Imagine you’ve got 24 hours to turn £100 into the biggest profit possible. That was the task faced by teams of Essex students as part of the £100 Challenge organised by the Essex Startups programme.

Essex Startups aims to encourage entrepreneurial thinking and is enjoying brilliant turnouts for its workshops and drop in sessions.

The winning team made up of students Jake, Gedvidas and Tayyab managed to make a profit of £272 by tactically selling snacks at the popular Essex Take Me Out event. To make their success even sweeter they got to keep the money they made as part of their prize.

Other teams came up with all kinds of ideas from selling cup cakes around campus and offering room service to fellow students to providing Valentines and Chinese New Year gifts.

During the competition the students attended a briefing session that set them on their way then explained their strategy in a Dragons Den style pitch to a judging panel made up of external experts at the end of the 24 hours.

The panel listened and evaluated all of the business ideas then judged the students on the profit generated, the uniqueness of their approach and the creativity of their idea.