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Meet the Idea Factory winners: ARENA

ARENA won the double in the 2023 Idea Factory competition finals, receiving the 2nd Runners Up prize and the lucrative People’s Choice Award. We caught up with co-founders Yassin Ali, a second year Political Economy student (Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy) and Ayani Mohamud to hear all about their pitch-winning start-up, their entrepreneurial journeys so far and next steps.

Describe ARENA in one sentence….

ARENA is an app which aims to gamify sports through centralising all things sports-related, including bookings and matching.

 

Why did you decide to enter the Entrepreneurship Institute's Idea Factory Competition?

We wanted to enter the competition last year but decided to do some work on validating our idea. Once we had done that, we wanted an opportunity to showcase our idea to judges so that we could get feedback and put our idea through the process.

 

What did the winning moment feel like?

It was an exhilarating feeling, it felt so unreal as all our hard work had paid off. We were both still discussing how it felt days after the pitch event.

 

How did Idea Factory help you move your idea forward?

The workshops we attended prior to the pitch event were a great experience as they helped us to learn how to best present our idea. The competition also helped us to do research into aspects of our businesses we hadn’t previously discussed as we thought it might be too early, but it will all be very beneficial for us moving forward.

 

What’s next?

We’re currently working with software developers to work on our MVP (minimum viable product). We also have lots of tournaments and marketing campaigns planned for the summer, so watch this space!

To find out more about ARENA, visit Instagram or LinkedIn. Watch ARENA’s winning pitch on YouTube.

 

 

Idea Factory is King’s College London’s flagship idea generation competition. It aims to nurture the biggest and best ideas from across the university that have the potential to grow into ventures. 

In addition to receiving £3,500 funding to develop the idea, ARENA has access to a 12-month support package including, access to the Entrepreneurship Institute Hub, mentoring by our Head of Entrepreneurial Skills and Experts-in-Residence.

Meet the 2023 Idea Factory Winners

We caught up with our 2023 Idea Factory winners to hear all about their pitch-winning start-ups, their entrepreneurial journeys so far and what they plan to do next.

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