by Marlo C. Novino
A team of 4th year BSBA Entrepreneurial Marketing, CBAA students bested other 20 finalists in the recently concluded National Finals BPI Sinag U held in Makati Sports Club, Makati City last November 17, 2017.
The winning team COOKBRIGHT was composed of Ace H. Escol and Kate Marielle E. Amarillo who went a rigid 3-day bootcamp on finance, social business model, pitching and marketing strategies. The final pitching was based on social impact, innovation, business model, and pitch presentation and was judged by industry experts from Kickstart, ideaspace, Citi Hub, and Filip + Inna.
COOKBRIGHT is a multifunctional cooking system that transforms organic waste (i.e. vegetable and fruit peelings) into a high quality organic fertilizer and biogas for clean cooking while at the same time generates electricity. This idea was coined by Dr. Noel R. Estoperez of COET, who formed a team of Engineering, Sociology and Marketing students to execute the idea and compete for the Sikat Design Challenge last July 14, 2017. COOKBRIGHT made it to the national finals.
Another team of BSBA Entrepreneurial Marketing students made it to the BPI Sinag U National finals. Team AGRISENSO was composed of Clark Reuben R. Galope and Jesa Marie C. Osio, 4th year BSBA Entrepreneurial Marketing students. AGRISENSO was also part of the Philippine Startup Challenge national finals last April 21, 2017 in Roxas City, Capiz.
This was the second win for MSU-IIT in the BPI Sinag U after last year’s victory with Team KNAPP, a food delivery mobile application using habal-habal. Constantino A. Brasileño, Jr. and June Pearl P. Achacoso of Department of Marketing, CBAA constituted the winning team.
When asked about what was the secret formula of MSU-IIT in producing top caliber startup teams in various national competitions, the Marketing students unanimously answered that it was a result of collaboration between the experts of the COET, SCS, and CBAA under the close supervision of iDEYA: Center of Innovation and Technopreneurship and FabLab Mindanao. Their first-hand experience in innovation and entrepreneurship related programs, as spearheaded by different innovation units inside the university, has given them the best advantage over the other teams.
Teams COOKBRIGHT and AGRISENSO wishes to extend their heartfelt gratitude to their very able coaches Dr. Noel R. Estoperez, Dr. Pamela F. Resurreccion, Prof. Lemuel Clark P. Velasco, Prof. Stephen C. Fajardo, and Mr. John Dave S. Del Rosario who helped them all the way.
The BPI Sinag U, as sponsored by the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), is a social enterprise business competition for university students in the ideation phase that seek to strengthen their business plans and social impact.