A group of Strathclyde Business School students were selected to travel to Texas to take part in the Values and Ventures Business Plan Competition at the Neeley Entrepreneurship Center at TCU, Texas, this month.
The team of five second year students all took the Creativity and Innovation Management class which is offered by the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship to all business school students.
From dozens of innovative business ideas, C-Clear was chosen to take part in this invitation-only competition which took place April 10-12. Values and Ventures was set up by the Neeley Entrepreneurship Center with the support of businesswomen Nancy Tartaglino Richards and Lisa Barrentine. The competition invited entrepreneurial-minded students to compete for the best plan that incorporates values, ethics and/or service into a for-profit business. The competition began in 2011 with just six schools competing - this year, 49 different teams took part, competing for more than $70,000 in total cash prizes.
Connor Gray, Michael McGuire, Scott Grant, Scott Hernon and Euan Douglas were the five students who presented their business idea at the competition. Together they have come up with a new smartphone app the C-Clear Reader, which aims to help children and young adults suffering from dyslexia.
Connor explained, "Many young dyslexia sufferers do not have the means and resources to excel in their educational career and a significant majority do not make it to higher education because of the impact that dyslexia has on their learning. We believe that all children and young adults should be given an equal chance to reach their full potential."
The app targets the reading impairments associated with dyslexia and gives users a better chance to reach University and the C-Clear team initially is looking to sell this app software as a packaged bundle to schools, councils and medium to large institutions.
Sadly the team did not have success in the competition, but they enjoyed the experience of taking part in this business challenge.
Russell Matthews of the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship accompanied the team to provide on-site mentoring and support. He said, "The Values and Ventures Competition requires business ideas to have a social aspect and C-Clear has just that. They put a lot of work into their business plan. They were selected to go to the Values and Ventures competition after winning an internal competition, finishing ahead of 32 other teams. They may not have won any prizes but it was a great opportunity for them to showcase their business idea to a wide audience which included business leaders and entrepreneurs.
"It's the third year that Strathclyde has been invited to send a team to compete and hopefully we will be represented next year too. The students involved so far have all benefited in different ways from this opportunity."