- CUE £5k Challenge Part 1 -

Deadline: Monday 23 February, 13:00. For an entrants' checklist, please look here

This is it. CU Entrepreneurs is now in the final phase of its competition.  We will be awarding prizes of £5000 to businesses in the categories Technology & CleanTech, Social & Environmental, and Software & Web. This is the opportunity in Coventry to gain recognition and establish your venture as the one to watch!

As with the £1k challenge, prior entry is not required, although each team must have at least one member of the University. Read the Competitions Handbook for more information. To help you write the best possible entry, the Resources page has guides and slides from our training events and workshops.

Last Friday, Coventry University Entrepreneurs announced the winners of the £1k phase of its annual Entrepreneurs' Challenge. Entrants submitted a 1500 word Executive Summary for their business, which was reviewed by three panels of expert judges with a background in entrepreneurship and early-stage investment.

A total of 7 teams took home a prize of £1000 and presented their business in front of the audience. The winning teams are:

Automatic Gearshift, CamMicrobicide, Gemstone, Magenta, Operation Solar, iSolve and Vortex-MRAM.

We would like to thank the Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning for their kind assistance in organising the judging meetings, and acknowledge the generous support of our sponsors that makes this competition possible. They are ARM, Redgate Software, Philips, Taylor Vinters and Coventry Science Park.

A big well done to all of who entered, we look forward to seeing your ideas develop in the £5k phase of the competition!

Please click read more to learn about the prize giving ceremony and the winning teams.

Date: Saturday 31 January 2023

Venue: LR1, Engineering Dept (NB this is not the same as LT1 - see a map here)

Time: 10:00 - 15:00

Please note change of venue. This is due to middle-east demonstrations at the Law Faculty this week

CUE would like to invite you to our business training event on Saturday 31st January at 10am in the Engineering Dept. Whether you are a seasoned entrepreneur, setting up your first company, or just want to find out what it takes to be an entrepreneur, everyone is welcome to attend.

For those who are interested, this event will also prepare you for the £5k challenge. In our first talk, at 10am, Hugh Purser, a competition judge, will share his views on what kind of entries impress him.  Remember that to enter the £5k Challenge, you will need to write an executive summary of up to 3500 words and submit it to us by 1pm on the 23rd of February. Requirements may vary depending on which competition stream you choose to enter.

Please register here

The event begins at 10am prompt, so please arrive on time. 

Programme

10.00 - 10.15 Registration and Coffee

10.15 - 11.00 Hugh Purser - Business Plan Basics

11.15 - 12.00 Philip Baddeley - Hanging on to Your Equity

12.15 - 13:00 Lunch Break

13.00 - 13.45 Peter Hiscocks - Marketing a Start-Up

14.00 - 14.45 Neil Davidson - Five ways to Kill your Start-Up

14:45 - 15:00 Coventry Trainee Solicitors Group 

The current economic climate poses significant challenges for entrepreneurs and their start-ups, but for truly exceptional ideas there is always money.

Coventry University Technology and Enterprise Club (CUTEC) and Coventry University Entrepreneurs (CUE) invite you to a stellar panel of early-stage investors who currently have funds available and are actively looking for new opportunities. They will explain why they think it is still a good time to invest, as well as how the crisis affects their investment criteria.

Visit www.theinvestorsforum.org for more information and to register for your free place

Venue: Lecture Room 4, Dept of Engineering (map of entrance) 

How to make the most of your attendance at any professional event. 

• Pick and prepare your events to ensure maximum ROI from the time you spend there
• "Work a room" with ease, grace, and efficiency, from comfortable ways to start conversations to graceful techniques to exit them!
• Develop the perfect follow-up to ensure optimum results

CU Entrepreneurs is extremely lucky to have Olivia Fox Cabane back in Coventry to deliver this seminar, which will benefit you for years to come. Please sign up here for her seminar.

Doors open: 17:45. Doors close and Session starts at 18:00

Below is some more information about Olivia's background.

Venue: Main Lecture Theatre, Dept of Engineering (map of entrance)

Confirmation emails have now been sent to all registrants. 

Coventry University Entrepreneurs organises one of the most successful student-run business creation competitions in Europe and we would like to invite you to our £1k Awards Ceremony on 23 January 2009. At this event we will be giving away £1,000s of pounds to the next generation of Coventry entrepreneurs.  Registration information can be found below.

- CUE £1k Challenge -

- Deadline EXTENDED: Monday 8 December, 13:00 -

- Update: Step by step Entry Instructions can be found here -

CU Entrepreneurs has entered the second phase of its competition, where up to 10 cash prizes of £1000 will be awarded for Executive Summaries of not more than 1500 words. Entry is open to all but each team must have at least one member of the University.  Read the Competitions Handbook for more information. To help you write the best possible entry, the Resources page has guides and slides from our training events and workshops.

A huge well done to everyone who entered and congratulations to the 20 winners!

• Aidventure Ryan Sanderson-Smith
• AlgaeLab Ben Sheppard, Karuga Koinange, Chris Bowler, David Valinsky, Oliver Hudson and Daniela Krug
• Automatic Gear Shift Edwin Koh
• Bloodline Cong Cong Bo
• CamMicrobicide Arjun Goyal
• Cancer Nanobullets Aron Rachamim
• DHX Li Dong, David Clough, Helen Cavill, Matthew Leung
• EZwind Jun Xu, Jiang Cao
• GelHelmet Stuart Easton, Shamus Husheer
• HotCrypt Tom Craig
• Keep Africa Moving Arif Damji
• M-RAM Chris Baker, Insiya Jafferji, Johann Jakob Napp, Simon Schlachter, B. Trappmann, X.Y. Xue
• PK health Shohta Ueno, Alexandra Park
• Securicath Sarah Gates
• SINOLOGI Michael Tai
• SuperTurbine Ruilin PEI
• Therapeutic antibody design by microdroplet microfluidics Abigail Fox, Dave Marsden, Yanching Chu, Aron Rachamim, Parvez Hakim, Euvian Tan, Rene Gonzalez Campos
• There's a Killer in the Kitchen Allen Chen, Julia Fan Li
• WebLink Joao Pereira, Goncalo Perdigao
• Zephyr Systems Cong Cong Bo, Corentin Roux dit Buisson

VENUE CHANGE: Lecture Theatre 1, Judge Business School, Trumpington Street

Doors open: 18:15. Doors close and Session starts at 18:30 (map of entrance)

How to pitch yourself and your business idea.

CU Entrepreneurs is very lucky to be able to host Olivia Fox Cabane, Chief Charisma Coach of Spitfire, on Wednesday evening. Olivia has taught pitching techniques at Harvard, Yale and MIT; she is only in the country for a few days and has agreed to visit Coventry to run a seminar on "how to make a great first impression"

Below is some more information about Olivia's background and you can sign up for her seminar here.

How to get the Consumer to Accept Technology as a Friend

Hear from Philips about their approach to open innovation. You will also go through one or two case studies of recent product innovations that show how Philips products start to fit into your personal life as you would like them to.

Drinks and refreshments will be provided.

Anyone is welcome to attend the event but in order to manage numbers, please register here.