which provided a range of ice-lolly makers and lemon-squeezers.
Both Smera and Majid’s teams made it into the final four and received £500 seed funding to take their products to market. This involved spending a weekend selling their Citrus Saturday products at some of the most established markets in London, including Camden, Spitalfields, Upmarket and Brick Lane.
Smera said: “The best thing about the competition was seeing our ideas become a reality. The process of converting what was on paper to a physical component that met the brief and actually gave us a chance to make and sell was exciting. I really enjoyed selling on a market stall which was a new experience for me and although it was freezing and hard to persuade customers at times, it gave me a confidence boost when I was able to make sales and engage with the customers.”
Majid added: “I took part because I believe that innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit are essential to any field of work. Other students should get involved to test out their entrepreneurial skills. You never know what skills or talent you might have unless you try it. Networking, working as part of a team and negotiation skills are just a few of the many skills learned from the competition.”
For further information, contact:
Visit: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/u-create or for information on student enterprise at SOAS please contact Claire Hardesty claire.hardesty@soas.ac.uk
