Have you ever wanted to turn your classroom into a marketplace where students can pitch their entrepreneurial ideas? If the answer is ‘Yes’, then SANDPIT Crowdfund Campus may be the tool you are looking for.
SANDPIT is an online platform that helps students to commercialise entrepreneurial ideas. It gives them experience of crowdfunding, but more importantly it gives them an experiential method to test and validate their ideas.
In 2016/17 Dr Shinga Masango used SANDPIT on her International Entrepreneurship module.
She talks about her experience in the video below:
Benefits of SANDPIT:
- Structures the process of idea generation, pitch creation and virtual crowdfunding
- A safe place for students to test their ideas
- Practical and engaging for students
- Pitch ideas which include a video, images and text on a multimedia online platform
- Variety of assessment method
- Staff have an online record of student progress through the 3 structured exercises (Idea builder/ Sales Simulation/ Investment Simulation).
Challenges of SANDPIT:
- New software and process that requires learning for students and staff
- Students were concerned about protecting their ideas, which were public within the student group so that they take part in the ‘Investment Simulation’ (Exercise 3, see below)
- Assessment: students wanted acknowledgement for each exercise they undertook.
There are 3 exercises that can be used sequentially:
- Idea builder – students build their idea by identifying and researching:
- their customer
- the ‘problem’ or gap in the market that their idea will address
- current solutions
- the end goal
- and their own solution.
Once they have gone through the reflection and research required for this process, students can ‘reflect, pivot or persevere’ with their idea.
2) Sales Simulation – Students develop an online pitch or ‘campaign’. For the campaign they include:
- A short video featuring the team and promoting their idea.
- A brief description
- A long description
- Images – which may include the product, the team and e.g The Venture Matrix ‘Value Proposition Canvas’
- Develop a ‘rewards’ system for different levels of virtual currency backing.
3) Investment Simulation – Students invest with virtual currency (‘campus coins’) in the ‘campaigns’ of other teams, leaving scores and constructive feedback on desirability and feasibility. 70% of the campaigns will not meet their investment target – this is to reflect ‘reality’ and build resilience and learning.
SANDPIT aims to give students the confidence to be ‘effective, employable and entrepreneurial’ graduates.
Sandpit Crowdfund Campus Introduction Demo by Henry Jinman, CEO of Crowdfund Campus:
