The Village School’s Startup Pitch Competition

The Village School’s Entrepreneurship Department recently held their annual Startup Pitch Competition at The Cannon. This Pitch Competition is one of the most highly anticipated events of the year by both the students and parents. Each year, students enrolled in the Entrepreneurship Department compete against their peers and present their pitch for their midterm and final assignment. Using the tools and skills they have learned in class, the students create and run a business and are graded on their performance and reflection afterwards. Once all businesses present their pitch, the top businesses are selected to participate in the finals. The past two years the final competition has been held at The Cannon, a coworking space located in the Founders District just north of CityCentre and east of the Energy Corridor in Houston that serves as a collaborative environment that fosters innovation, creativity, growth, and success.

Bill Delbrugge, Patricia Elliston and Andrea Sealy posing in front of the school's banner.

The night started with nervous competitors pacing around the lobby, practicing their pitches over and over again; but once the guests and parents started to come in, the business owners had to shake their nerves and showcase their businesses at booths set up near the center pitch stage, where they could speak with possible customers and share information about their businesses.

Once the judges arrived, the night had officially started! The Entrepreneurial Department teachers from The Village School, Patricia Elliston and Andrea Sealy, opened the presentations with a few words to share what the students had been working on the past couple of months. Then, each business competed and had five minutes of question and answers with the panel of judges.

Parents and students engaged in the competition taking place.

Patricia Elliston, the Head of Entrepreneurship at The Village School, stated, “We chose The Cannon to hold the competition because it’s a part of the entrepreneurial hub in West Houston and we wanted to expose our students to the atmosphere.” When asked how the diploma is evolving in regard to their partnerships, Elliston stated “The program is evolving as it grows. We are finding more and more opportunities to partner with industry leaders. The more we reach out and go to their events, it opens up more connections.”

It is crucial for students enrolled in this program to participate in competitions like this to get an elevated experience in a professional environment. Another key aspect of these competitions is the critiquing from the judges who didn’t hold back and asked hard hitting questions.

Judges Sachin Deora, Larry Ciscon, Rekha Patel, Audrey Ajakaye and Linda Dekkers discussing the competition results in the backroom.

The judges for this year’s competition included Rekha Patel, President and Founder of Xrathus, Linda Dekkers, who co-founded the furniture business Fronteriors, Audrey Ajakaye, an alum of The Village School, CEO and founder of Audaja, Sachin Deora, Director at Adeor Solutions; and Larry Ciscon, managing director at the Ion Prototyping Lab, which is also a partner of The Village School’s Entrepreneurship Department. This panel of judges provided crucial advice for the future of all businesses participating. I can confidently say that as a participant, even if the businesses didn't place or win prize money, the participants left the competition with valuable insights that help the future path of any entrepreneur.