Entrepreneurship update: Crowd-funding Fashion website
Previously on Roommates, classes, and perfect ramen:
I was invited to pitch my entrepreneurship venture at a board of visitors dinner, I leaned about the terribly ambiguous world of "business casual," and I pitched my idea to a room full of strangers who were pleasantly supportive!
So, this week I realized that my blog from last week was all about how I was able to pitch my idea to a group of Trinity alumnae but you, my reader, doesn't even know what my venture is! Well, this week I am going to fix that up real quick.
Ok, so in 2190 you go through about a three week process of brainstorming, pitching, and voting before the class even decides which projects are going to be pursued that semester. It starts in small three or four people groups where everyone pitches all of their ideas to each other. From there the group votes on the top two ideas it would like to send to be pitched to the rest of the 70 person class. My small group pitched about six ideas and after voting it was my idea and another boy's idea that were moved forward.
Once all of the small groups had come to an agreement on their two ideas owners of those ideas stood in front of everyone and had 60 seconds (much like the dinner) to give a general idea to everyone. In that round there were 36 projects pitched. The next step was for the entire class to vote (on their own time) on their two favorite ideas; the goal was to shave the pool down tot the top 17-18 projects that were pursued this fall. Pitching to everyone was terrifying but also really cool because it was my very first time doing something even remotely like that. And, spoiler alert, my idea made it through and I am currently a team leader for my company.
As promised, here is a brief description of my company. As a self described fashionista I am always looking for something new but sometimes the stores in my town are either too expensive or just aren't carrying anything I'm exceptionally interested in. I also know that Austin is home to many many budding designers looking for a chance to make a break and get their foot into industry (which is really hard). So I decided to take what I know of shopping and what I know of fashion and combine them into a crowdfunding platform strictly for designers. While Kickstarter and Indiegogo are great companies they are just so big that small, aspiring designers often times get lost in the shuffle of higher profile campaigns. We are hoping to give those individuals the chance break down the doors of the fashion industry and be exclusively themselves. We are also giving fashion savvy consumers that opportunity to put into production the pieces that they want and deem salable.
Things heated up really quickly with a day of hiring where we were tasked with pitching our ideas again and gathering a group of interested students to be our teams. After I chose three other students who were interested in the project we jumped right into business canvasing and empathy maps.
I was invited to pitch my entrepreneurship venture at a board of visitors dinner, I leaned about the terribly ambiguous world of "business casual," and I pitched my idea to a room full of strangers who were pleasantly supportive!
So, this week I realized that my blog from last week was all about how I was able to pitch my idea to a group of Trinity alumnae but you, my reader, doesn't even know what my venture is! Well, this week I am going to fix that up real quick.
Ok, so in 2190 you go through about a three week process of brainstorming, pitching, and voting before the class even decides which projects are going to be pursued that semester. It starts in small three or four people groups where everyone pitches all of their ideas to each other. From there the group votes on the top two ideas it would like to send to be pitched to the rest of the 70 person class. My small group pitched about six ideas and after voting it was my idea and another boy's idea that were moved forward.
Once all of the small groups had come to an agreement on their two ideas owners of those ideas stood in front of everyone and had 60 seconds (much like the dinner) to give a general idea to everyone. In that round there were 36 projects pitched. The next step was for the entire class to vote (on their own time) on their two favorite ideas; the goal was to shave the pool down tot the top 17-18 projects that were pursued this fall. Pitching to everyone was terrifying but also really cool because it was my very first time doing something even remotely like that. And, spoiler alert, my idea made it through and I am currently a team leader for my company.
As promised, here is a brief description of my company. As a self described fashionista I am always looking for something new but sometimes the stores in my town are either too expensive or just aren't carrying anything I'm exceptionally interested in. I also know that Austin is home to many many budding designers looking for a chance to make a break and get their foot into industry (which is really hard). So I decided to take what I know of shopping and what I know of fashion and combine them into a crowdfunding platform strictly for designers. While Kickstarter and Indiegogo are great companies they are just so big that small, aspiring designers often times get lost in the shuffle of higher profile campaigns. We are hoping to give those individuals the chance break down the doors of the fashion industry and be exclusively themselves. We are also giving fashion savvy consumers that opportunity to put into production the pieces that they want and deem salable.
Things heated up really quickly with a day of hiring where we were tasked with pitching our ideas again and gathering a group of interested students to be our teams. After I chose three other students who were interested in the project we jumped right into business canvasing and empathy maps.
We have also met with potential web developers and have weekly meetings to discuss and build the company.
This venture is so much fun, and while I don't yet know what I'll be working on next semester (either this or another project) I just think it is cool to have low-risk, hands on experience this early in school. I know I tend to make a pretty big deal about how early in school I get to do all of this stuff, but some of my friends who attend large research institutions won't get these opportunities until at least their junior year, and I like starting now. Stay tuned for more of my first-year experience at Trinity University.
- Grace
- Grace
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