A student food start-up project to become a reality
As the academic year approaches, students finalize their projects for their class and await summer vacation. One group of students, however, decided to take their Business Management project to the next level. Last month, Georgy Aroniya, 1st year Politics, Law and Economics, Martina Hinojosa, a 1st year Communication, Malik Chida and Min Jun Koo, both 1st year BBA, and Alejandra Diaz, a 1st year Design student, all decided to make their business project, Mello, a reality.
Mello is a start-up aiming to provide healthy and affordable foods for IE University students at the Segovia campus. Consisting of fresh fruits, berries and vegetables, the company looks to produce unique açai bowls and “Fruit-in-a-jar” smoothies that would be delivered to the university directly or to students at home.
The team already developed four types of bowls, all of which utilize a different fruit, nut, and vegetable base, as well as a variety of toppings, which students can add to their choice. Also, Mello will feature normal and “detox” smoothies for students, coming to class after a busy night.
The team believes that their idea would suit the everyday diet of IE students and that the start-up’s cheap running costs combined with low investment would be able to easily break even and make profit.
After analyzing the Segovia campus through an extensive marketing survey, the students found that many of their peers dislike the food provided on campus and thought that the variety of their menu could provide a healthy substitute with the same energy value, but for more affordable prices.
“The idea was easy to do and so good that we thought why not,” says Georgy, the CEO of Mello, “We can actually make it work. During our mock product presentation, we brought a bowl to present and everyone loved it.”
Last week, the students on Segovia campus probably had noticed the Mello “tasting session” stand beside the cafeteria. In less than 10 minutes, their 200 menu samples were eaten.
“We hosted more than 150 people, who were served with various small açaí bowls from our menu. People really enjoyed the taste,” described Georgy.
The Mello group looks to kick-start their project as soon as the beginning of the next academic year. By then, the students will make their website and social media pages fully operational to stay in touch with their potential clientele.
“This will be my 2nd year in Segovia. In my 3rd year, I will move to Madrid, as will most of my team, and we will expand this business there, while leaving someone to take care of it here.”
Regarding their potential competition from cafeteria and Segovia’s The Cave, Mello will not establish itself within the grounds of the university, meaning that these establishments will only function as their indirect competition, as the company’s main platform will be online.
“We have calculated everything. We calculated the costs of production, investment, with the inclusion of a pessimistic scenario. We estimated everything for each week, month and year and it looked really good,” said Mello’s CEO, describing the financial aspects of the business.
“At the start, we will work on it ourselves, but if one of us will be overwhelmed, then we can hire someone to take care of it,” Georgy explains Mello’s production, “We will take orders a day prior to the delivery, because we will prepare and bring it to university.”
“Despite other students projects, we realized that our idea was accessible, easy to do, cheap and had low competition. Also, we were assigned randomly in a group, but all of us thought that we should make it a reality.”
On April 18th, the group will compete in the Business Project competition against other groups. Mello, which was inspired through its catchiness and simplicity.
While you have free time, make sure to check out Mello’s website through this link http://mellofruit.weebly.com/!
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