Bachelor students create business models and value proposition

About 700 students from the BSc Bedrijfskunde (Business Administration) at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) competed in an entrepreneurship challenge in which they had to develop a business plan for a start-up in a short time span. The final took place recently, in which three student teams pitched their ideas in front of a big audience and jury.

The Entrepreneurship Challenge is for all second-year students in RSM’s Dutch-taught bachelor programme, as part of the ‘Entrepreneurship’ course. For the 140 teams of four or five students, the assignment was to develop a plan for a start-up in six months. The bachelor students learned how to develop value proposition and a business model by using the lean startup method to turn their idea into an innovative and viable business model.

Pitch like a champion

The three teams with the best plan were selected to pitch their ideas during the final of the Entrepreneurship Challenge, which took place on 29 May 2019, in front of an audience of about 250

second-year bachelor students, their tutors, jury members and the lecturer of the course Thijs Geradts. The finalists had learned to how to pitch and constructively answer critical jury questions. They also received a pitch training by tutor Thom Uildriks, Dutch champion pitching and founder of Boxrs4ALL.

After presentations by Coolblue founder and CEO Pieter Zwart and co-owner of GGP BV Wiegertje Groenveld, the students pitched their ideas to a jury of experienced entrepreneurs and business leaders.

The finalists pitches their ideas:

DoucheCoach, a product that provides insight in use of water and gas while having a shower

(Bram Oomen and Kirsten Prins)

Medicia, a medicine delivery service for pharmacies

(Anouk Driehuijs, Jer Remy, Femke van Santen, Roël van der Valk and Elias Beddek)

Karty, an app with which customers can link their given gift cards, so that they receive reminders to spend them

(Nickey Olsthoorn, Hana Hodžić, Nona de Fretes, Sanne van de Pol and Siebe Zwijsen)

Feasible start-up

The jury chose Medicia as the winner because they thought this start-up was the most feasible. They said the demand for medicine is growing due to an aging population, and that pharmacies need a delivery service. The business plan still has some risks so must be fine-tuned, but they said the pitcher acted as a real entrepreneur that passionately conveyed the team’s plan.

The jury members were Marleen Bax (Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship), Wiegertje Groenveld (co-owner of GGP BV), Lex Geerdes (former CEO of Aon and co-owner of GGP BV), Emma Verhagen (founder and CEO of FlinderFly), and Brend Kouwenhoven (founder Travis and partner Heptagon Square).

More information

The event was organised by the Speaker Series committee of RSM’s study association STAR, and concluded with a reception at campus cafe In de Smitse.

Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) is one of Europe’s top-ranked business schools. RSM provides ground-breaking research and education furthering excellence in all aspects of management and is based in the international port city of Rotterdam – a vital nexus of business, logistics and trade. RSM’s primary focus is on developing business leaders with international careers who can become a force for positive change by carrying their innovative mindset into a sustainable future. Our first-class range of bachelor, master, MBA, PhD and executive programmes encourage them to become critical, creative, caring and collaborative thinkers and doers. www.rsm.nl

For more information about RSM or this release, please contact Erika Harriford-McLaren, communications manager for RSM, on +31 10 408 2877 or by email at harriford@rsm.nl.