How do you make your 2 minute pitch into a 90 second pitch? I am not really sure how I did it, but it seemed to have worked! 

In late 2024 I signed up to be part of the RUG impact challenge, an opportunity presented to University of Groningen students with entrepreneurial aspirations. I took part as an ‘advanced’ participant meaning that my idea was beyond ideation and already in the pipelines! The challenge followed an array of meetings and workshops! We kicked off strong with a round table discussion with experts and projects alike. Here I was able to connect with partners such as Johnson & Johnson and ChipSoft to talk about AutiMelody. This led me to round 2, a speed dating event where I pitched AutiMelody to 4 different partner organisations from a patenting company to FoundedintheNorth! In-between I had the opportunity to attend a workshop on how to finance a start-up held by the Rabo-Bank and Founded, an insightful presentation on the importance of timing, team, idea, business model and funding (yes, in that order). This all led to the big day where on the 8th of May 2025 I stood in front of my fellow entrepreneurial students, the jury, and their friends and family to share my passion and aspirations with AutiMelody. 

As the 90 seconds came to a close I went back to my seat and was eager to hear who would go through to the next round, where two participants from each category would be called up for additional questioning. Myself and Elise Prinsten from ProConceptus were called up and faced tricky questions from business models, to impact! After a long moment of jury discussion, it turns out AutiMelody won not only the biggest prize of the evening, the advanced category award, but also a flight pass to Innokite, a local incubator! I am really curious to see what this leads to, but I was glad to have the AutiMelody team supporting me along the way – I will see you at the next adventure!