One of the youngest projects of the Entrepreneurship Academy, „4-Hour Challenge”, took place online this month and brought together 880 students (11th and 12th graders) who entered the competition. 160 of them had the opportunity to use all their resources to solve a business challenge.
This year’s business problem was presented by the Entrepreneurship Academy team, together with the special guest, Dorian Popa. Just like the Entrepreneurship Academy classes, the brief was both interesting and challenging. It consisted in shaping a project idea that would generate profit and would recoup the investment for one of the land lots of the residential assembly – „Hatz residence”, which is under construction in Domnești, Ilfov.
The „4-Hour Challenge” is a competition for high-school students where the brief consists of a real business problem, which students, divided into teams of 4-6 members, must solve within 4 hours. Prior to the event, the selected high school students had participated in a series of online learning experiences, provided by students and experts from the Entrepreneurship Academy, in order to prepare them for the business challenge.
In the first part of the event, the students had worked online to solve the brief, supervised by a member of the Entrepreneurship Academy community. Afterwards, the jury, together with Dorian Popa, chose 5 teams that took part in the pitch to solve the brief.
The second part of the event was the most tense one. The students had 2 minutes to present their business ideas in front of Dorian Popa and the jury. It was a close game, as many of the ideas proved to be very suitable for solving the problem.
However, only one idea was the winner of the „4-Hour Challenge”. The team came up with the most captivating, but profitable proposal: a drive-in cinema, which, besides being a tourist attraction for local residents, could also garner income through tickets and additional shops. The cinema will use the beacon technology – the sound is played on the participant’s phones and this is possible with HÂTZ Cinema App.
,,I’ll start with a regret…unfortunately it was the last time I was able to attend an event organized by Entrepreneurship Academy, because I just graduated 12th grade”, said Șerban Lăzărescu, member of the winning team.
,,The experience I had at 4-Hour Challenge was awesome. Not only did we meet one of the coolest vloggers, but he gave us positive energy and a huge enthusiasm to solve the challenge. After we were divided into teams, we realized we were going to have a super cool and well-structured project. With or without the title of winners, we would have been just as satisfied with such an experience” said Adrian Cutui, one of the winners.
His colleague added: ,,The advice I would give from this experience is to find inspiration in every colleague we work with, and especially in an ambitious environment such as Entrepreneurship Academy”.
Dorian was extremely impressed with the winning idea and he said he considered implementing their proposal: ,,I was extremely happy and flattered by the invitation of the Entrepreneurship Academy to join the competition. I am very proud that teens are interested in building their future. It was nice to discover extremely open and creative minds that impressed me. And the winning team will always remain in my heart, because the idea of a drive-in cinema seemed extraordinary to me and I still have moments when I think about implementing it”.
More details about the competition can be found here.
