You know what? As I sat down to write this, I was faced with an empty page. Now, that’s always a challenge for me. Where to start with getting my message across? What do I want to say to make sure that people “get” how easy it is to enter the Converge Challenge? So, I do know that it’s daunting putting your ideas on paper and thinking about other people and how they might judge you for your clarity of message, your novelty of ideas and your ability to convey the vitality of your business proposition.
That’s where I come in! My mission today (and I did choose to accept it!) is to try to give you some pointers on how to complete the Converge Challenge application form.
To be honest, apart from the admin type questions, there are really only four key questions that you have to answer (unless you are a social enterprise, in which case you need to describe your Social Enterprise model). These are: - a non-confidential summary of the innovation or business idea; max of 450 words on the product or service; who is your target market; and what are the benefits to the customers. Below that, there are prompts to ensure you cover everything the judges are looking for…
- It sounds daft, but answer all of the prompts within the questions!!! For example, even if you don’t know the exact and final shape of your customer base, if you think about how you answer the questions about your customers (Who are your customers? Are they different from the end users? And have you spoken to your customers and/or end users?), then this will help you form your customer engagement strategy in the long run! The sifting panel don’t need to see that you have already DONE all of the thinking, they just need to see that you know that you have to DO it and have thought about how that might work
- Make it as easy as possible for the sifting panel to see that you have answered each of the questions – it gives them the opportunity to tick off their questions in their heads. So, you could potentially put headings with information below so that they can easily see the answers to the questions.
- Try to quantify what you already know with facts and figures – this doesn’t mean that you put a line like “This is a 20 billion dollar market worldwide” – that may be true, but the judges want to know a realistic idea of what size of the market your start up or spin out business could realistically achieve. So provide a defensible summary, describing your market segment as a proportion of the worldwide market and why it will suffice as an initial goal! They just want to see that you have a good understanding of how you’re going to achieve world domination, and that you’re not just expecting it to happen overnight!
- It’s really important to get across the problem that your product or service will solve! Some call it the “pain point”, but it’s that thing that makes people go “Why can’t somebody sell me something that will make it easier to (insert your product or service here)….” Products and services sell because people want to buy them, and people buy them because they make their lives better or easier in some way. So make that clear!
- Show that you understand your customers – the judges have a wide range of expertise and life experience, so know a lot about a lot. They look at applications and immediately think – who else do I know that does this type of thing? So, if you demonstrate that you know who else is out there and how your idea differs (is better than!), it really helps.
- Don’t start with your 100 words summary – it’s better to do that at the end once you have answered the rest of the questions – this will make sure it contains elements of the whole picture….
- Just to reassure you that all judges and staff involved with the Converge Challenge have signed Non-Disclosure Agreements. So, the only part of your idea that will ever be used is the non-confidential summary that you provide as part of your application. Nothing else will be shared, so you don’t need to be concerned that your idea will be snaffled by anyone else by taking part in the competition. If you’re in any doubt as to what to include in the non-confidential summary, just give me a shout – we don’t want you giving away your family jewels!
- Finally, take all of the help that is offered! It’s a really good idea to start your application early, and then seek advice – it’s all around you! There is support at every university, and it’s essential that your application is endorsed by a university contact – either your supervisor or Knowledge Exchange Office. There are also organisations such as SIE and Enterprise Campus for students - if you are in doubt as to where to go, contact veronica.ferguson@convergechallenge.com.
