And the winners are Fredric Royce and Heidi Leonardo, college students attending Mount San Antonio College. Their energetic business pitch is that of Nihon’ichi: a Vegan California Roll company.
These students are winners of the Tri-College student pitch competition that was hosted by Cerritos College and held on April 29 at 1 p.m.
First place winner Royce said, “If I was on the debate team, I would not have had a chance to put something forward that would transform all of your lives.
My last advice to those who aren’t transferring on yet is that you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. But you’ll get those shots if you play the probability rule.”
The second place prize was given to the Allergen Protector, created by Mt. SAC students Weizhen (Wilson) Jiang and Hongbai (Ralph) Ruan.
Rounding out the competition was third place winner Ashley Juarez who created The Hangout, an innovative idea where she combined aspects of Bumble and Uber to create a business that brings people together.
The top business pitch was awarded $1000, second place received $500 and third place received $250.
Cerritos College students Julie Franco, Elizabeth Silva and Rosa Gonzalez were among the top 11 finalists at the competition.
Other student presenters from Mt. SAC and Norco college included Jonathan Lewin, Ashley Orozco, Kaitlyn Krueger and Lyda Im.
The business pitches were a wide range of innovative and well thought out businesses like luxury handbag rental to Save T Net, which is a way to protect packages from being stolen from your home or apartment.
The Tri-College business pitch competition was the brain-child of Cerritos College’s own Dr. Jianli Hu, Business Administration instructor and the Business Pitch planning committee lead.
The idea is to help students learn to practice presenting business ideas in front of established entrepreneurs, business experts, professionals and community leaders.
Participants are required to submit a presentation or 1-2 minute YouTube video. Other requirements include a description of the product or business, an explanation of how the business will serve its target market as well as outline the marketing and promotion plan.
You must be sure to include a summary of the financial plan. Each participant must also be enrolled in one of the three participating colleges.
At the end of the event, the professors and judges gave participants advice as they move forward towards their entrepreneurial goal.
According to Gary Schoeniger, competition judge and founder of Entrepreneurial Learning Initiative, told students that they should recognize that they are already ahead.
“You should not concentrate on the opinions of professors. But you should always listen to the opinions of the people whose problems you are trying to solve,” he said.
Cecilia Gorman, a 20 year veteran in the advertising industry, and Sheila Johnston, with more than 20 years in government relations, were also judges of the competition.
This year’s competition was sponsored by ACG Funding and Marcella Apodaca Photography LLC.
The fourth place through ninth place participants will receive a $50 eGift card for their presentations and participation in the program.
For further information and how you can pitch the next multi-million dollar business contact the Business Administration department.
