Varsity Pitch 2014 Winners... One Year On

Ed Moyse and Harry Huang won the NACUE Varsity Pitch in 2014 with their impressive bitcoin payments app Wyre. Since then, they have launched two new startups and started travelling the world.  A lot can change in a year... so we caught up with Ed to learn more about their adventures.

1. Why did you decide to apply for the NACUE Varsity Pitch Competition 2014?

The Varsity Pitch Competition is a great stepping stone for any fledgling business.  We thought the contacts, business advice, publicity, and prize money would do us the world of good... which it did!  We received investment offers after the competition, we honed our business skills by writing financial forecasts and business strategies as part of the competition (with great help from both NACUE and Tata), and the prize money has been immensely helpful as a young startup.

2. How did winning the competition change things for you?

Doors have been opened - it's been fantastic!  As well as investment offers, we appeared on TV and in newspapers, which resulted in a drastic uplift in our business.
 

3. How have you used the money?

We originally won the Varsity Pitch with Wyre, a bitcoin wallet.  However, we had also created a side project; to help us find journalists that might be interested in writing about Wyre.  Much to our surprise, our side project ended up being really popular within the startup community (still one of the all-time top 100 upvoted products on Product Hunt).  The £10k from the Varsity Pitch Competition allowed us to develop our side project into www.Hey.Press and  www.JournoRequests.com.  It's a dramatic but successful change in business direction that we wouldn't have been able to make it without winning the Varsity Pitch Competition.

  
4. How are you developing your service/product at the moment?

www.Hey.Press and www.JournoRequests.com are both software-as-a-service products.  We're fortunate that our customers are vocal in their feedback - so we spend as much time as possible talking to them and making product improvements.

5. What was it about starting a business that appealed to you?

The challenge.  When you're in a startup, you live or die by your ability to create something people want to pay for.  This demands a skill set that's constantly changing - whether it's being a coder, designer, customer support rep, salesman, or raising investment and hiring people.  It's exciting!  As an added bonus, I have complete freedom to choose which problems to solve, where to work from, and with whom (my cofounder Harry is currently working from China!) 6. Did you do any entrepreneurial activity at university? Were you in a society for example? I ran a very small record label while at university.  In fact 'record label' is pushing it - a friend and I recorded musicians from the University of Cambridge from my bedroom, and put on a few live music events.  We managed to cover the cost of equipment we'd bought, but no more... so not the most financially successful business ever, but I really enjoyed it! 7. What important skills do you think a successful entrepreneur should have?
In my experience, the best entrepreneurs are the ones who can get a business going themselves and adapt rapidly when needed.  The worst are those who need to hire people from the offset (although hiring the right people as the business grows is a good thing).
 
7. What are your plans for the future?

Lots of tech in the PR industry is outdated.  We will continue to improve it - which in the next couple of months means some great new features for JournoRequests.com. 

Fancy winning £10,000, the national title and lots of exciting opportunities? Apply for the NACUE Varsity Pitch 2015 today.

 

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