It was a winning day for our GDST LEAD team, Hyrdochange, as they presented their business plan at the London School of Economics this week in competition with 15 other schools and won an award for Most Innovative Business Idea.

The GDST competition was held in conjunction with LSE Generate (their entrepreneurship centre) and judged by Jacynth Barrett (Founder & CEO, The Bias Cut); Ella Merriman (Founder, Merri) and Harriet Walker (novelist & Fashion Editor at the Times). The GDST elective provides our Sixth Formers with the opportunity to take part in a charitable initiative in which they gain and develop new skills and bring an entrepreneurial project to fruition and is also by the LSE.

Team member Srinithi continued the day’s success by winning a prize for her thoughtful question to speaker Steph Desmond. Srinithi asked: “what were the major challenges you faced as a female entrepreneur and how would you encourage young women (who aspire to be entrepreneurs) to overcome them in the future?” Speaker Steph was part of the team that launched Uber and is now CEO and co-founder of parenting platform Bloss, with her business partner Binky Felstead (from TV show ‘Made in Chelsea’).

“I really enjoyed the day out with our group, networking with lots of different people, and learning lots from speakers (especially Steph) as well as the other schools and what ideas they had come up with.” Kiran, Year 12

Srinithi also reflects on her positive experience: “The showcase event at the London School of Economics was a great opportunity for me to learn more about the business world. It was very interesting to listen to the other GDST schools and their businesses, by learning about their strengths and weaknesses and more. The keynote speaker, Steph Desmond, was an inspiring role model for me as she talked about her difficulties with being a female in the male-dominated finance industry and highlighted in her speech that her passion was her only driving force for her to get out of her bed every day and start working which I took as an advice to implement in my life. Visiting LSE in person and meeting many different students currently studying there, was a unique event as the environment was very welcoming and the people there were very approachable which made the whole experience a privilege to attend.”

Fellow team members Abigail, Issie, Isabel, Jai and Rita also enjoyed their day.