AUBG-ers Give Business Advice




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  • 2013-10-08 17:40:40
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“How many times in your life have you had the chance to make a real difference for someone in the business world?” Prof. Veneta Andonova asked. She and Prof. Milena Nikolova followed the question last Wednesday with a presentation about teams from three start-up companies. Eleven StarUP Accelerator and AUBG students selected the three newborn businesses to receive funding. The university's students will have the opportunity to comment on the teams' ideas and help them develop their strategies for success throughout the semester. Andonova described the teams as a “group of extraordinary young people." This is hardly an exaggeration, given that Eleven approves only three percent of the projects that are submitted. AUBG business students watched pitches for every project, offering entrepreneurs suggestions on how to improve their products and marketing processes. The first company was Parudi, from neighboring Romania. Adrian, Oana, and Mircea, the three founders, are all software engineers and have been friends since high school. They have more than 10 years of experience with other companies. Now, their dream is to own their own business. Their company is creating game applications for iOS and Android, but they declined to share any details about their games. They wished for the audience to actually test each product before talking about it. Therefore, all students who attended the presentation will have the chance to get the beta version of the first Parudi game and share their real opinions after trying it. The next pitch was from TaxiMe, founded by three AUBG alumni – Tihomir, Hristo and Evgeni. TaxiMe is offering a mobile service for hailing taxis from a mobile device. The application picks a cab for the user based on their location and on reviews that other customers write about participating drivers. The service is already operating on a small scale in Sofia, Plovdiv and Veliko Tarnovo, but the team is adding Blagoevgrad to their operations offices. They made a proposition to the AUBG-ers attending the presentation to form teams of two or three and help them build a network of drivers. The network will be developed in Blagoevgrad from the ground up, and any revenue TaxiMe generates will be shared with the participating students. “If money is the only thing on your mind, you should think again,” Tihomir said, emphasizing that passion for your ideas is the only real motivator. Last but not least was the team of InSelly from Latvia – Ksenija, Alex and Dmitry. Their concept was a balance of business and technical skills with experience in team management, project management and software engineering. Their idea is a service for buying things that are for sale on Instagram. Their technical solution sorts everything that is hashtagged for sale on the photo- and video-sharing network using various simple categories. InSelly will include every product on Instagram, although profit will be made from sellers and buyers subscribing to the service. The team also proposed a beta version for Nikolova’s and Andonova’s students to test on the spot. Students asked questions about the projects and voiced several concerns they had while using the products, which the teams agreed to think about after their prototypes have been tested further by AUBGers. The two professors promised future interaction with the teams, so that students can gain valuable experience by observing developing business models, and at the same time can offer input for making them more successful. This partnership is part of an initiative to connect the business major to successful stories from the real world.