{"id":8166,"date":"2014-04-08T14:33:49","date_gmt":"2014-04-08T18:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news\/?page_id=8166"},"modified":"2014-04-15T09:14:46","modified_gmt":"2014-04-15T13:14:46","slug":"draper-competition-puts-out-call-to-student-entrepreneurs","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/draper-competition-puts-out-call-to-student-entrepreneurs\/","title":{"rendered":"Draper Competition Puts Out Call to Student Entrepreneurs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"drapercontestants\"
Jasmine Setoodehnia ’14 and Laura Lubben ’16 present their business idea, “Mother Nurture.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This year a wider field of aspiring entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to develop and pitch sustainable business models in an attempt to win a portion of $25,000 in cash, scholarships and other prizes. The annual Draper Business Plan Competition<\/a> has invited students at Barnard, Bay Path and Mount Holyoke colleges to join Smith students in the challenge.<\/p>\n

With the expanded competition, nearly 50 students from the four women\u2019s colleges are participating in the contest, which requires individuals or teams to submit executive summaries and full business proposals and defend their plans before panels of distinguished alumnae, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs in two \u201cshark tank\u201d events. The finalists will then pitch their ideas in a \u201ctrade show\u201d on April 16 to compete for a grand prize of $10,000 and up to three scholarships to the Draper University of Heroes in San Mateo, Calif.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 90 seconds you have to persuade a venture capitalist to give you money for your business,\u201d says Mahnaz Mahdavi, professor of economics at Smith and faculty director of the Center for Women and Financial Independence<\/a> (WFI). \u201cThat means you have to be very coherent in explaining what it is and why you are doing it better than anybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Organized by the WFI, the competition is funded by Melissa Draper \u201977 and her husband, venture capitalist and entrepreneur Tim Draper. Now in its second year, the contest has attracted about twice as many entrants as it did last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is to make this competition a mecca for woman entrepreneurs,\u201d Mahdavi says. \u201cWe want this to be a place where woman entrepreneurs can come together every year to share ideas and compete.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ravya Taghavi \u201993, who worked with Mahdavi in the early days of the WFI and is now a consultant assisting with the Draper competition, sees big benefits for students who enter, whether or not they are personally inclined toward business.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a huge amount of self-confidence gained simply by having to come up with a plan and present it to a group of strangers,\u201d Taghavi says. \u201cEven if a student goes through this program and never opens a business, she will have gained immeasurable life skills.\u201d<\/p>\n

Competitors are coached on generating ideas, on assessing and field-testing them, and on presenting their ideas in writing and in person. For the \u201cshark tank\u201d portion of the competition, Smith faculty members and local entrepreneurs are invited to attend an informal reception to mingle and talk with competing students. Over the course of the evening, each individual or team gives a 90-second memorized \u201celevator pitch.\u201d After the pitches, the entrepreneurs offer feedback .<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, April 16, 15 student entrepreneurs will participate in the Draper Business Trade Show, starting at 3 p.m. in the Campus Center upper level. The top three prizes will be awarded by the judges\u2014including Tim and Melissa Draper\u2014based on combined scores that include teams\u2019 written materials, trade-show booths and 90-second pitches. Members of the Smith community and the public are welcome to attend and to hear the pitches at 5 p.m. A reception will follow at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Draper competition really brings up the spirit of risk taking\u2014taking risk and managing risk,\u201d Mahdavi says. \u201cBy doing this, students learn: sometimes it\u2019s a good idea to take a measured risk.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year a wider field of aspiring entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to develop and pitch sustainable business models in an attempt to win a portion of $25,000 in cash, scholarships and other prizes. The annual Draper Business Plan Competition has invited students at Barnard, Bay Path and Mount Holyoke colleges to join Smith students […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-8166","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8166"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8307,"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8166\/revisions\/8307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}