My Team & Experience
My group and I built a mental health app, “Buddy”, aiming to help teenagers struggling with their mental health by providing with a safe option to communicate and connect and share your feelings with like-minded peers from your school to share your feelings. People can anonymously share their difficulties and receive professional support with a specialist without the need to even show their faces. This app is a motivation to stop the lasting problem of teenagers being too afraid to ask for help or support, due to the fear of being judged.
With our product & pitch, we went on to win the TiE National Competition, winning $1500 for our business. I felt very happy when my team and I won the competition. I was glad that the hard work and smart thought we put into our product and business were recognised and rewarded. Now, after winning I am excited to take on the next challenge with my product & business to the Global Finals in 2022.
What is TiE
TiE Young Entrepreneurs is a Global program aimed at fostering our future generation of entrepreneurs. TiE focuses on teaching entrepreneurship to high school students and helping them discover the rewards and challenges of becoming an entrepreneur. During the program, the students form teams, go through workshop sessions focused on different aspects of business and entrepreneurship, then develop their own business idea, plans & and a final pitch, throughout a couple of weeks. Teams compete at the National level Finals first and the winner of each Nation goes on to the Global Competition in the United States to compete for the Global Title, Investors and $10,000 in cash prizes.
Why I Applied?
I participated in the TiE Program because Innovation and Entrepreneurship is one of the best topics in my opinion, and I like to continuously learn more about innovative thinking to make new ranges of products and services. TiE is a collaborative and competitive platform for students to learn about entrepreneurship toward building a product or service. Therefore, I had decided to apply for this program.
2022 Global Finals
The winning team at the National level in 2021 has the opportunity to pitch their business plan to entrepreneurs in the United States of America in June 2022. Currently, in 2021 & 2022, the COVID-19 situation has made travel difficult so we will see if the Global finals will be either online, through call, or in-person next year.
What I learnt & Enjoyed
During the program, I gained a variety of skills and insights in many aspects like Entrepreneurship, Business and Innovation. I built a lot of confidence and creativity, and I improved my skills in working effectively as a team toward a task. Lastly, I learned several Business Start-up concepts like – Lean canvas thinking, design thinking, customer discovery & product-market fit. My favourite part of the program was getting to learn countless new things from the various workshops. I gained a lot of great insight on strategies for successful businesses and entrepreneurial mindsets & skills which truly sparked creativity for me.
Why Innovative Thinking is Important
I believe Innovative thinking is an invaluable skill for students & adults because it helps them look at problems and situations from a fresh perspective. Innovative thinking is a way to develop new solutions that do not depend entirely on past or current solutions. This can also help students to invent improved strategies to deal with unexpected and complex situations, like a pandemic, and in all aspects of life!
Bill Gates’ TiE Speech – How Innovation is so Important – TiE Entrepreneurship Organisation
– Bill Gates
“TiE Global Entrepreneurship Awards are the most coveted Global Awards recognizing the key stakeholders and their contribution to the startup, innovation & investment ecosystem.”