“We were young, but we had good advice, good ideas and lots of enthusiasm”
Bill Gates
On May 31st, sixty of the newest, talented and enthusiastic entrepreneurs coming from Scotland’s Universities gathered as the ‘Converge Class of 2016’ at the start of the 2016 Converge Challenge entrepreneurial training programme with our official training provider - Neuehansa Ltd - at RBS Gogarburn.
Day one...
Converge Challenge: The first task was to craft and practice the pitches ahead of the Ready Steady Pitch event in the huge RBS auditorium where they soon would deliver their pitch to a 200+ audience on Thursday 2 June*. Expertly led by Maryanne Johnston, the guys honed and practiced their pitches in turn – more than one said that they felt sure that their neighbours in the hotel would know the pitches as well as they did as they had been practising that much in the hotel rooms!
Meanwhile, Alister Minty worked with the rest of the Converge Challenge cohort on Product Market Fit and Customer Discovery with an emphasis on real life examples of what to do (and what not to do!).
Gordon Short, together with our very own Converge Challenge Director Olga Kozlova spent time working on the KickStart and Social Enterprise Crew propositions, with questions, illustrations and examples central to the training process. The core heading for the session was the “Team and starting up a business from within a university” – in discussion afterwards, many felt that the practical advice, examples of different company structures (and example articles of association) and clarification of the differences between the legal structures for company formation was the most important learning that they took away.
That evening we held a social event, which allowed all of the hard working participants to sit in the sun with a glass of wine or a beer to get to know each other. An integral part of the training too…
Day two...
The KickStart and Social Enterprise Crew received their pitch training and worked with Maryanne and each other to develop the pitch so that it is ready for the next phase of the competition – the 60 second video pitch. The second part of this day was Gordon Short’s “Companies and Corporate Processes”, and this complemented the training for the Converge Challenge participants, who also were led through a full day exploring the “Practical and legal aspects of the company creation process” by Alister Minty. At the end of Day 2, the KickStart Crew were presented their completion certificates and talked a bit about what they enjoyed most – which can be boiled down to working with each other, the legal structures session and the pitching training! One of the 'class' commented, “It was incredible how much my pitch changed and how much better I felt it get over the course of the half day! I just feel a lot better about it now”.
Day three...
For the Converge Challenge cohort, Alister Minty completed the delivery of the Business Development training in the morning for the Converge Challenge. He awarded certificates, advised them of what happens next and to keep their diaries free on 5 and 6 July when there will be Business Plan Workshops run in Edinburgh and Glasgow by the Converge Challenge Partners.
*They then had the opportunity to further trial their pitches during the exhibition in the atrium, where all of the guests were gathered for lunch. Their big moment in the spotlight at the 60 second Elevator Pitch came after lunch, and this was the culmination of three very intense days of learning, networking and practising their pitches.
For the Social Enterprisers we were lucky enough to have Lorna Baird from Social Investment Scotland and Lauren Scott from Morton Fraser deliver a specific session all about funding a Social Enterprise and what legal structure is most appropriate from the range of models that qualify as Social Enterprises. This was a first for Converge and as a result some found that they wanted to amend the direction the business is going in, to take the points raised into consideration, and all went away having learned something new – including me! So, deep gratitude and thanks to Lorna and Lauren from us all at Converge Challenge.
So, this phase of the Entrepreneurial Training Programme in 2016 came to a close with lots of very motivated people who remain very enthusiastic. As one of the participants fed back to us “It was excellent to be surrounded by like-minded people. It’s the first time I have been in that position, and I came away feeling energised.” The training focused on providing the applicants with the practical skills and knowledge to enable them to start up their own company – as one participant commented “It has depeened my understanding of the detail and depth and breadth that must be covered in a business plan” and that they found particularly useful “The guidance on gaining investment by understanding (better) what Investors are looking for”.
We’d really like to thank RBS for the provision of this resource, the access to training facilities and generally making the training as comfortable as possible throughout the time we were there. I’m not sure if it was RBS, Converge Challenge or our fabulous trainers Neuehansa that arranged for the fantastic weather, but it certainly added to the enjoyment of the few days.
*Part II of this blog continues with the Converge Challenge Ready Steady Pitch event – /blogs/general/2017-01-21-three-cheers-for-our-ready-steady-pitch-champions/
