E-MENU Master's student Marta Benítez wins a runner-up prize in this year's Fast Track competition.
The team "A la raíz", to which Marta belongs, won one of the prizes by presenting a projecton e-commerceof sustainable, fresh and quality products.
FotoCedida/
El group"At the Root".
28 | 04 | 2021
The Fast Track competition is developed around different entrepreneurial projects, with a specific programme structured around the following phases: ideas, canvas, market validation, marketing plan, financial plan, prototyping and business plan. It concludes with the presentationof the different projects, developed by each group, which takes place at the Innovation Day, the final gala of the programme, which this year was held on 12 April.
The submissionawards ceremony took place during the annual innovation and entrepreneurship gala. This edition was attended by Dani Jiménez, CTO of Waynabox; the chef, Pepe Rodríguez; Nacho García-Noblejas, Partnership Manager at Streamloots and Cayetano Belso, CEO of Koroko.
Marta Benítez, who is currently studying for her Master's degree in Nutrition and Metabolism, decided to participate in the Master's DegreeEuropean Commission in Food, Nutrition and Metabolism (E-MENU)She decided to participate in the projectbecause "I became curious due to the great ideas that had been presented in previous years. Seeing that people from my Master's Degree, had managed to participate and develop wonderful projects, made me want to take part in it".
Once Marta decided to take the step and present herself, she needed to know with whom she was going to form her team. The different teams that participate in the tournament are formed by the organisation itself, always making sure that the different members of each team belong to the different Schoolsof the University. Marta had to work with Raquel Asensio, a Biology student, and Isabel Carrillo, a student of Master's Degreein Health Psychology.
Once they started collaborating together, they decided to design an e-commerce site proposalthat would connect people interested in buying sustainable, fresh and quality products with local farmers and producers. Both the idea and its implementation won a runner-up prize. Marta describes the feeling as follows: "At first I was shocked. On the one hand, we felt we had already won, and when we didn't hear the name of our winner (A La Raíz), project, I felt very sad. It was only a few days later that I could feel proud of all the workwork, the commitment and all the learning I had gained along the way".
Undoubtedly, despite the hardness, Marta recommends this experience for prospective studentsof Master's DegreeE-MENU "you have to be very clear about the commitment you have to show with the team and with project. Out of 22 teams that started, 13 were left in the end, and out of the whole Master's DegreeE-MENU, only I finished the competition".
