The final night of Startup Intern contest: The development of startup ideas
03/11/2017
The final round of the new start-up contest was organised by Faculty of Business Administration - University of Economics – the University of Danang and Central Petrolimex Gas Joint Stock Company on the night of Nov 2nd, 2017 in the excitement of a lot of students. The final round also welcomed the participation of many investors, representatives of companies, management board of the University and all lecturers and staff accompanying 2017’s Startup Intern contest.
Startup Intern contest was organised in Jan 2017 and has attracted more than 50 startup ideas through four rounds. The final night was held at Hall A with the participation of the best six teams including Local Friends team with the app connecting foreign visitors with local people; SVF team with the fast shipping app; Five-win team with Interpreter 4.0 app; Fbus team with payment card for bus passengers; Golden Fish team with fresh food supply chain and Undersky team with the website of exchanging old books.
Startup Intern contest follows the “Lean – Startup” model which asks contestants to test the idea in reality before getting down to business. To win the first prize, six teams have to do two months’ internship in companies, experiencing in-depth startup training course about business models, how to raise capital from investors, presentation skill, human resources management, etc. Besides, they are also accompanied by consultants from Danang Business Incubator, Finland-Vietnam Innovation Partnership Program, Uniterra Canadian program and other partners in the startup community.
In the final night, all teams have to persuade the judges including Assoc.Prof.Dr. Dao Huu Hoa-Deputy Rector of University of Economics; Prof.Dr. Le The Gioi – former Deputy Director of the University of Danang, former Head of Business Administration Faculty; Mr. Nguyen Huu Hoa – alumni of K29 course, former Director of DongA Bank-Hue branch, former Director of SeaBank Danang; Mr. Vu Xuan Truong-Director of Flying Fish venture fund.
All final teams with passion and careful preparation showed great confidence in their presentations in front of the judges and lots of audience. Startup ideas from six teams are very feasible and can be implemented right away if they are invested effectively.
By meeting all of the criteria from the judges and agreement from the audience, the team with the “Interpreter 4.0” app won the contest and was awarded the prize of 20 millions dong. This app helps remove all language barriers and brings people all over the world closer together. By using a fast and precise voice translating system, it allows two people speaking two different languages to communicate face to face. Before the final round, the demo app was downloaded 50,000 times within 4 months, which proves its attraction and usefulness.
The second prize of 10 millions dong was given to Undersky team with the website of exchanging old books, and the third prize of 5 millions dong went to SVF team with fast shipping app. Two consolation prizes were presented to FBUS team with payment card for bus passengers and Golden Fish team with fresh food supply chain.
Startup Intern contest was organised successfully and the startup idea is just the first step to success. The winning teams will continue their journeys with support from organisation board, businesses and investors. In the final night, the organisation board initiated Startup Intern contest 2018 which is expected to be bigger and more fascinating.
Startup Intern contest has showed the strong development of Business Administration Faculty during 25 years. It is also the first faculty which teaches the subject “Starting up a business” in Central Highlands regions and proudly the first one of the University to organise startup contest for students.