4 months ago, to the date, we launched the first Pocketbook scholarship for student entrepreneurs in partnership with our friends, Zookal. Since then, we received an overwhelming amount of response – 53 essays flood my inbox in the first week of launch and an additional 51 stream in in the next few weeks, bringing the total to 104 applications from student-entrepreneurs of all kinds.
There are freelancers like Wendy, a stay-at-home mum living on a farm who decided to reinvent herself and is now working online as a BAS agent. There are experienced entrepreneurs, like Michael, who raised money for his first venture and now onto his second. And Shahed, whose startup generated $20,000+ revenue. They are both still studying in university.
There are also first-timers, like Ivan, who was so committed to his idea, he travelled to another city without having a plan to go back home. But entrepreneurs consist of more than just for-profit ventures. Sometimes it’s that hunger to make an impact that drives us. Liz, for example, is looking to change how Australia treats autism, and Claire-Louise, who is working to get Australia to recognise “Young Carers”.
Our scholarship partner.
There are also Savannah, who is starting an organisation to help potential-students pursue higher education and get into their dream school, and Hamish, who is looking to disrupt the social research industry. And Anthony, who seeks to help parents find trusted babysitters. We’ve had such a fantastic time reading all of your stories.
We were very impressed!
Choosing The Winner
It took the team a whole month going through all the essays and debating who we should award the scholarship to. We rated the applications by asking ourselves a few questions:
- How much effort was put into the essay? We received an essay that’s two paragraphs long – and one that’s 8 pages long.
- But length alone doesn’t meant anything. So the second criteria was: How compelling is the story? This is not about how well the story is written, but how much the story itself draws us in.
- How committed were they in implementing their ideas?
- Can we add value to their experience? If we do award the scholarship to a particular application, can we add more value than just the money to this person?
- And generally, how much hustle we felt was on show throughout their journey to build the business.
And with that, we’d like to congratulate Anthony, who founded Social Hands, as the winner of the Pocketbook-Zookal scholarship for entrepreneurs. Congrats Anthony! 
One Last Thing…
Would you like us to run the scholarship again? Register your interest below and we’ll let you know when we do! Loading…
