Awakening The Entrepreneur Within Me
My heart skipped a beat when I heard my name at the Polish Economic Forum in London this year. But there was no time for hesitation: I was quickly given a microphone and a clicker, one last look at my teammate Pablo, and we went on-stage. We were welcomed by an encouraging applause from the audience which filled the room at a conference attended by 750 people and followed by countless other through live streaming. While able only to see the front row, where the jury panel sat, and nothing but the blinding lights behind them, I started the pitch.
On the left Pablo Marzocca (Argentina, 2020 Oxford-Hoffmann) and on the right Malgozata Slowinska (Poland, 2020 Oxford-Weidenfeld and Hoffmann) at the Polish Economic Forum in London
That day, I shared my vision of a world where individuals are empowered with cybersecurity knowledge, and my project to achieve this vision.
GuardED is a project very close to my heart. I have been passionate about technology since a very young age and specialised in Cyber Security over the past four years. With experiences ranging from ethical hacking, to customer defence, and incident response, I understand the scale and severity of the problem of scarcity of security knowledge in society. But even in my bravest dreams, I have not imagined initiating this project so early, and at such tremendous scale.
While the pitch competition at the Polish Economic Forum was the first time the world met GuardED, I had had an opportunity to pitch my idea before. A few months earlier, at the Weidenfeld and Hoffman retreat at Cumberland Lodge, I pitched the same idea under a different name to the Enterprise Challenge panel, which was a compulsory part of the WHT Leadership Programme. Little did I know how big of an impact this compulsory activity would have on my life and how it would push me towards more entrepreneurial conquests.
I wouldn’t have been able to stand on the Forum stage without WHT’s support. The scholarship programme pushed me out of my comfort zone to materialise this business idea and provided me with invaluable support by connecting me to previous scholars and experts in the start-up arena. In October, I had no idea what a business model canvas was or how to complete one. Now, a few months later, I have not only filled in numerous business model canvas sheets, but I am also building an MVP for a project that I manage, with a team of hugely talented peer scholars who share my vision. The Trust has not only arranged for us to have professional workshops on creative brainstorming, business model creation, financing and pitching. We have also had one-to-one tutorials with mentors as well as ad-hoc support from the challenge leaders and advisors whenever needed. I honestly couldn’t wish for a better support network, talent-wise and experience-wise, the support which enabled GuardED to inaugurate winning the third prize award in the prestigious Polish start-up competition. Hopefully, a first of the many future achievements of this project.
Reflecting on my past year, the Weidenfeld and Hoffmann Trust enabled me to study at one of the most prestigious universities in the world and allowed me to meet an amazing cohort of inspiring individuals, people that I now have the honour to call my family. On top of it all, it equipped me with the necessary skills and gave me an extra nudge to awaken the entrepreneurial spirit within the highly technical computer scientist I was at the beginning of the programme. It is a package of experiences that I will be eternally grateful for.
