“The kudos endemic in startup competitions carries an equally important payback to any cash prizes, the keynote speaker told Cambridge University Entrepreneurs’ £1k winners.

Professor Ian White, from the university’s Department of Engineering, said that while CUE had awarded over £500k in prize money to more than 40 start-ups since 1991 there was far more to winning than the cash….”

“Teams bidding for glory in Cambridge University Entrepreneurs’ £1k challenge are set to unveil game-changing technologies worth billions in potential revenue but carrying the promise of priceless benefits for humanity. Healthcare and CleanTech are very much to the fore as more than 50 candidates bid for prizes and progress at the CUE showpiece on February 22 at the Wolfson Lecture Theatre…”

More details, including summaries of the entries, can be found @ Business Weekly

More photos can be viewed on CUE Facebook Page.

By Nicholas Tan

Almost 100 students, aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned serial entrepreneurs from around Cambridge came together to share their ideas and to network at tonight’s inaugural Co-founder Speed Dating event organized by the Cambridge University Entrepreneurs (CUE).

Participants were given the opportunity to interact through a fast paced speed dating format, where they had 2 minutes to exchange ideas, and business cards, before being rotated to different partners.

This was designed to give participants the opportunity to meet as many like-minded individuals as possible within a short time, in hopes that they will be able to build strong teams to further develop their businesses and ideas.

Over 20 individuals also took to the stage to give 1 minute elevator pitches of their business ideas to the crowd.

These business ideas spanned a wide range of areas – from the new methods to create embryonic stem cells to a website that analyses patterns in grocery shopping and even an attempt at generating coherent conversational threads from random twitter posts.

Feedback from the participants was extremely positive and most went home with new business partners and even new business ideas.

The climax of the night came when CUE vice president Michelle Stewart announced the 25 winners of the £100 for 100 words competition.

The winning entries for this year can be viewed at www.cue.org.uk.

Next up in CUE’s Business Creation Competition is the £1k competition and it is now officially open. Entrants are required to submit a 1000 word executive summary of their business plan by 20th January 2012 and will stand a chance of winning £1000.

Entry to the £1k competition is open to all and not limited to those that participated in the £100 competition.

To provide additional support for aspiring entrepreneurs in preparing for this upcoming competition, CUE will also be organizing a training session led by two of the competition judges next Wednesday, 23rd November.
Interested parties can register at http://cue1000training2011.eventbrite.com/.

“…Developers from Apple, Facebook, Google and Nokia were on hand to provide advice to the teams, who used newly released Government data to create apps that will be judged on their impact, originality, functionality and viral potential…”

“… Cambridge University Entrepreneurs is seeing an increasing number of students interested in setting up their own companies, following a spell where the lure of safe jobs in industry threatened to stifle ambition…”

…the journey starts now – not just the four £5k prize winners but also for many other teams among the original entry of 300… Andy Richards, Serial entrepreneur.

Business Weekly

Having scooped one of the top accolades the night before in CUE’s Entrepreneurs’ Challenge, Qiqqa won £3000 from Red Gate Software and a three-month placement at Silicon Valley’s Plug and Play Tech Center…
Business Weekly

RISE, Qiqqa, Sphericos Biotechnologies and eComm won the four major £5k prizes at tonight’s CUE Entrepreneurs Challenge at Cambridge Union.

Business Weekly

….several of tonight’s finalists have the potential to be global commercial successes.

Business Weekly

With Qiqqa, pronounced ‘quicker’, you will complete your PhD in less time – by helping you work smarter, not harder.

Business Weekly

Asian student entrepreneurs dominate the final reckoning in a Cambridge University business competition encouraging student entrepreneurship.

Business Weekly

Twelve of the most innovative new technologies to emerge from Cambridge University students this year go on parade in the Grand Finals on June 8.

Business Weekly