A website which would instantly configure digital notes into multiple revision formats was the winning entry in a new Eton College competition to find brand new education technology products.
147 boys, more than 10% of the school, made up teams and entered the new Hoberman Prize for Entrepreneurship in Educational Technology. The objective was to come up with a product idea within the domain of educational technology, develop it and ultimately pitch it to a panel of investors. Many of the teams attended regular boy-run Launch Club sessions in the run up to the final, to learn the ropes of creating a start-up and to fine-tune their products.
The ten finalists delivered their pitches in front of an audience and the judging panel, which was led by Brent Hoberman CBE (MCM, 1987), accompanied by Matthias Ick (VC investor with Macmillan Digital Education), and Jan Matern (Co-Founder & CEO of Emerge Venture Labs). The winners were Will Whipple and William Holy-Hasted OS (both TEWH) for their app Mindhive.
"There were some very inventive and original ideas put forward," said the Master in Charge of the competition, James Stanforth. "However the concept was just a part of the competition. Teams also had to develop the idea to ensure it had the potential to be commercially viable and then pitch their ideas professionally to both the judges and the audience."
