Mercer students pitch their business ideas at Mercer’s 2022 Elevator Pitch Competition
Mercer small business pupils on the Macon and Atlanta campuses pitched their tips for non-profit and for-revenue businesses in the 2022 Elevator Pitch Level of competition on April 1 for a $500 prize to assistance build their strategies.
“Elevator pitches” are noteworthy for getting about two minutes very long, and are intended to capture an entrepreneur’s means to explain their organization concept at an arranged and efficient speed. The entrepreneur need to be capable to stroll into a hypothetical elevator, satisfy a possible trader, and express the essence of their company by the time the elevator reaches the 20th ground to continue to keep buyers interested to program another assembly for much more info.
The opposition was open up to all students at present enrolled at Mercer University, equally undergraduate and graduate, from any campus. There were being 19 submissions this yr with judges deciding upon the major 8 finalists to present final Friday around Zoom. The judges then requested just about every presenter questions and selected a winner from a for-revenue business and a non-income business enterprise.
Briana S. Stenard, the assistant professor of Administration and Entrepreneurship at the Stetson-Hatcher School of Small business, was the college advisor for the Elevator Pitch Competitors for the 3rd calendar year in a row and relished seeing all the pitches past week.
“I really like looking at learners present their concepts,” Stenard stated. “I know it normally takes a ton of braveness to existing your concepts to a panel of judges, so I am just so happy of our college students. I am always so impressed by the superior quality of their shows. I adore looking at them share their passions and try to fix essential troubles.”
Stenard commenced the competition in 2020 to aid college students pitch their strategies and get feedback from mentors and judges prior to placing with each other a comprehensive business enterprise prepare. The competitors is meant to enable students to believe by their concepts and determine if it could be a little something they would want to pursue in the long run.
“The Mercer Innovation Center’s target is to support our Mercer college student entrepreneurs by way of mentorship and funding,” Stenard mentioned. “This opposition accomplishes equally objectives by providing learners responses on their ideas and some commence-up cash to help get their ideas off the floor.”
Stephanie Troemel, a graduate scholar doing work on an MBA with a concentrate in Entrepreneurship and Innovation and the for-financial gain small business winner of the competitiveness, first learned about the levels of competition from Stenard and was intrigued by the likelihood to observe in a very low-stakes small business environment although getting feedback for her pitch. She also practically skipped it owing to overall health problems but was glad she could participate just in time for the competition.
“I really liked hearing the other student’s pitches,” Troemel reported. “The other finalists have wonderful tips and are actually passionate and fired up about them. I hope they are capable to shift forward with their tips!
Her successful pitch was for MakeNow, an app that usually takes craft sample PDFs and tends to make them cell-welcoming and simple to use which would conserve time, paper, and annoyance for a effective interactive working experience. Coming into the opposition, Troemel was understandably anxious about offering her pitch.
“This was something that scared me!” Troemel said. “I am not a large lover of community speaking and it typically can take me a excellent 10 minutes to get snug in front of a space.”
Troemel, however, observed her pitch to be one thing she was passionate about and imagined would deliver a good deal of positivity to the entire world. This made it come to feel really worth it to press through on presenting in get to get comments from professionals.
Holly Burke, an MBA scholar and the non-profit business enterprise pitch winner, also loved listening to the other pitches and was ready to master a large amount from the other pupils and judges.
“I imagine participating in occasions like this is a terrific thought,” Burke said. “I figured out a whole lot by means of the process.” and it is also a good way to move exterior of your convenience zone.”
Burke’s notion was Intentional Freedom, a non-revenue application meant to educate prior offenders on appropriate income management, saving habits, budgeting behavior and investing to give them the means and possibility to just take management of their funds and futures and permit them to make adjustments in the direction of a pro-social lifestyle.
Burke originally submitted her pitch for excess credit history, but then entered the levels of competition with Dr. Stenard’s encouragement.
“I desire I experienced participated in functions like this earlier in my training journey,” Burke reported. “It’s a fantastic way to transfer outside of your comfort zone.”
With the opposition coming to an conclude this yr, Stenard hopes that extra learners from Mercer will participate in long term competitions. She believes that you really do not have to only be a enterprise pupil to have a great idea for a company.
There will be a follow-up occasion, the Next Large Strategy competition, which is a total business pitch competition celebration that all students will be in a position to apply for. The Next Massive Idea has lengthier pitches and bigger prizes and even additional encouragement.
