Students of a government school in Ernakulam district bagged global recognition after a team of four presented a business concept that would allow filter coffee lovers to indulge in their favourite drink without having to visit a coffee shop. Sowndaryaa Lakshmi V, Elisha Aenorie Kaduthose, Dimpal V and Sivanandana K B, class XII students of Government Girls' Higher Secondary School, Ernakulam bagged the most popular choice at the TIE Global student pitch competition.
"The team was one of the eight from the country to present their business idea at the TIE Global which is held in the US," said Bijumon P S, in-charge of the student entrepreneurship programme at the school. According to him, four teams presented their ideas at the TIE Kerala competition along with the teams from schools such as the Choice Public School and the Nadakavu school from Kozhikode. "The students presented 'Kaapiphil', a venture which will see the filter-coffee getting packaged in a capsule enabling coffee lovers to make a cup on the go," said Bijumon.
Elaborating about how they arrived at the product Sowndaryaa, the team leader said, "The entrepreneurship bug bit us when TIE Kerala conducted a mentoring programme at the school. We also wanted to come up with a business of our own." It was then that we were told about the competition, added Sowndaryaa. But how did they come up with the coffee in a capsule idea? "We arrived at the idea after a lot of research," she said.
Sowndaryaa said, "It was a video of tea leaves compressed into a tiny ball and used to infuse a cup of steaming beverage. This was an organic method and didn't use any paper or other materials." So the students began extensive research to see whether any such thing has been done with coffee. "We didn't find any travel-friendly coffee product. Everything was either in a bottle or a sachet. So, we began thinking of ideas that would see coffee, especially filter coffee, in a travel-friendly mode," she said.
The team researched making the coffee into a capsule. "It would be handy and could be carried in a purse. Also, the problem of generating waste doesn't arise," said Sowndaryaa. "The idea is to compress the filter coffee into a capsule with cassava covering. The covering will protect the coffee from moisture and give it a definite shape besides easy storage," she added.
According to the students, at present, the product shows a shelf life of three months. "We tested all the probabilities and found this to be a very good business idea," said Sowndaryaa adding the logo of the product has been submitted for trademark licensing. She said, "After completing class XII, we will be turning our business idea into a full-fledged venture." Though the four students come from different streams, all have decided to set up their own startup along with doing their studies parallely.
