‘Infiniti Speed Pitching’ concludes in Hong Kong with UAE winner
Infiniti Speed Pitching Winner, Thea Myhrvold
Infiniti, one of the region’s fastest growing premium automotive brands, has today announced the conclusion of ‘Infiniti Speed Pitching’ announcing Thea Myhrvold with TeachMeNow.com as the winner of the $US40,000 in seed funding for her business.
The programme in Hong Kong, closes out what started in the Middle East and called on participants had to be able to present a thorough intelligent and innovative commercial proposition.
This was then followed by the regional final in Dubai where 30 finalists converged on the Dubai Autodrome. Each candidate was given the opportunity to pitch their idea to a total of 3 judges (individually) in the rear cabin of the Infiniti Q70 as it was chauffeured around the track for a period of seven minutes. From this, three finalists were selected for the journey to Hong Kong.
“At Infiniti, we reward passion and drive,” said Juergen Schmitz, Managing Director of Infiniti Middle East. “ ‘Infiniti Speed Pitching’ celebrates the spirit of entrepreneurship and we are very excited to work with like-minded innovators across the Middle East to recognize – and reward – their drive to succeed.”
Held over three days from the 14th – 16th of December at the “Infiniti Lab” in Hong Kong, the three finalists underwent an intensive mentoring and coaching programme with Infiniti, Nest and international industry leaders. The Hong Kong program culminated with a final day of pitching their business idea to a panel of Infiniti and Nest senior executives.
“It really came down to the wire, with all three finalists showcasing great ideas in their presentations,” said Francesca Ciaudano, Deputy GM Marketing & PR, Infiniti Middle East. “The decision to award the prize to TeachMeNow.com however was unanimous as she demonstrated a thorough, planned and thought out execution for her idea.”
The winning idea, TeachMeNow, is a global marketplace with education in focus for one to one learning in real time, where anyone can teach and everyone can learn. All the classes are live and happen through their virtual classrooms that have live audio, video, interactive document editing, whiteboards and more.
The platform has thousands of teachers from around the world using the website to inspire and to teach students from Australia to Saudi Arabia. The majority of the tutors are Ivy League graduates from places like MIT, Yale, LSE, Princeton as well as certified teachers and experts.
Infiniti shares a number of synergies with TeachMeNow.com’s purpose. As a brand it has entrepreneurial spirit and innovation deep rooted in its DNA. With ‘Infiniti Speed Pitching’ the corporation was able to continue to build on this DNA blue print through supporting like-minded individuals on the journey to success.
Egypt, Managing Editor of the AsiaN's Middle East Bureau, Graduate Student of Mass Communication and Journalism at Ahram Canadian University 
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