UTAR News / Awards

Sharing the same name with their business model, the team “GrocyPress” comprising final year students Kelly Oh Min Yan, Ong Chun Khai, Phoon Kar Wai and Tham Pei Chi, was rewarded a cash prize worth RM1,000. The team was supervised by FBF Department of Entrepreneurship lecturer Yee Chew Fong.

Organised by the movement called, ‘A Diversity and Inclusion Movement by the Youth’ (DIYC), the COVID-19 Business Startup Challenge aimed to empower youths globally to create an online social media platform similar to the social media platforms that have energised the campaigns of Greta Thunberg and Malala Yousafzai, to promote the DIYC Movement. The participants have to showcase a compelling business model and value proposition that covers the criteria such as wide outreach, effective delivery and sustainability.

When asked the students to explain their business model, team leader Ong explained, “GrocyPress is a network software platform that provides consumer delivery services and allows customers to become our carriers while consuming and providing delivery services to earn additional income. Compared with other delivery platforms, we encourage our users to become our carriers. We encourage consumers to help their neighbours by providing delivery services and also earning extra money, which makes the entire delivery process smoother and faster. We will also bring more people to shopping places near residents and reduce their fixed cost of a merchant. So, we do not only aim at the interests of consumers, but we also wish to benefit the entire participants. This is the win-win situation that GrocyPress wants to create.”

On behalf of the team, Ong added, “We joined the competition to challenge ourselves by converting the theoretical knowledge that we have learnt in the classroom into the actual business world. The challenge which required us to come up with a pitch and a proof of concept for a social media campaign strategy and platform that promote the DIYC Movement was very interesting and was relevant to the real-world scenario. We felt glad that we could convert what we have learnt from the books into a real-life situation. It was a great learning platform for all of us and one of the factors in winning the challenge was the teamwork that we had.”

Meanwhile the team supervisor, Yee said, “The winning entries were the ideas from the students. The team was fully aware of the importance of online apps since it is a global trend in offering services to customers. The user-friendly online application which was created by the team did not only provide convenience to its stakeholders to acquire any products or services, but more meaningful, it served as a “gig economy” platform for the employees and their family members, who lost their job during the pandemic, to generate extra income for survival. The team’s goodwill, sense of empathy, love and humanity impressed me and the judges.”

Yee added, “I am delighted and proud of my team for winning the “Honourable Mention” award. The team deserves to win. The team was informed to make numerous changes in preparing for the DIYC competition, nevertheless, they showed good teamwork spirit in completing the project. The “Honourable Mention” will definitely motivate them for continuous improvement. The award will also guide and lead them to excel in their studies at UTAR.”

The COVID-19 Business Startup Challenge, organised by the DIYC, is a superb platform for UTAR and worldwide students to participate, be innovative and prepare themselves to be potential innovator and entrepreneur. It also aimed to develop a core group of future youth leaders that will contribute to the community, society and the country. The DIYC Startup Mentorship Programme will continue to guide the award winners throughout their startup journey.