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Expo-Prawn Plc – Winners of the Dragons’ Den Finals at HHE

Expo-Prawn Plc – Winners of the Dragons’ Den Finals at HHE

There’s nothing fishy about this business plan!

Eleven teams of Business undergraduates at Hult International Business School (Undergraduate campus Hult House East) recently competed in the Dragons’ Den competition as part of Enterprise Week – they pitched like professionals in front of fellow students and a panel of Dragons.

The teams only had a few days to come up with their business idea, conduct market research, pricing and promotion strategies and how to get the product to market.

Hult were delighted to have two external judges join Dr Melissa Willby, (Dean Undergraduate Program) on the panel:

David Woods, Editorial Director at LID Publishing - a multi-award winning editorial professional with skills and experience in trade and professional book publishing, consumer and business to business magazines, academic journals, online learning, people management and public relations; and Lazo Freeman - a successful Fitness Entrepreneur turned Lifestyle Entrepreneur with a wealth of experience advising clients on negotiation. Until now He’s been a Body Transformation Specialist and a Business Coach, a Media Company owner and a Film Producer.

The Expo-Prawn team consists of: Juan Martin and Juan Pinto, both BBA students from Ecuador, they gave a solid presentation which covered:

The Market The Business Competitive advantage Market Analysis Financial statements Shareholders; and Burning Rate Alliances Why the Dragons should ‘invest’?

Their pitch held the judges deep in deliberation for longer than anticipated; there was only a hairs breadth between the winning team and the runners up who were team Bath Box: Daniela Begue, Pulkit Jain, Kabeke Mulenga, Marta Waliszak and Leo Draxl.

Dr Melissa Willby said:

“All of the eleven teams and their members have worked so hard and have really delivered a series of well thought out investment proposals. It really was a tough choice to choose the winning team!

There were some incredibly inspiring ideas; this really showcased the DNA of Hult students, internationally mobile and super entrepreneurial!“

Lazo Freeman said:

“Young dragons finding their business success and practicing the art of pitching at Hult was a pleasure to watch and even inspired me to look at my business with those fresh eyes. I wish them every success in their future business careers”

David Woods said:

““In a world where the media focuses so much on the potential for disruption generation Y could bring to the corporate world, Hult business School has renewed my faith in the potential of millennials. If all university graduates have the same savvy, creativity, confidence and sheer grit as the young entrepreneurs from Hult’s Dragons’ Den, then I think our economies are set to be shaken up for the better.”

Expo-Prawn’s prize was a box at the 02 to watch the Basement Jaxx. Here’s to seeing them on the real deal Dragons’ Den in the future or even better getting their product to market on the strength of this exercise! All the judges kindly offered their mentoring support going forwards.

This is what the winning team had to say:

“The Dragons Den challenge was the perfect opportunity for Hult students to get their ideas out there. It was amazing to see the entrepreneurial spirit of the people that took part in this competition. We feel very grateful and optimistic about the future of our start-up.

The feedback we got from the professors helped us a lot in making our proposal stronger and more attractive to prospective investors“.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Victoria Robinson .