No reason to be ‘Blue’
Trio wins RM100k seed funding in Covid-19 Business Startup Challenge 2021
THREE students have won a grand prize worth RM100,000 for coming up with an online business model.
Calling themselves Team Blue Star, the students from Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation (APU) will now use the money to execute their business concept.
The win was a culmination of their participation at the Covid-19 Business Startup Challenge 2021 organised by the Diversity and Inclusion Youth Conference (DIYC).
In the challenge, participating teams were required to pitch a social media campaign strategy that promotes the DIYC global education movement, the APU May 19 press release read.
Team Blue Star conceptualised an online business model named “Socialzy”, with a value proposition that met the criteria of wide outreach, effective delivery and sustainability to cope with the disruptions brought on by the pandemic.
Encouraged by their lecturer Noraini Ahmad, the team comprising APU first year students, took part in the challenge.
Making up the trio are Bryan Matthew Santosa and Hillarius Gilbert Widjaja – both of whom are Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Business Management students – and Yap Kit Ian, a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Accounting and Finance student.
Having won the award, they will start fine-tuning their business plan and drawing up a roadmap for their startup.
“For this purpose, we will relook the proposal and make some adjustments based on the feedback from our DIYC mentor.
“As we are learning to become entrepreneurs in the actual business world, we need to be prepared for any challenges that come our way,” said Bryan, the team leader.
On their biggest takeaway from the win, the trio said, “We learnt that hard work always pays off.
“Our victory here, with support from APU lecturers and mentors, taught us to be eager to keep on learning and achieving spectacular results.”
Noraini, who teaches the Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship module, said to be successful, one must be confident and not give up on whatever one is pursuing.
“The team is very confident in their innovative and revolutionary business ideas,” she said.
DIYC challenge programme coordinator Rehhahn Tudball said the DIYC movement will provide the winning teams with continued access to funding and capacity development opportunities.
This will be especially so in Blue Ocean Strategy training.
“They will also become part of the DIYC’s online community, which underscores our commitment to supporting the winning teams in their entrepreneurial journey.”