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The INSEAD Venture Competition – taking brilliant ideas from paper to practice

PeoplePods: dignified and affordable co-living communities for migrant workers

The INSEAD Venture Competition (IVC) takes its participants through an intense journey to develop and showcase their entrepreneurial skills and transform their ideas into real business ventures. In this twice-annual-event, participants from MBA, EMBA and MFIN present their business plans to a group of judges for a chance to win a cash prize and valuable support to develop their ventures.

Started in 2000, the IVC has produced several great ideas and success stories.

In December 2017, PeoplePods, created by Daniel Layug, MBA’17D and Anacelle Bautista won the 35th INSEAD Venture Competition.  They were awarded the Thomas C. Barry Prize (€35,000), the Coromandel Foundation Social Impact Award (€5,000) and earned 30 days development support from Mohara along with introduction to investors and berth to pitch at the INSEAD Alumni Association UK Entrepreneurs Group Business Angel Event.

Daniel and Anacelle’s idea was to find a corporate solution to provide dignified and affordable co-living communities for migrant workers.  In fact, PeoplePods addresses two major problems: 1) the workers’ unsafe and unsanitary dwellings at Southeast Asian industrial parks, coupled with high rents they have to pay due to housing shortage; 2) the challenge faced by manufacturers who find it expensive to employ migrants because of high worker-absenteeism and high employee turnover. PeoplePods is a new B2B solution to build and manage sustainable employee housing that is safer, cleaner and has more amenities at an affordable price.

“Our mission is to help thousands of bottom-of-the-pyramid workers all over Southeast Asia,” says Daniel, “Without the IVC, our impact business strategy would not have come out as well-formed. The rigour of the IVC accelerated the development of our competitive strategy.  The competition forced us to ensure that every single piece of the activity system of PeoplePods fits together.”  

Donors helping the school to enhance the IVC experience are inspiring our future entrepreneurs, such as Daniel and Anacelle, and empowering new business solutions in building a better world.

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