The Big Start competition seeks best student entrepreneur

The call is out for aspiring student entrepreneurs to submit their business idea for The Big Start, the annual entrepreneur competition run by Al Tamimi Investments (ATI). The Big Start will identify final year students with a great idea for a UAE based business and reward the winner or winners with full funding and support from ATI to establish their business and become CEO after they graduate.

The competition is open to all final year undergraduate university students studying in the UAE, regardless of nationality, university or faculty. Qualifying students have until 23rd December 2010 to submit their initial business ideas online at thebigstart.ae and enter the running to identify the UAE’s best and brightest student entrepreneurs.

“The Big Start offers a once in a lifetime opportunity for budding entrepreneurs to truly realise their dream. While funding is an important element of the prize, the additional expertise, consultancy and guidance that Al Tamimi Investments provides is priceless. Our core business is identifying and funding new initiatives which we believe in, so The Big Start is very much aligned with our strategy but also provides us with the opportunity to foster young entrepreneurial talent in the UAE,” said Rachael Wunsch, General Manager, ATI.

The three-stage competition begins with the evaluation by ATI of the initial submissions received. In January 2011 the most promising students will progress to the next stage of the competition – where they will attend a business plan workshop to guide and assist them in translating their concept into a formal business plan. Another round of judging in April 2011 will nominate the finalists who will complete their entrepreneurial journey in the presentation stage of the competition.

“We nurture and help the students through this process, meaning that by the time we select our winner, we have also guided a group of finalists through the intensive and real process of pitching their idea for a business,” added Wunsch.

Judged by a panel of senior management from ATI, the final winner will be decided in June 2011 by ATI’s Chairman, Essam Al Tamimi.

The competition is the only one of its kind in the UAE to actively guide, mentor and facilitate the development of each entrant’s business plan, and to fully fund the winner’s idea and support the creation of the new business with knowledge and expertise from senior ATI management. Ideas remain the intellectual property of the students, and those that are not final winners are free to pursue their business ideas independently, with the added benefit of the skills gained during the competition.

Winner of The Big Start 2009/2010, Yahya Stapic from the American University of Sharjah, is currently working with ATI to establish his business idea – a fashion incubator store which showcases young UAE designers and is scheduled to open in April 2011.

“Winning The Big Start has been the most amazing and rewarding experience of my life. I now go to work every day with people who are committed to helping me establish my dream company, are funding my idea and working in partnership with me to make it a success. I could not have asked for a better start to my career,” said Stapic.