Five students with multidisciplinary backgrounds all took part in Strathclyde's Enterprise Pathway as individuals and, joining up to form 'Smoove', they emerged as winners of the 'student' category.
Clarissa Forbes (Chemistry), Romulo Freitas (Chemical Engineering), Abdallah Moh (Economics and Finance), Kirsty McConnell (Enterprise and Marketing) and Olga Szewczyk (MSc Business Analysis and Consulting) comprised team Smoove.
The Enterprise Pathway programme, delivered by the Enterprise Team at Strathclyde is endorsed by Sir Tom Hunter and aims to develop, enhance and test transferable skills and business understanding of students and researchers through a three stage process (Footsteps, Academy and Challenge).
Clarissa, Romulo, Abdallah, Kirsty and Olga all took part in "Footsteps" as individuals and were formed as a team during "Academy". With the support and guidance of Enterprise Partners, the Enterprise Team and the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship, Smoove (along with another 24 interdisciplinary teams) managed to form realistic, innovative business concepts over the Academy weekend. These businesses - each relating to one of three University TIC themes of Energy, Health or Smart Cities – were then tested during the "Challenge" stage. This included a series of shortlisting stages: an Apprentice style interview, a 60 second video pitch and a final business presentation (Pathway final), which decided the winners. Smoove were chosen for the Pathway final by Strathclyde People award winner (2014), Enterprise Partner and Founder of Cojengo Ltd, Craig Taylor, who saw potential in the Smoove app after seeing their 60 second video pitch. Craig then mentored Smoove for two weeks, in preparation for the Pathway final business pitch.
This year over 450 students and researchers from all four faculties applied to take part in the Pathway programme 2014/15. Only 120 made it to the Academy stage to form a team and just six teams made it to the final business presentation, where the eventual winners were decided by the audience via electronic vote. The final took place at the end of March where the student team winner (Smoove) and researcher team winner (Dementcare) were awarded a team cash prize of £1000 and an ipad mini for each team member.
Winners of Strathclyde Enterprise Pathway also had the opportunity to have lunch with Sir Tom Hunter as part of the final prize for the competition. The winners enjoyed Sir Tom's company in discussing his entrepreneurial journey and even got some one-on-one time with him to discuss their own future plans.
Smoove have since been offered access to free business support through the Enterprise team and Enterprise hub facilities at the University. The University will continuously support Smoove in future competition applications, support in building business networks and other aspects of moving their idea forward.