ENTREPRENEUR ANDREW RASLAN TALKS ABOUT THE BENEFITS OF COMPETNG IN INGENUITY IMPACT

Andrew Raslan and his team Pipeline Organics, won two innovation awards in the Ingenuity competition, one of which was an Engineers in Business award. Pipeline Organics is developing TankArc, an enzymatic biofuel cell product that generates electricity through the breakdown of liquid organic waste in the wastewater treatment process with the aim of producing year-round, cheap, clean bioenergy from wastewater. 

Why did you take part in the competition?
I took part in the hope of winning funds to cover patenting costs for Pipeline Organics’ renewable energy technologies. 

What key things did you learn from competing in Ingenuity?
The most important thing in tech is not novelty, but usefulness.  Also, you should always practice your pitching skills; you never know when you might need to pitch your work, especially as your career progresses. 

What elements of the competition did you find most challenging?
Financial forecasting – I got help from a colleague initially but the training experience was so good that, with some additional advice from accountants, I have learned to manage our company’s balance sheets, payroll and management accounts. 

Why do you recommend taking part in Ingenuity to other students?
There is no part of life where business doesn’t apply. Want a good salary after interview? You’re going to need to apply your negotiation skills. Want to pass that interview to begin with? You’d better be good at pitching because that’s exactly what you’re going to do. Dating someone? You’re going to do “market research” and understand your audience. Making any sort of long-term plan, from your business to your hobbies? You’ll need to have a budget and forecast if you hope it will succeed. Want to make a difference with technology? You’ll need to have a firm argument for why it’s useful and will sell, not just how amazing it is in the task you designed it to do. 

What were the benefits of taking part (apart from winning)?
The biggest benefit for me, cliché as it sounds, was a major expansion of my business network, which is always a fairly priceless gain. 

How will the skills you learned in the competition help you in the future?  
For one, they’re going to help me become a better businessperson by giving me a crash course on how to run a business despite being a scientist by background. For another, it has given me insights on how to work with and manage people of different backgrounds than myself – for example, my team are all engineers by training while I am a biochemist! 

Has the experience inspired you to take your business idea further?
The experience has helped us along in terms of the specifics of running a business. We had a great idea and broad plan but needed to fill in a whole lot of details in between the big headings – the Ingenuity Impact competition really helped with the skills necessary to do that. 

Will you be taking any further business courses to increase your knowledge of how to bring an idea to market or how to run a business?

Absolutely! That’s mostly likely how we will be using the money as it will cover our patenting costs with plenty to spare. 

Learn more about Ingenuity Impact.