The MBA Alumni Group, together with DBS and BeaconRock organised a business pitch challenge on 25th February 2016 for all SMU students and alumni to participate. The objective of this challenge was to build a network to inspire entrepreneurs to be free to dream and share their dreams. Out of the 30 teams who submitted business plans, 10 teams were selected to present their business plans at the event. The winning team was Silverage Homecare (Founded by a group of SMU Master of Innovation students in collaboration with a biomedical engineering and medical expert) they won a direct admission to the DBS HotSpot Pre-Accelerator Bootcamp in April/May 2016.
Winning Team, Silverage Homecare and Ms Cade Tan (third from left), DBS, Head of Innovation Partnerships & Culture, Programme & Change Management.
MBA Alumni Group talks to the winning team, Silverage Homecare and here’s what they have to say about their experience.
Congratulations on winning the challenge! How do you feel about this event and what do you gain from this challenge?
It was an invaluable experience where we put together our business ideas and pitched it to the others or like in this case the panel of judges. This challenge gave us the chance to present our ideas forward and receive feedback from the both the audience and judges. It iwas also very interesting to listen to the presentations by other teams because it allowed us to be exposed to new ideas and how we can partner with one another to bring more innovation to our business. This event gave us the opportunity to network, meet like-minded people and speak to venture capitalists.
After winning this challenge, what is next for the team?
We will attend the DBS HotSpot Pre-Accelerator Bootcamp and hopefully we can get some support in terms of funding. If there are no interested investors, we will implement this business model ourselves. We were very encouraged that we won the challenge because it reinforced the importance of healthcare especially to the elderly population.
Is there anything you would like to share to encourage our future entrepreneurs?
Be creative and do not be afraid to share your business ideas. Our business idea came when we attended a conference and we would like to encourage all entrepreneurs to expand your network of contacts. Networking is very important as it broadens our minds and contacts. You will never know when you will meet like-minded people during such networking sessions who could potentially be your business partners