UC students Moore and Harding win annual entre $75,000 Challenge
University of Canterbury (UC) students Thomas Harding and James Moore have won UC’s student-run organisation entre
$75,000 business challenge on campus in Christchurch tonight.
The entre business competition is in its eighth year. Entre is a not-for-profit, student-run company at UC Canterbury
and aims to encourage and cultivate the entrepreneurial spirit among university students.
Harding and Moore of the AppointMe team won the grand overall category tonight. Their online based appointment service
aimed to make the process of booking appointments simple and user friendly for customers.
Harding and Moore received a prize pack valued at over $30,000 to help further develop their venture. AppointMe also
took out the Best Pitch category – joint winners with FODapp – a shopping application to assist people with special
dietary requirements.
Most Entrepreneurial team went to Puteko Ltd and Most Improved Venture went to Euphroria Wake Lake. The powerHouse
Ventures Incubator Prize was awarded to Alga Pro Bio and the PwC Most Market-Ready Venture went to INoMA Furniture.
The final stage of the competition was judged by a dragons den style competition. The judges - Andrew Lamb from the
University of Canterbury, Nathan Wylie from PwC, Charlie Tomlinson and Simone Gale from powerHouse Ventures and Edward
Sparrow from ANZ Bank – said they were impressed by the value of the students’ ideas, their passion for their
enterprise, and the entrepreneurial spirit which the qualifiers displayed.
Prizes were also awarded for the Apps Challenge - a competition for students to come up with an idea for an application
for an iPhone or iPad.
Out of over 150 applicants, Andrew Montague won first place with his Treasure Hunt application - a travel treasure hunt
game to keep the kids entertained on long car journeys. Montague will receive Apple products and the development of his
application.
Key note speaker was Peter Montgomery CEO of Tradevine.