Innovation Challenge Experience

I was on top of the world when my team was announced as one of the winners for the Innovation Challenge 2019, on the evening of the Innovation Challenge prize-giving. Participating in the Innovation Challenge has provided me with experiences and opportunities I never imagined having, especially as an international student.

My passion for entrepreneurship and innovation started in my first year of university. As a confused first year engineering student, I was unsure about my interest and what I wanted to be doing in the future. So, I started exploring many different things and stumbled across the Unleash Space in the university one day. The Unleash Space is such an amazing space where you literally can create just anything and everything you want. I was introduced to the idea of entrepreneurship through the Idea Bootcamp, held in the Unleash Space, which was a two-week programme with workshops and mentoring to develop entrepreneurial skills. I was able to develop a good understanding of what starting a business is about and I truly enjoyed the whole process of bringing an idea to fruition.

Participating in the workshops organised by Velocity have taught me about the entrepreneurial mind-set from designing robust value proposition for new products to understanding the need in the target market. Being in a team of seven people from various backgrounds, things have not been smooth sailing all the way. We have had our differences, but we always made it worked at the end of the day through communication. It is always important to respect one another when working in a team. It helps a lot to start writing the entry earlier to give your team enough time to work on it. Our win in the Innovation Challenge then encouraged us to give 100k Challenge a shot, and we made it as one of the finalists again!

My journey in taking part in the Innovation Challenge has taught me a lot, not just about start-ups but also to grow as a person. I realised that opportunities do not come to you unless you create them. You will never know how awesome your idea may be unless you go out there and speak to people. The Innovation Challenge is a wonderful opportunity to test out whether the idea that you have always had is good or bad. Entering the Innovation Challenge is probably going to be one of my highlights in university because I have proven to myself that anything is possible if I put in the effort. 

– Rachel Tan Sze Mun