Winners of Liverpool Start-up Competition revealed
Two student enterprises have been named as the winners of The Liverpool Start-up Competition, each receiving a £5,000 cash prize from Santander.
Laura Hitchcock, BA Chinese with Business student, and Lukas Batak, BA International Business student, were both crowned winners for their start-up ideas. They competed against four other teams at a live final at The Shankly Hotel.
Laura’s start-up, Learning with Laura, is an English language learning subscription box for Chinese children. Laura and her co-founder Yan Schreier came up with the idea to respond to the lack of affordable English language courses in China.
Laura said, “We came up with the idea after my three-year experience as a teacher in China, I saw how many parents and children were passionate about learning English but didn’t have the funds available.
We are both so proud and thankful! We put so much time and effort into the competition. Hearing back from the judges and the audience at the end of the night has given us an extra push to work hard and make this business a reality.”
The other winning idea, CoRE, is an edible alternative to coffee aimed at people who want to save time and get the benefits of a coffee without having to make one. Lukas first thought of the idea for CoRE in 2016 but didn't have the money to get it off the ground. Him and teammate, Waleed Nauman, saw the Liverpool Start-up competition as an excellent opportunity.
Lukas said "It was great to present in front of the judges and the audience, it was a very satisfying feeling after the hard work we had put in. All of the prizes will help our business in different ways, however, the expertise and guidance of the investors is definitely most valuable as we are just beginners."
Organised by the Management School, The Liverpool Start-up Competition was open to all University of Liverpool students and consisted of three different rounds. Previous stages had required students to put together a PowerPoint Pitch Deck, a pitch video, financial planning and a marketing campaign.
In addition to the £5,000 cash prize, winning teams will receive six months co-working desk membership at Signature Works, business mentoring from Laurence Kenwright, half a day of PR strategy with Pink Media, accountancy support from BWM Chartered Accountants and potential investment from the Start Up Funding Club.
Lee Wainwright, Employability Projects Officer at the Management School, said “The Liverpool Start-Up Competition provided a fantastic platform for some of the most entrepreneurial students from the Management School.
Each team delivered a professional business pitch and competently responded to questions from a panel of industry experts whilst in front of audience of local business people and academic colleagues. The Management School has some very promising entrepreneurial talent.”