Bachelor of Science in Entrepreneurial Management student Sofia Coronel won 2nd place in the Entrepreneurs’ Organization Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (EO GSEA) held last November 27. EO GSEA is the premier global competition for student entrepreneurs. Held yearly, it is a catalyst that inspires young people to grow their business ventures.
Sofia presented her New Business Venture called Convo Design, a chatbot development company that creates meaningful brand and customer interactions through engaging automated conversations, targeting professionals and small to medium-sized companies within and outside of the Philippines.
Before Convo Design, Pia’s first start-up business was Songsmith Media. Songsmith creates beautiful and unique songs based on the life stories of its customers, as mementos of special life events like weddings, anniversaries, and debuts, as gifts to loved ones and friends, and as anthems that immortalize corporate missions and philosophies.
But when the pandemic came, the celebrations industry was impacted in a major way so she had to change her business in her last year of college and find a new opportunity for business. Aware of how companies became more concerned with future-proofing their marketing and customer service activities she started her new business Convo Design.
According to her, she was able to adapt to the new normal relatively quickly, and a big part of that transition was due to the EM Program, especially its NBV Mentoring Program. The EM Program had a pool of highly experienced mentors (most of whom own and operate businesses), and with the help of her mentor, she was able to hone her business mindset throughout the years and make her the entrepreneur she is today.
“If it weren’t for the support and guidance of my mentor and professors, I wouldn’t have been able to pivot as smoothly as I did,” she says.
Watch the full EO GSEA video here.