A discount international shopping portal; a business review website for dating; a video blogging channel for business; an iOS application for student to borrow books and an express cleaning service booking gateway. What do these have in common? These are the ingenious ideas our students came up with for the 2012 Internet Marketing Start-Up Competition.
In the final round of this fiercely contest competition, the stakes are high. Not only do the winning team walk away with a $4,000 cheque but also and perhaps more important a chance to start their own entrepreneurial adventure. This is no walk in the park though as the panel of industry experts treated the presentations just like the proposals they review every day. Our student’s business models where thoroughly scrutinized and every assumption challenged as students got a firsthand taste of the difficulty in seeking venture capital for start-ups.
One team though rose above the rest. Team The Hitch’s start-up idea was a business review website for dating. While popular restaurant review sites like Urbanspoon provides ample review and user generated feedback, they are more catered towards foodies and don’t really focus on people looking for a romantic experience which places an equal emphasis on atmosphere, ambiance along with a good feed(or so I have been told). With a revenue model based on coupons, packages and advertising, it will have both a standard forum esque website as well as a mobile platform with organic algorithm for searching and allows for specialized sorting such as different relationship levels and age group. Behind the outstanding pitch, solid numbers and projections backed their case. Despite the best efforts from Droids and Dosse, our 2nd and 3rd place winners respectively, Hitch sold the pitch, so to speak.
Overall the competition was an enormous success and we even had one up and coming start-up company offering students an opportunity to work as their marketing manager! However there were also some consistent trends on where the student could have done better:
1. When considering the product/service you are providing, don’t just think what you would buy, because you probably don’t have as much money as some of the other people out there, so you should sell the ideas that they would be interested in buy. In the words of one judge “Put the focus on the people who can write the cheques”
2. Students should always consider not only how would their business model generate revenue but also the minimum level of business activity that would begin to translate into profit.
3. When the business idea is in relation to social media, there is a real and significant acquisition cost for users.
4. While the target market for your business maybe big and you only need to capture 1% of this market to make a significant market, you need to provide evidence of how you could capture this 1%.
Personally the 2012 Internet Marketing Start-Up Competition has truly been an enlightening experience. It is literally attending a Master class for business and learning how to turn a start-up in to the next facebook. It also certainly has this finance major student itching to put down the Black-Scholes Option Pricing Model for a brief moment to revisit some of the crazy and wild business ideas dreamt of in yonder years.
Edited excerpt from interview with The Hitch:
The fact that the competition itself was judged by high level managers from diverse venture capital firms really boosts the standard of the competition. It was also a valuable experience to receive constructive critiques from these judges; it will definitely bring our idea to another level!
Time management and the ability to prioritise tasks is critical to success. We managed to priorities things that are required to produce a high-quality presentation and we delegated task according to each individual based on his/her strength. We worked really well as a team and are proud with what we have put up in the presentation.
Be creative in coming up with ideas, be critical in analysing the approach, be yourself in the presentation.
Quotes from finalists:
“It’s rare to gain face time with any of these individuals, but to have them hosted together all focused on your business idea… is an outlandish treat.”
“I believe that enjoyment and passion for the project is what came through to the judges, and what held us together through late nights. One judge commented afterwards: “you guys looked like you had fun. That’s what it should be, fun and then some…”. “
“It’s a great event that has the potential to reach a massive audience in, and outside of UoM. Melbourne is a top entrepreneurship city – respected worldwide.”
Student Life @ The Spot 