Thursday 26 January 2012

The John Heine Entrepreneurial Challenge - A launch pad for innovative ideas

Many are familiar with the entrepreneurial success story of how Mark Zuckerberg conceived the idea for social networking website Facebook as a student at Harvard University.

Few would have heard of the Robertson International Academy, a for-profit international education service institute providing senior education programs exclusively to the international and local expat student consumer market.

Offering a range of academic and vocational pathways to ensure further studies are capable within Australian University programs, this ‘pre-University Academy’ was Bond University student, Shilo Mahoney’s winning pitch for the John Heine Entrepreneurial Challenge, Australia’s premier new venture competition for tertiary students.

Hosted by the Queensland University of Technology in early December and supported by the Australian Institute for Commercialisation, the competition saw seven university-based teams from across Australia pitch their bona-fide business plans to a group of venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and CEOs.

Beating out six other teams as the most commercially-viable venture, the Robertson International Academy received $10,000 in cash prizes as well as consulting services to assist commercialisation of the business.

The Robertson International Academy will also go on to represent Australia against over 30 of the world’s best business schools at the Venture Labs Investment Competition at the University of Texas in Austin, USA.

Other commendable ventures at this year’s competition included SA Biofuels – producer of the first biodiesel unit with advanced ultrasound technology – from the University of Adelaide who came in as first-runner up, and Swinburne University’s FitIntegrate, an automated recruitment platform connecting gyms and instructors, who took out second runner-up.

For further details about the competition and other award winners, visit: www.johnheinechallenge.org
 

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