Business Competitions Help Boost Entrepreneurial Spirit

The spirit of entrepreneurship was in the air this semester thanks to two competitions hosted by Smith’s Center for Women and Financial Independence.

The Center’s $50 Challenge and Elevator Pitch Contest are annual fall events designed to build student interest and skills for an even bigger entrepreneurial challenge: The annual Draper Collegiate Undergraduate Women Entrepreneurs Business Competition in April 2015.

Teams compete in the Draper contest for a top prize of $10,000 and up to three scholarships. They are judged on original business ideas.

As an intern for WFI for the past semester, I’ve had the opportunity to see first-hand the preparations that went into the fall competitions and the teams’ final products. The most remarkable things I observed were how the teams in the $50 Challenge worked their way around location and time constraints, and the diversity and creativity of ideas presented during the Elevator Pitch Contest.

The $50 Challenge was held in October, over Family Weekend, to provide participants with an expanded customer base. Each team of five members was given five days to plan, five hours to operate and $50 to generate the most revenue by implementing an original business idea.

Among the ideas were Halloween-themed face painting, a personalized candy delivery service, Nutella-filled Japanese delicacies and Chinese calligraphy bookmarks and postcards for sale.

The results? Thirty-eight students in nine teams generated a total of $2,198 during the challenge. Twenty-five percent of each team’s profits went to charitable organizations selected by their members.

The winning team was Ink China with net proceeds of $469.75. Members donated 25 percent of those profits to Technology and Education Connecting Cultures (TECC). Second was the Asian Dessert Express team with net proceeds of $403.03. Members donated their share to Animal Advocates of Smith College.

While Ink China’s reason for participating in the challenge was raising money for the support work TECC does in China, Jiaying Liang ’17 said “another reason was that last year, two of us participated, and it was a wonderful experience. So we wanted to do it again.”

The two top teams added a twist to their otherwise traditional cultural products by incorporating customizable options that proved to be the main selling point. For example, Ink China members added messages in English to their Chinese calligraphy postcards and bookmarks. Their eye-catching posters were also instrumental in advertising their businesses.

As the day progressed, many team members found themselves tweaking their original plans to accommodate unexpected circumstances and turn the situation around in their favor.

For example, Siphokazi Kargbo ’18, a member of Clicks and Treats, noted that “in the beginning, many people did not seem enthusiastic about sweet treats.” To overcome this obstacle, team members canvassed the Smith vs. Wellesley soccer game and other Family Weekend events to reach more customers.

Kargbo said the experience of competing in the challenge went beyond simply raising some quick cash.

“I learned that my passion should never cease even when the odds look unfavorable because there is always a reason and time for everything,” she said.

The 12th annual Elevator Pitch Contest held in the Campus Center last month drew students in all class years, including Ada Comstock Scholars. Teams and individuals presented 90-second pitches in hopes of winning a $100 prize and the chance to compete in the Grinspoon Regional Elevator Pitch Contest in the spring. The competition is designed as if participants were in an elevator with a potential investor and had only 90 seconds to convince them to invest in a for-profit or non-profit project.

Among the original ideas pitched were “Wine and Networking,” a forum for women to meet other women over wine tastings, and “Education and Technology,” an initiative aimed at revolutionizing primary education in developing countries using interactive technology.

The challenge was open-ended, allowing diversity in ideas and implementation. Participants were judged on the content of their pitches, their confidence level and the originality of their ideas. Judges included faculty involved in entrepreneurship education at Smith and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

The winner was Brea Dutt ’16, for her pitch for “Going Global”—a website that would bring together videos from filmmakers around the globe to give more accurate depictions of countries and cultures.

Priscilla Takondwa Semphere ’18 took second place for her pitch, “PenAfrica,” an organization dedicated to promoting African storytelling through books and pamphlets aimed at youth. Third place went to Robin Fenwick AC ’17, who pitched “Trinket Jeweler,” a proposed business that sells jewelry embedded with GPS devices.

Participants agreed that the two competitions were the perfect buildup to the Draper contest because they gave students hands-on experience with creating a venture and a chance to experiment with choices.

What’s the most important ingredient for success in such challenges?

Iris Dong ’17 of team Boba Bubble summed it up this way: “Perseverance. Strive until the last minute. Give it your all.”