After having been founded last year in 2019/20, the Hult Prize WU student organization continues to create an impact. This year, in their 2020/21 term, they successfully built a platform of students, organizers, judges, partners and sponsorships. The “Nobel Prize for students” is reaching more and more entrepreneurial students, even though this semester everything was fully online.

Hult Prize WU by ÖH-WU is in close cooperation with the ÖH-WU, as the name suggests, yet operates independently. This way they were able to secure partnerships and corporations with the WU Marketing Club, BFC Vienna, Business Consulting Society and even WU professor Michael König! The first two were part of some internal workshops and made it onto the board of judges as well. Moreover, WU Gründungszentrum supported the teams with regard to the entrepreneurial foundations needed for this challenge.

In order to make this year’s case competition and world’s largest student movement as fair as possible, different judges from different fields were asked to help and give their expertise and opinions on the team’s Start-Up ideas during the On Campus Finals on December 11th 2020:

Paula Cintron, a strong female leader from Guatemala, has been involved in Hult Prize for a long time. Last year, she took part in the Regionals herself and has already founded two Start-Ups. As a student with an economic major and data science minor, she is fully indulged in the field of economics and could provide good practical insights and feedback.

Samira Nickl, a German medicine student living in Vienna, has always been ahead of time. She filed her first patent at only 16 years old after taking part in a Start-Up company herself, and wrote a book about learning and educational environment. She also co-founded the Business and Finance Club Vienna (drop by if you’re interested in finance!). As a Top Talent under 25, Samira is a strong innovative addition to our team.

Marina Gallob, our Austrian marketing expert, was of large help. Being the President of WU Marketing Club and currently doing her Masters degree in this very topic, she was able to question how the Start-Ups would make use of advertising, market positioning and creating value to consumers. Marina was able to apply her theoretical knowledge in various fields in practice, such as during an internship at the company GroupM.

The three wonderful and knowledgeable judges had the honor to proudly announce this year’s winner: Linked Eating Co.! Consisting of WU Students, more precisely all second cohort BBE students, Dilor Repishti, Selin Beste Yüksel, Nevena Vujović, and Baran Alp Narinoglu, they tackled the challenge “Food For Good” the most successfully! Their Start-Up is focused on an app, through which farmers and food producers can detect viable food spoilage and connect with interested buyers. Linked Eating Co. supplies the farmers with the app and carriers who would transport the otherwise wasted food to the buyer. Linked Eating Co. generates profit via subscriptions from the users, as well as through commissions and advertisements. Also, as a final positive impact, 5% of profits would be provided to charities that supply the underprivileged with food. This is to start in Austria and expand over Europe in the next few years.

Teams The Three Musketeers of Sustainability, HungryBot and Greenary ranked 2nd, 3rd and 4th.

Overall, Hult Prize WU was able to gain more attention this year, with better social media placement, and hopes for many new students as participants and organizers next term. For anyone interested, the organization would love to receive messages or applications from your side. Also, if you would like to take part and provide your expertise in organizing the world’s largest student movement, now is your time! For more information visit: http://www.hultprizeat.com/wirtschaftsuniversitat.