Mercer business enterprise learners on the Macon and Atlanta campuses pitched their thoughts for non-earnings and for-financial gain firms in the 2022 Elevator Pitch Level of competition on April 1 for a $500 prize to support establish their concepts.
“Elevator pitches” are notable for being about two minutes long, and are meant to capture an entrepreneur’s means to clarify their organization thought at an organized and helpful pace. The entrepreneur need to be equipped to wander into a hypothetical elevator, satisfy a potential trader, and convey the essence of their organization by the time the elevator reaches the 20th ground to maintain investors fascinated to agenda an additional assembly for far more details.
The competitors was open to all college students presently enrolled at Mercer University, both equally undergraduate and graduate, from any campus. There were 19 submissions this yr with judges picking the top 8 finalists to existing previous Friday in excess of Zoom. The judges then questioned just about every presenter queries and selected a winner from a for-financial gain business and a non-earnings company.
Briana S. Stenard, the assistant professor of Management and Entrepreneurship at the Stetson-Hatcher School of Business, was the faculty advisor for the Elevator Pitch Competition for the third 12 months in a row and enjoyed seeing all the pitches final week.
“I appreciate observing pupils present their ideas,” Stenard said. “I know it normally takes a large amount of braveness to current your thoughts to a panel of judges, so I am just so happy of our students. I am always so impressed by the high high-quality of their presentations. I enjoy looking at them share their passions and try out to address significant complications.”
Stenard began the competitors in 2020 to enable students pitch their ideas and get opinions from mentors and judges just before placing alongside one another a entire enterprise approach. The levels of competition is meant to allow students to assume by means of their thoughts and make your mind up if it could possibly be a little something they would want to pursue in the future.
“The Mercer Innovation Center’s goal is to aid our Mercer scholar business people by mentorship and funding,” Stenard stated. “This competitors accomplishes both equally goals by supplying learners feed-back on their suggestions and some commence-up income to enable get their tips off the floor.”
Stephanie Troemel, a graduate student doing work on an MBA with a aim in Entrepreneurship and Innovation and the for-income company winner of the competition, initial uncovered about the competitiveness from Stenard and was intrigued by the likelihood to apply in a very low-stakes small business environment when getting feedback for her pitch. She also virtually skipped it due to health considerations but was glad she could take part just in time for the competition.
“I actually appreciated hearing the other student’s pitches,” Troemel claimed. “The other finalists have incredible strategies and are genuinely passionate and fired up about them. I hope they’re ready to go forward with their strategies!
Her successful pitch was for MakeNow, an app that will take craft sample PDFs and would make them cellular-pleasant and uncomplicated to use which would help save time, paper, and frustration for a thriving interactive encounter. Coming into the competitiveness, Troemel was understandably anxious about providing her pitch.
“This was a thing that worried me!” Troemel mentioned. “I am not a massive enthusiast of community speaking and it usually can take me a great 10 minutes to get at ease in entrance of a home.”
Troemel, nevertheless, identified her pitch to be a thing she was passionate about and assumed would deliver a good deal of positivity to the planet. This created it sense really worth it to press by way of on presenting in order to receive feedback from professionals.
Holly Burke, an MBA college student and the non-profit company pitch winner, also loved listening to the other pitches and was able to find out a lot from the other students and judges.
“I believe collaborating in gatherings like this is a fantastic notion,” Burke reported. “I realized a large amount as a result of the method.” and it really is also a great way to transfer outside the house of your consolation zone.”
Burke’s plan was Intentional Freedom, a non-profit method meant to educate prior offenders on suitable revenue administration, conserving practices, budgeting behaviors and investing to give them the means and prospect to just take command of their funds and futures and enable them to make improvements in direction of a pro-social way of life.
Burke initially submitted her pitch for added credit rating, but then entered the opposition with Dr. Stenard’s encouragement.
“I wish I had participated in activities like this previously in my instruction journey,” Burke reported. “It’s a good way to go outside of your convenience zone.”
With the levels of competition coming to an close this yr, Stenard hopes that far more pupils from Mercer will participate in foreseeable future competitions. She thinks that you really do not have to only be a organization university student to have a good idea for a enterprise.
There will be a adhere to-up occasion, the Next Big Thought competitors, which is a complete small business pitch opposition event that all learners will be in a position to apply for. The Upcoming Significant Plan has extended pitches and bigger prizes and even additional encouragement.
