PayPal, encouraging creativity in student start-ups

This week, we made an exciting announcement - we will reopen the Varsity Pitch Competition for a second application period at the end of the summer break, on 22nd August. By then, we will be running a series of interviews with our category sponsors and make you even more excited.

We were delighted to start off this series with a conversation with PayPal - this year's sponsor of Creative & Design category and we are pleased to reveal their exciting motivations to stimulate and support student creativity and entrepreneurship.

How have start-ups and young entrepreneurs influenced or shaped your company?

PayPal originated as a start-up itself, and this entrepreneurial culture has only increased within the business over time. Acquiring innovative and technology first companies such as Braintree and Paydiant have influenced our ability to provide more seamless integrations of payment systems.

Why did you choose to get involved in the Varsity Pitch Competition?

We chose to get involved with the Varsity Pitch Competition to encourage creativity in student run start-ups and to promote our brand, showing we are an exceptionally innovative partner to universities across the UK. Education is a key area of growth for us, and we are excited to enable PayPal payments for all kinds of students wherever and whenever they are paying for something!

What are you looking for in an ideal application to the competition as part of the 'Creative and Design Category'?

We want to see something original and obviously creative. It does not have to be a new invention but we do want to see a new way of thinking, which improves either the quality or efficiency of the product and customer experience. We also want a business plan that is commercial and robust i.e. how is this product going to be marketed? Who is it going to be marketed to? And, as a company that enables commerce, we want to know what the plan is for selling the product either physically or online.

Which industries or trends do you expect to see featured in applications this year?

The exciting thing about the Creative and Design category is that it can encompass just about anything, from physical goods which PayPal can enable the entrepreneur to sell via an online store to apps enabling virtual design and other creative pursuits. Surprise us!

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Our mission is to support the development of education and student engagement throughout college and universities by championing student enterprise societies and peer-to-peer learning. NACUE started from an extraordinary movement in student entrepreneurship, providing young individuals with a platform to be experimental, creative and inspiring in their approach to enterprise and entrepreneurship, encouraging a bottom-up approach to inspiring the next generation.

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