Carnegie Mellon Qatar students win Al Fikra National Business Plan Competition
DOHA, QATAR- The top spot in the Al Fikra National Business Plan Competition went to two Carnegie Mellon Qatar students for a proposal to build a website connecting students with local companies.
Arash Enayati Khorzoghi and Ahmad Mohamed Al-Salama, both computer science students, were awarded first place in the student category, winning QR 50,000 and a chance to develop their idea with the Supreme Council of Information and Communication Technology (ictQatar). The students impressed the judges with ‘ConnectME,’ a web portal bringing together internship-seeking students with Qatar business organizations.
Al Fikra, Qatar’s first national business plan competition, was organized by Enterprise Qatar, Carnegie Mellon Qatar and a consortium of higher education institutions and business development agencies. These organizations joined forces to nurture entrepreneurial talent and increase awareness of entrepreneurship through business plan competitions, networking events and incubation.
About 250 proposals were submitted for the competition, which began in March. The applicants went through a series of elimination rounds, and eight were presented to jury members and honorary guests during the May 23 final. The winners were announced at the Doha InterContinental in a ceremony attended by His Excellency Sheikh Jassim bin Abdul Aziz Al Thani, Minister of Business and Trade.
In the professional category, Khalid Al Mohannadi, Abdulla Rashid Al-Obaidan and Chris Bulman won first place and QR 50,000 for ‘Dinosawus,” a social network for kids that promotes Arab games and stories. In second place was ‘Pregnant & Pretty,’ and in third place was ‘Entalek,’ an outdoor adventure company.
In the student category, the second place was awarded to ‘Radical Sports, Qatar,’ which would offer extreme sports like bunging jumping. ‘Al Dallah,’ a vending machine dispensing authentic Qatari coffee took third place.
Al Fikra was supported by Qatar Development Bank, the Qatar Business Association, ictQatar, College of the North Atlantic- Qatar (CNA-Q), Qatar University (QU), Stenden University Qatar (SUQ) and Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar (VCUQ).
The competition is an outgrowth of a program launched by Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar in cooperation with the Qatari Businessmen Association three years ago as an academic-business collaboration to enhance entrepreneurial spirit and develop a new generation of business leaders in Qatar.