On Sept. 10 – 18, a team from NC’s Pi Lab participated in the third annual Social Business Creation competition in Montreal, Quebec.
Third-year Bachelor of Business Administration (ICOM) student, and clubs coordinator at NCSAC Brittany Kiers, NC Computer Programming grad and current QA Analyst at Blockchain Corp. Amardeep Singh and ICOM grads Jessica De Felice and Vineet Bhatia presented their original business idea at HEC Montréal Business School in front of business professionals from across the globe, competing against 52 teams from 31 universities and colleges around the world.
The team’s business idea, Skills-Chain, is an online platform for women in Assam, India to post their arts and crafts for sale. Through this platform, women from Assam would be able to reach a global market and increase their income, learn entrepreneurial skills, and increase their standard of living.
The idea for Skills-Chain originated from Singh’s first-hand experience living in Assam, India and witnessing a need for entrepreneurial education for women. Through their research, the four learned that one third of Assam’s population lives under the poverty line and 64 per cent of women are self employed.
Brittany, Jessica, Amardeep and Vineet were able to develop their idea through NC’s Productivity and Innovation Lab with coaching from the lab’s founder Musabbir Chowdhury.
The team praised the experience as an incredible learning opportunity. “As a student at Niagara College I am very grateful for the opportunity to go learn beside such influential entrepreneurs,” said Kiers. “It made me realize my passion for bringing education to women in underdeveloped countries.”
NC Business Team at HEC Montreal Social Business Creation 2018 Grand Final. pic.twitter.com/2c6wvaAE8y
— Pi Lab (@NC_Pi_Lab) September 18, 2018
