The competition
Econverse combines startup building with financial education. Student teams work on challenges connected to finance and technology, develop a solution under time pressure and present it to judges. The format tests whether a team can move beyond a broad idea and create a focused product story.
Our challenge led to Finance Flow, an application for learning about personal finance and investing. During the 36-hour sprint we defined the user problem, selected the core experience, prepared a prototype and built the pitch around how the product could make financial knowledge more practical.
Reaching the grand final
After the initial sprint, Finance Flow advanced to the national grand final held during the European Financial Congress. That stage required us to refine both the product concept and the way we communicated it. The audience needed to understand the educational problem, the proposed experience and the opportunity for the product within a short presentation.
We finished third and received a PLN 2,000 award. The placement was valuable, but the more lasting result was learning how quickly a team can align when the problem, product scope and responsibilities are made explicit.
My takeaway
Econverse showed me that a strong prototype is a form of communication. It does not need to contain every future feature; it needs to make the important user journey tangible and support a credible explanation of what comes next.
The experience also gave me another setting in which technical work, product judgment and presentation had to happen together. Those are the environments in which I learn fastest and contribute most naturally.
Read the Finance Flow product case study