Colin Maiwurm – Staff Writer
As the semester proceeds, more events and programs are taking place. One of which will be taking place on May 13, is the Gustie Entrepreneur Cup. Within this cup, students will give their final pitch to a panel of mentors. These mentors will then decide on the winner, and they will move on to the Minnesota Cup. They will face off against all the other previous winners who made it to state in hopes of placing in the top three spots. Second and third-place winners will receive cash prizes, while the first-place winners will receive the resources needed to start their business.
In order to help prepare students who want to compete in the Entrepreneur Cup, two types of events will be offered: Start-Up Lab and Pitch Night. These events taking place around the Entrepreneur Cup are focused on helping students who have business ideas they have been working on getting started, as well as helping them out with their pitches for their businesses. Start-Up Lab consists of exploring the student’s ideas, mapping out the business plan, and determining if they truly want to pursue their idea. Pitch Night is a safe space for students to develop their pitches as well as practice them.
These two events are held twice a month in February, March, and April to give students multiple chances to participate before deciding if they want to compete in the Entrepreneur Cup on the 13th of May.
These events may seem exclusively for business majors, but they are open to everyone.
“Oftentimes when people hear the word entrepreneurship, they are like ‘I’m not a business major, that’s not for me,’ this is a myth. Entrepreneurship isn’t just for business majors,” Director of Entrepreneurial Innovation in Economics and Management Katie Boone said.
In order to participate in the Entrepreneur Cup, students must sign up and go to Start-Up Lab and Pitch Night, which will last for about 90 minutes. After that, students will decide if they want to continue and participate in the Entrepreneur Cup. These two events serve as prerequisites for participating in the Entrepreneur Cup. This rule was implemented due to feedback from students from previous years. “There are no strings attached, we will not strong-arm or force anybody to do this,” Boone said.
If the students do wish to continue, they will then be paired up with a mentor. They will get a chance to meet with their mentor two to three times for about 30-60 minutes between now and the end of April. The purpose of having a mentor is to help the student strengthen their business plan. This is a mainly student-driven project, and the time commitment for the Entrepreneur Cup depends on how far the student wants to go. The more time they put in, the more they get out of their business idea.
Within the Entrepreneur Cup, there are two categories: scalable and sustainable. Business ideas that are scalable are the ones that ship their product to other businesses. These businesses will then sell the product. Sustainable business ideas focus on being self-sustaining and not requiring another business’s aid in selling their product.
This is the seventh year that Gustavus has been hosting these events for its students. The first year that this program started at Gustavus, was partially during the summer. By the end of the program for that year, 16 companies had been created by students. One of the hopes of these events is to prepare students and secure them a job right after graduation. While not every student’s business idea will succeed, the students will still gain skills from their attempts that are in high demand in other businesses. This can lead to other opportunities for the students after college, like forming business ideas with a team at an organization.
“Come with an open mind and some curiosity. If you haven’t been through a Start-Up Lab, it is the safest spot to start. You are not long-term committed to a course or the Entrepreneur Cup” Boone said.
If students have any questions, they can go to the Entrepreneur Cup webpage on the Gustavus website or send an email to entrepreneurship@gustavus.edu. You can also set up a meeting to ask your questions by sending an email to the previous email listed.