On January 6th, Mrs. Frankel and Ms. Schoen of US’s Young Entrepreneur Institute announced the 2017 University School Entrepreneur Cup competition.
The US Entrepreneur Cup is an extra-curricular activity for students who are interested in business and entrepreneurship. In this competition, students develop an idea for a business and create plans to launch and escalate their business. Throughout the two months of the Entrepreneur Cup, students write a business plan which consists of defining one’s idea to the actual financing of the business. Students also attend business workshops to learn more about starting their business, and get acquainted with business jargon.
“Skills that students learn during the Entrepreneur Cup include accounting, marketing, ideation, critical thinking, planning, and public speaking,” said Mr. Malkin, director of the Young Entrepreneur Institute and head of the Anderson Scholar Business program.
The competition is broken up into stages. In the first month, a competitor will create an idea and presentation that will be due at the end of the month. Of these competitors, a few will advance as semi-finalists, and later compete in the Entrepreneur Cup Final Competition. After the Final Competition, prizes are awarded to the top three teams.
Judges determine which teams are selected on the basis of the feasibility, profitability, impact, and quality of the business and how it is presented.
Freshman Jack Miranda’s new dry erase marker company, Scripta, wants to create markers with a see-through design, so customers can see how much ink is left in the dry erase marker. Sophomore Kiran Krishnamurthi wants to create a new service called Connectify that will help companies in marketing and advertising their products. When looking at any of these teams, one can see the passion that they have for their individual business pursuits
On February 2nd, competitors in the Entrepreneur Cup received an e-mail telling them if they advanced to the semi-finals or not, but the Entrepreneur Institute did not formally announce the specific teams that were advancing.
Keep a close eye on the competition as it will near its end in February. The Final Competition will be held on February 14th, and expect many great business ideas as the competition comes close to its end.
