The Apps Crunch is an exciting team competition that challenges students from all University of Bath departments to come up with an idea and design an app with a viable business model. Cross-disciplinary teams will compete against each other to solve real-world problems with their app ideas. More information is at http://www.bath.ac.uk/students/apps-crunch/ There are various stages in the competition- the Final is held at the Bath SETSquared Innovation Centre and is always tense!

First up was Live Prize, a daily giveaway app for people who enjoy free giveaways and want to engage with them in the most fun, convenient and rewarding way possible. Matt Barlow and Will Love took the stage and confidently pitched to the judges a well-structured business plan. Demonstrating why their app could not only hold the attention of the user but attract big brands. The idea that when a prize is announced the user must be active on the app and watch a short ad before the winner is announced was a great selling point to attract big brands as it allowed them to advertise their content. After a clean and well put together presentation the two entrepreneurs were then sat in the hot seats as the judges intensely questioned them. However, everything the judges threw at them the duo easily countered with a well followed up answer or alternative approach.

After a long 10 minutes, LivePrize were able to relax and it was now Moozo to pitch. Moozo aimed to gamify your relationship which would ultimately improve communication and build healthy habits. Their tagline “Whatever got you together, Moozo will keep you together.” was rather fitting. The founders Sergio Korchoff and Sabrin Hasbun, who are ironically a couple, took the stage and focused their presentation towards the technical aspect of their app. Showcasing the various features from a leader board, challenges and even rewards for remembering your partners birthday (one feature I need). Running slightly out of time the couple were now faced with the same intense questioning regarding the resistance to users may experience using the app. Sergio and Sabrin did fantastic as a team to prove to the judges that users would not have any hesitation towards using the app, in fact, stressed the opposite that the leader board would encourage engagement due to social status.

Once the Q&A came to an end it was now judgement time! The judges left the room to deliberate who had the app idea that was good enough to not only achieve downloads but become a profitable business. Finally, the judges came back in. They stressed how close it was between the two teams and how it cam down to how well they managed to answer the judge’s questions. For this reason they awarded the winner of the Apps Crunch 2018 Final to LivePrize because not only did they answer every doubt the judges had they were transparent and were candid when they did not know the answer. LivePrize will now go to London for a weekend to pitch their idea to Bath Alumni from corporate giants such as Google, Facebook and Microsoft. Congratulations to all the participants in this years Apps Crunch Competition, and to keep up to date with news for 2018 head over to our Facebook Page.

L - R Richard Godfrey from Rocketmakers, Winners Will Love, Matt Barlow from LivePrize, Dave Kelly from Storm

The Apps Crunch Final! Guest Post by Jordan Harry