28 February 2022

For the sixth year running, Make Your Mark returned to the undergraduate calendar. Over the course of a weekend, ten student teams from across the university got together to take part in a fun, inspiring and eye-opening challenge to create a business venture that matched profit with purpose.
Our #MakeYourMark student competition returns!

Our student teams worked hard to develop and pitch business ideas that aimed to tackle inequalities and transform local communities. The four challenge topics for this year were: climate change, food poverty, mental health, and social inequality. The competitors had to pull together and finely hone their communication skills to research and pitch their business ideas to some of Scotland’s most influential business leaders.

The competition was hard-fought, but the weekend resulted in two overall winners who presented excellent business ideas spanning the mental health and social inequality themes.

'Paint it Pi' (Winners)

Team members: Fizza Kazmi, Jack Crombie, Muyun Yang, Jennifer Hartley, Jun Ding

Paint it Pi pitched a business model that provides a safe environment for students to relieve stress through art meditation. Having identified that there has been a 450% increase in student mental health declarations over the last decade (UCAS, 2021), with nearing 45% of university students experiencing ‘more than average’ levels of stress (Mental Health Scotland, 2021), the team set about to rectify the lack of instant and hands-on stress relief systems available for students. In what the team deemed to be a fairly uncontested market, they proposed that a safe space in/around the central library could be transformed into an area where art, meditation and painting could take place, free of stigma. The revenue stream would come from membership, refreshment sales and a commission fee from art sales.

It was a well-researched idea and it was very confidently presented with some really lovely slides. What we liked most about this idea is that it felt so feasible, and we felt that this group could take this forward right now and implement this scheme in Edinburgh.
Judges' comment

'The Uplifting Society' with 'SkilLink' (Winners)

Team members: Runlin Chen, Iain Sinclair, Daphne Psaltis, Augusta Mwinuka, Tingwen Liu

This team had a vision to tackle the widespread issue of educational and employment inequality in Scotland. Their research showed that 8.4% of 16-19 year olds in Scotland are not in employment, education or training (NEET). Based on a survey in 2022 by the Conference Board, worker shortages were identified as the greatest threat to businesses. As such, ‘SkilLink’ proposes to find and target individuals who are NEET in disadvantaged areas, identify their skills/talents (through psychometric testing) and then introduce candidates to well-suited job opportunities and employers. They propose to fund this through support from Government grants, private grants and alumni contributions.

This is such an interesting idea! Social inequality is a huge area and it’s a difficult and complex subject, and you successfully identified a gap in the market and brought some interesting concepts. What really scored you highly was the fact that you were incredibly bold and innovative with the idea: combining what employers need and what young people who are furthest away from the labour market need, and finding that bridge in the middle and how best to address it.
Judges' comment

Congratulations are also due to:

'Green Getters' with 'Move' (Runners-up) who designed an app designed to allow consumers to locate sustainable outlets near them. Team members: Lola Taylor, Demi Talmage, Nelly Odzhi, Lina Jeon.

'Apollo' (Runners-up) who brought to life a vision to bring local business and students together to provide an outlet for wellbeing focused events. Team members: Jessica Rosiak, Gaia Lordini, Yujia Fan, Yuqing Deng, Erica Jeon, Nikita Rameshkumar.

Congratulations to the winning teams who have won coaching sessions with Alice Thompson, Professional Purpose Coach and Co-Founder of Social Bite, and an ethical gift box from Social Stories Club.

With many thanks to our judges:

  • Robert Pembleton (Enterprise Executive, Edinburgh Innovations)
  • Erica Judge (Creative Communities, Inspiring Scotland)
  • Jack Muir (Director, Pivot Earth)
  • Louisa Macdonell (Entrepreneur in Residence, University of Edinburgh Business School)
  • Martin Gannon (Lecturer in Entrepreneurship, University of Edinburgh Business School)

#makeyourmark will return on Friday 3 to Sunday 5 February 2023.