Business Tycoon help from an expert
Earlier this month, Nathan Smith (LGS 1995) volunteered to help 14 student entrepreneurs with their Tycoon Competition business plans. Nathan founded Sysrepublic in 2002 which provided retail data analytics software services, and expanded into America and Poland. In 2009 he made the move to the US to focus on the American arm of the Business. In 2016, Appriss Retail acquired Sysrepublic and Nathan continued as Senior Vice President of Strategy, with responsibility for innovation and development of new products for Appriss Retail’s customers.
His vast start up expertise was greatly appreciated by our student entrepreneurs, who are participating in the national Tycoon competition. Participating teams begin by writing a business plan and are then given money to start a business and trade in competition with other student companies through a Kickstarter style platform, in a safe and controlled environment.
This year’s businesses included:
- GlossBoss – A personalised lip gloss brand (LHS)
- Mega Build – A budget specialist PC company (LGS)
- Cravetrays – Luxury baking kits business (LHS)
- A Luxury box company (LAS)
Nathan provided valuable insight on each team’s business plan, helping our students to develop their ideas and explore key elements of their business, as well as projected profit and how much goodwill loan they require in advance of producing their final product.
"Nathan gave us some really unique and useful ideas on how to get our business out there and stand out from the very large crowd! I especially liked his idea about giving out free samples to spark an interest in our product."
"“In the age of a rapidly changing jobs market, young people need to be innovative, creative and adaptable. I want to help future generations to build fulfilling lives and I’m keen to encourage their entrepreneurial instincts. I volunteer because I want to give back and wish I’d had more interaction with leaders in industry when I was at School. It was great to hear about the students’ ideas and helping them think about how to develop their business plans and overcome potential pitfalls. They all have some really exciting ideas and I can't wait to see what products they come up with!”"
We’re excited to see how the pupils get on with this competition – good luck!