Flying start for entrepreneurial UM students

15 December 2011

Maastricht students Berry Schrijen and Pascal Janshen have won the 2011 LIOF Yeah student entrepreneurship competition. This was announced during the final broadcast by L1 on Wednesday 14 December. The pair won a prize package worth 50,000 euros, which could get their BIG Advertisements company off to a flying start.

The two young entrepreneurs invented a new device (the BIG D€AL Kiosk) for installation in parking garages, shopping centres and stations, enabling consumers to print out discount coupons and decide for themselves which discount campaigns they will use. Advertisers can produce the coupons via the internet and can offer them to local or national shoppers.

The online voting began on 1 October 2011, with members of the public voting on all the submitted proposals. The 16 proposals with the most votes moved up to the semi-final, where the business plans were presented to a professional jury of experienced entrepreneurs. The jury subjected the candidates to a critical inquisition and selected four finalists, who each won a prize of up to 10,000 euros, comprising among other things a smartphone, a laptop, advisory services for banking, insurance and tax, and a professional house style. The fourth, third and second prizes in the competition also included a cash award of 10,000, 20,000 and 40,000 euros respectively.

LIOF Yeah
LIOF Yeah is an initiative of NV Industriebank LIOF and was created in 2010 to mark LIOF’s 35th anniversary. Last year’s success, achieved in cooperation with a variety of companies in Limburg (including Rabobank and Vodafone) motivated the follow-up. The aim of LIOF Yeah is to encourage upcoming innovative entrepreneurship in Limburg, contributing to the province’s economic development.

Note for the press:

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Please refer to the Research Magazine at www.unimaas.nl/researchmagazine for interesting research being carried out at UM.

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