On Friday January 27, 2023 eight bright student entrepreneurs from the University of the West Indies (UWI) vied for the top prize in the 2022-23 staging of the Mona School of Business and Management’s Vincent HoSang UWI Venture Competition (UWIVC).
The three winners that emerged competed fiercely against their fellow students to win more than JMD$1.35 Million in cash and prizes which they will use to invest in their businesses to help them scale and grow. In addition, the top finalists impressed our expert panel of judges so much, that they offered an on the spot ‘Judges Prize’ valued at JMD$100,000. More importantly, the presentations and ideas were so well developed and inspiring, that the top three winners were awarded an additional US$3,000.00 Scholarship each, to participate in the RevUp Caribbean Jamaica Programme. Through the competition the teams now also have offers to join other entrepreneurial programmes worth US$15,000.00.
Other prizes included the JMMB Joan Duncan Foundation Award for Corporate Social Responsibility won by Team ‘Money Tree Farms’ and the Baymac Award for Digital Transformation and Implementation which was also won by the ‘All About Scholarships’ Team and is valued at J$250,000.00.
Our esteemed panel of judges included: Mrs. Sandra Glasgow, Managing Director, BizTactics, Ms. Kimala Bennett, CEO, The LAB, Mr. Wayne Sutherland, Director, JMMB and Mrs. Dianna Blake-Bennett, CEO, Jamaican Teas. According to Mrs. Sandra Glasgow, ‘the energy, passion and hard work displayed by the teams speaks to their commitment to excellence and becoming successful business leaders, which makes them ripe for investment”.
First place winner ‘All About Scholarships’, comprised of a team from the Medical Sciences and Science and Technology Faculties, offers targeted scholarship services to university students. Second Place winner ‘Kinky Glide’ hails from the Faculty of Social Sciences and is a unique cannabis infused personal lubricant. Third place winner ‘Dannatinos’, representing the Faculty of Humanities and Education, is a food business with a secret formulation for fried chicken and healthy pizza. These teams were all made up of undergraduate students currently enrolled at UWI.
One of the major highlights of this year’s finals was that representatives from Caribbean Food Delights the title sponsor for the UWIVC and the leading Caribbean frozen food manufacturer of Jamaican Style Patties in the world, were in attendance. The CFD 103,000 square foot facility can produce 40,000 patties per hour which translates into 720,000 patties per day. Their patties can be found in big box retailers such as Walmart, Sam’s Club, BJ’s, Harris Teeter to name a few. Caribbean Food Delights (CFD) which was founded by Vincent and Jeanette HoSang, has been supporting student entrepreneurship at UWI for over 20 years and remain dedicated to empowering the young entrepreneurs as they seek to build successful globally competitive businesses. In addressing the audience at the Awards Ceremony, Ms. Shakira Chin, Marketing Representative, CFD, stated, “facilitating the pathway to greatness for entrepreneurs is at the core of who we are as Mr. HoSang was once a struggling businessman, who had no formal training but had a dream and stayed the course, which is a major component to achieving success”.
In bringing greetings on behalf of the Mona School of Business and Management (MSBM), Dr. David McBean, Executive Director, stated “this year’s cohort is a stand out group and is a clear indication of the work the Vincent HoSang Entrepreneurship Programme has put in to prepare the students not just for the competition but to be able to present their businesses in a way that will attract potential investors”. He reiterated MSBM’s commitment to student entrepreneurship and “our continued dedication to ensuring that the UWIVC moves business ideas from mere concepts up the value chain, to commercially viable entities that are market ready. This is key to our strategic objectives, as we work towards playing a more integral role in the strengthening of the local entrepreneurial ecosystem”.
Other major partners of the programme who also participated in the finals are Mrs. Kim Mair, CEO, JMMB Foundation, Mrs. Nichole Morgan, Deputy Director General of the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority and Mr. Darren Bayley-Hay, Managing Director, Baymac.