3:15pm Tuesday 3rd November 2009
THERE’S nothing shy about this Flower.
Louise Flower, a 20-year-old third year English and history student at the University of York is proving herself to be an awesome entrepreneur .
She has dazzled the judges of an international competition for budding tycoons with a product which proves that her success is written large – and that she refuses to be penned in by conventionality Louise, who lives in Eastfield Crescent, Badger Hill, has decided to market a revolutionary digital pen, called The Mobile Note Taker, which not only writes conventionally but “remembers” the handwriting and transfers it to a computer where it can either be stored as script or converted into print.
This was her submission in a contest organised by Alibaba.com, the world’s largest online meeting place for buyers and suppliers.
Applicants were challenged to start their own trading companies with £1,000 each that would be provided by the organisation, and her pen, which she sourced through Alibaba, has pushed her into the last eight in the UK finals of the Global Startup Challenge.
Each had to pitch their proposed product electronically with a business plan, details of target market and how they would sell plus profit forecasts.
Louise, who is the external enterprise director for the University of York Entrepreneurs Society, said: “I had heard of the existence of this breakthrough in pens a few months ago, but I had never seen one.
“I was intrigued that here was the answer to the frustration of deciphering my scrawled lecture notes and then trying to make sense by ‘writing’ them up.
“With this pen you can capture handwriting which can be downloaded on to a computer with the click of a mouse.
“Think of how useful that would be to all students as well as the many secretaries of various student societies for whom life could become a lot easier.
“Naturally, they would be prime marketing targets but I would also try to supply shops and business.”
The initial £1,000 will allow Louise to buy about 20 of the pens, but she is also pitching another product – an emergency battery powered universal charger for phones, MP3 players and digital cameras.
The final judging takes place at the end of January, after the public votes for the candidate with the best product. The winner gets £10,000 to invest in Alibaba to set up a business in order to market their winning product.
“It would be quite exciting to leave university in June knowing that my pens will point the way to a new future,” she said.
So where did Louise get this entrepreneurial flare? “Probably from my parents. My dad, Douglas is the financial director of insurance brokers Francis, Townsend and Hayward, which my granddad set up; and my mother, Sue, has always been brilliant at sales.
“I have a ten year plan to be a millionaire, and after that I’ll set out my plan to become a multi-millionaire!”
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