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Archive for June 2007
The Global Student Entrepreneur Awards is proud to announce that we will be hosting regional competitions in September 2007 to recognize undergraduate student entrepreneurs in Australia. The winners of the Australian regional competitions will advance to represent Australia at the GSEA Global Finals in Chicago, USA 1-3 November 2007.
The competitions, one to be held at RMIT in Melbourne and another in Sydney, will highlight the fast growth of student entrepreneurship on the island continent. Nominations are open for Australian undergraduate entrepreneurs until Monday 10 September 2007 at http://www.gsea.org/nominate/.
Please forward any questions or comments to GSEA by email at info at gsea.org
Thanks and best of luck!
Tuesday 5 June saw the GSEA arrive at a beautiful, sunny Villanova University campus for the Pennsylvania and New Jersey GSEA Regional Finals. Originally slated for eight competitors, various excuses saw three competitors decline to attend the competition. However, there is no room for excuses in business or in the GSEA and the five competitors that showed came salivating at the chance to dominate and move on to the GSEA Global Finals - where a prize package valued at over $125,000 and growing awaits the victor!
Our PA/NJ Judges:
(L to R: Gary Robins, President of the GL Robins Company, Allen Noll, President of The Payroll Factory, Ed Sullivan, CEO of Aria Systems, and Brian Newmark, President of Veterans Financial Services)
Jason Drohn was first up to present his business, Tech Solution, to our judging panel comprised of local members of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization’s EO Philadelphia chapter (above photo). Jason’s business and upcoming product line revolve around the SEO niche - search engine optimization. Jason shared his tale of originally starting his business as an IT training, consulting and web design company. He drew some laughs from the crowd when asked “What is your biggest mistake?” - Jason answered “Buying ads in the Yellow Book. Colossal waste of money - I got one call and it was someone asking for help with a video game.” One of his bigger successes was creating his weblog, which has become a source of a lot of entrepreneurial ideas from readers around the world. You can check it out at www.jdsblog.com!
Next up was the Ice Cream Man of Central PA - Demetri Patitsas. Demitri’s business (along with being a salsa instructor) is Absolute Creo, which is bringing back the ice cream truck with the friendly face that seems to have disappeared. Demetri went from a pre-med route to entrepreneurship, with his passion of selling an experience as opposed to just selling ice cream. Demetri was very enthusiastic during his presentation, showing that he has a real passion for business and entrepreneurship. He left right after his presentation to drive to Washington DC to receive another award for entrepreneurship… what a trooper!
The very bubbly and excited Penny Smith, owner of Zion USA was next up and delivered her presentation excellently. Penny told the judges about her company, which is a government contractor and delivers all sorts of services. Reselling to the government, providing contract cleaning, Penny’s niche is knowing exactly how to work the US Government contracting system and she’s an expert. Penny was surprised when the timekeeper signalled that she had one minute left in her presentation, and quickly finished up to take questions from the judges. She also told how she employs high school students, back to work program individuals, and minorities to provide jobs to those in need.
Shreyans Parekh of Koyal Wholesale was next up to present. Shreyans’ business sells all sorts of bulk products to markets such as the wedding market, supplying all sorts of materials. One key part of his business is www.towervase.com, which sells (you guessed it!) a wide range of vases. Shreyans shared how tough it was to overcome his young age… no credit with suppliers, banks, or anyone. He overcame this by supplying prompt payment to continue to improve the trust that his suppliers placed in his business and was successful. He is also making great use of his learnings at the Wharton School to continue to improve his accounting, marketing and overall, his business.
Last but not least was Andrew Cavitolo, CEO of high-end apparel designer Nonami Premium. You may have seen Andrew’s clothing in stores such as Bloomingdales and other high end boutiques. Andrew showed the judges how he learned some tough lessons from day one, having to buy out a partner that wasn’t holding up his end of the bargain. He also learned about PR, purchasing, and other areas of high fashion through the school of falling and getting back up repeatedly. Andrew was excited to share and show off his product placement in upcoming movies, TV shows, magazines and more.
With the students ushered out and the scoring process started, our GSEA staffer on site was shaking his head with laughter as we discovered that once again, the judges had brought a tie for first place in the competition. After a long deliberation, the standings were agreed upon unanimously, and here they are:
First Place: Andrew Cavitolo - Nonami Premium - Fairleigh Dickinson University
Second Place: Penny Smith - Zion USA - Fairleigh Dickinson University
Third Place: Demetri Patitsas - Absolute Creo - Juniata College
So, Andrew and Penny are the latest two competitors to join us in Chicago in November for the GSEA Global Finals.
Stay tuned to www.gsea.org for more regional updates - including GSEA Australia and also… exciting news about the upcoming GSEA BOOK!
The GSEA arrived on a very rainy Monday 4 June in Fairfield, Connecticut for the latest round of regional competition - the GSEA New York and Connecticut Regional Finals. Tropical Storm Barry couldn’t bring down the spirits of our fantastic student entrepreneur finalists, and our panel of judges.
(L to R: Jeff Goldblum, President of SWC Office Furniture, Marc “Doc” Kirshner, Owner of MDK Healthcare Mgmt., Jude Tallman, Owner of Spec Personnel, Stephen Jones, Partner at Jones Sledzik Garneau & Nardone, LLP, Steven Showalter, CEO of Statlinx, Doug Mellinger, CEO of Foundation Source and Richard Goldberg, President of Warm Thoughts Communications.)
The day started out with the host, Doug Mellinger - CEO of Foundation Source, sharing a story of his entrepreneurial background and experience. Doug told the tale of one of his first business ventures - loading up his car with boxer shorts that he had planned to sell in Florida during Spring Break. Turns out that he was lacking permits, sunshine, and a willing group of buyers. Once Doug and his partner did manage to sort things out, it turned out that the students around wanted sunglasses, not boxer shorts. Doug happily bought all the sunglasses available from a supplier in another city and was able to cover the costs of his trip and of the boxer shorts that they had bought but not managed to sell. A great story in learning from your failures!
Boris Soldo, CEO of Solmac, Inc. was the first student to present. Boris shared his story of immigrating to America from Croatia with his background in apprenticeship as a tool and die maker. His biggest challenge was finding initial investment, as his business of custom machining and fabricating metal parts is heavily capital intensive. He solved this challenge through constant learning and revising his business plan, which he evolved to convince the banks to take a risk on a young entrepreneur with a vision.
Kafui Assiobo-Tipoh was next up. Immigrating to the USA from Togo in 2001, Kafui originally wanted to be a pharmacist but had found her passion in helping people to feel beautiful. Her business, Adjoa’s Custom Hair Braiding was purchased through working other jobs until she had saved enough to buy the business. Kafui explained to the judges how the business worked, how she had gotten other family including her sister involved and was looking to grow and expand.
Bryan Vaughan, CEO of Paper Garden Records had just moved to New York four days prior but was ready and willing to display his business and how they were helping to evolve the indie record niche. Using some fantastic custom drawings to show his model compared to the big music companies both impressed the judges and got them laughing. Bryan is continuing to sign new artists and to grow his label which focuses on proper, ethical treatment of artists and capitalizing on the rise of interest in the indie rock niche.
Next up was GSEA veteran Bert Gervais, CEO of ThePlaceFinder.com who had competed at the GSEA Global Finals in 2006. Bert was fired up to present and described how he had survived a near complete torpedoing of his business when his entire website crashed and was barely recoverable. From this disaster Bert has completely rebuilt the business and has focused himself and his team on developing a model for bringing ThePlaceFinder - which connects college students with area landlords for housing rentals, at no cost to either - to campuses across the nation. Bert later donned his bright red company t-shirt and was very proud of his turnaround and his business.
Closing out the presentations was Ilia Nossov, a past winner of the “Growing up CEO” award and owner of Collegeffect.com, which is a marketing company focused on tapping the college student base. Ilia shared his background in student marketing, which includes marketing events, nightclubs, and more.
The seven judges deliberated and scored the student entrepreneurs, and in usual GSEA fashion the scoring was tight. Returning to the GSEA Global Finals with his second consecutive GSEA Regional victory was Bert Gervais of ThePlaceFinder.com and Binghamton University. Joining Bert at the Global Finals will be Boris Soldo, CEO of Solmac.
First Place: Bert Gervais - ThePlaceFinder.com - Binghamton University
Second Place: Boris Soldo - Solmac, Inc. - Buffalo College
Third Place: Ilia Nossov - Collegeffect.com - University at Buffalo
And next up, Philadelphia and New Jersey!
