Thinking on Their Feet: Annual Elevator Pitch Contest Spotlights Student Ideas

If you’ve ever seen the popular TV show “Shark Tank,” you know that it features entrepreneurs who are given a very small window of time in which to sell their idea or product to potential investors. Next week, a handful of Smith students will experience that excitement and pressure firsthand.

Update

Friday, November 20: The winners of the 13th annual Smith Elevator Pitch Competition and their pitch titles are: Overall winner, Mariem Ayadi ’16, friend.me; Best Delivery: Ada Comstock Scholar Susan Williams ’16J, Susan’s Global Imports; Best Business Concept: Cynthia Masai ’16 for a bus booking mobile app for Nigeria; Most Promising: Aimee Rong ’19, Rent-O-Ween. Ayadi will now move on to a regional pitch competition next semester.

The Smith College Elevator Pitch Competition, now in its 13th year, gives students the opportunity to present an original business idea or product to a panel of judges made up of college faculty and staff, local businesspeople and fellow Smithies—in just 90 seconds. Sponsored by Smith’s Center for Women and Financial Independence (WFI), the annual contest seeks to highlight women’s innovation and entrepreneurship.

This year’s Elevator Pitch will be held Tuesday, November 17, from 5 to 7 p.m. in Campus Center 103 and 104. No advance sign-up is required. Just bring an idea to share.

Winners receive a cash prize and the chance to compete in a regional pitch competition next semester. But everyone who participates gets advice about their ideas. A light supper will be provided to those who attend.

The short pitch presentations, which involve no props, prototypes or written materials, demonstrate the ability of Smithies to think on their feet—and to do it well.

The Elevator Pitch contest can be full of surprises. Consider the case of last year’s winner, Brea Dutt ’16, who joined the competition at the last minute while volunteering at the event.

“I decided to speak about an idea that had been brewing in my mind for a couple of months at the time,” Dutt says. “I didn’t event have a name for it, only a passion for creating a more empathetic world.”

With the help of a faculty contest mentor, Dutt’s idea was dubbed “Going Global.” She describes it as an “online platform that sources videos from local filmmakers around the world to give accurate depictions of different countries and cultures.”

Dutt says the contest was an opportunity to step outside her comfort zone to discuss something she feels strongly about. “I learned that if you care about something passionately enough, people will see that, and it will take you places,” she says.

Last year’s second-place winner, Priscilla Takondwa Semphere ’18, went on to further adapt her pitch for a children’s book series about Africa. Semphere’s Ekari book series was chosen as one of 10 inaugural OZY Genius Awards for innovative projects by undergraduates.

Merrilyn Lewis, Smith’s associate director of events management and a seasoned judge of the competition, says she finds the event “fascinating because I’m not a risk taker.”

She adds that she is continually impressed by the confidence and poise of the contestants under such stressful conditions. “I applaud their courage,” Lewis says.

The Elevator Pitch is just one installment in a series of entrepreneurial events hosted by the WFI each year.

The Draper Competition for Collegiate Women Entrepreneurs—a larger-scale competition for a $25,000 prize and scholarships to Draper University of Heroes in California—will be held on campus in April.

First prize at next week’s Elevator Pitch contest is $100 and the chance to represent Smith at a regional pitch competition this spring.

And, if a contestant doesn’t do so well?

“Assuming they’re not a senior, they can always come back next year,” Lewis says with a smile.