Written by Yvonne Kloiber, Global Ambassador and Dual Degree Student. Hult Boston Class of 2017.

Recap
Following and wrapping up from HBC Part 2: Developing your business idea, the last step of our Hult Business Challenge journey was undoubtedly the most intense, even though very exciting. “Raino” our business idea was born and the challenge we faced was to present it in a convincing way.

During our time at Hult, we had the change to attend many workshops, related on only to HBC, but also to Hult Prize and pitching yourself. The key takeaway for me from these sessions was: It is inevitable to present YOURSELF in the best way possible. You might wonder why I believe this is the key. The answer is simple: Even though you are actually presenting a business idea, investors won’t invest unless they believe in YOU! Thinking back to part 1 of my blog and the beginning of our journey, this was very visible we had a strong team and the idea changed many times.

Team Raino

To create the best possible pitch for Raino we decided to create a trailer which shows our audience (classmates and judges) how uncomfortable rain is and how it can influence your life in a negative way. Shooting this video was definitely one of my personal highlights. We shot part of it on campus during an actually sunny day. Because of that one, my teammates sacrificed himself to get wet for the purpose of the video. Also, we sprayed Raino in the restroom on our pants to demonstrate how it could potentially work – having an invisible water-repellent layer on regular clothes.

Putting this all together, our presentation started with the video as an introduction and continued outlining business values and detailed sales model. The distribution strategy that we created was based on vending machines located strategically in subway stations in and around Boston. The preliminary rounds came faster than ever expected. Our team was able to convince classmates and coaches and finally made it to the final pitch competition only one day later! This was the first big step for us and we achieved our defined goal from the beginning – pitching in the final!

The final pitch

The following day, we had the pleasure to present in front of all cohorts to a packed “Fenway Bleachers” (largest room on Campus). The excitement, as well as a little bit of nervousness, were in the air. Even though the final pitch didn’t go as smooth as the day before we got very good feedback for our project and I am able to look back to a very successful project! We were originally planning to launch our product, however, due to the fact that we are still studying a potential lunch date and testing on a larger scale is not defined. However, after creating a prototype as well as a great business pitch our project was basically ready to go to market.

Winning Team of the HBC Entrepreneurship track was Trabu! An application that offers a service that can be compared to blabla car in Europe, which is basically Uber for long distances (e.g. Boston New York).

Looking back, I feel that the HBC challenge, especially the entrepreneurship track for people interested in founding their own business, is a unique opportunity. Never in life, will you have such a protected and well-guided environment as during these last 5 months. Especially if you are more risk averse when it comes down to starting a business this is your chance to learn! I never thought that entrepreneurship would be my thing at all, but after this challenge, I could absolutely imagine starting my own business at some point in the future.

Yvonne Kloiber is a Dual Degree student from Germany studying at Hult Boston campus. She has a background in marketing and is passionate about international relations. She hopes to continue traveling the world after Hult and to pursue a global leadership development program.

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