MARCY, N.Y. — Future entrepreneurs from area colleges gathered at SUNY Poly to present their business ideas to local business leaders for a chance to win a $2,000 grand prize.
Students spent the day pitching ideas they developed to a panel of local business leaders. The ideas covered categories such as food and agriculture technologies, software and everyday products.
For SUNY Oneonta student Brennan Karr, the event provided an opportunity to get feedback and ideas from others.
“It helped us network with other like-minded people, and if you’re pursuing something like really big, you could just ask them questions and get feedback. It’s the best thing ever; getting feedback is like the best thing you could do to become successful,” Karr said.
The teams were judged by a panel of local business leaders who offered students tips and advice on how to improve the skills needed in today’s business world.
Bradley Perez, a SUNY Oneonta student, said, “Entrepreneurship is about more than just business; it’s about making connections, networking, and selling yourself. Not only you, but also your business and yourself. That is a soft skill that isn’t taught in school, and that’s something that has to be trained, and the way you do that is by coming to these business competitions, putting yourself into uncomfortable positions and situations, and taking what you learn from them.”
Karr said his main takeaway from the competition was to keep working and not give up on an idea or project.
“To honestly just keep working and keep striding and just hustling as an entrepreneur, because entrepreneurs have to embrace failure, it’s ok to fail, it’s ok if you mess up, you’ve got to get back up no matter how hard it gets.”
The winners from the event will move on to the state finals later this month for a chance to win a $25,000 grand prize.
Here is a list of the winners from this year’s event:
1st Place: Mechanized—Jayson Spooner (SUNY Poly)
2nd Place: Campus XP—James Jackson, Erika Lein, Jaden Mayers, Menloodjy Senejuste (SUNY Poly)
Best of the Mohawk Valley: Tailored Match—Delaney Beardsley, Lauren Jones (SUNY Poly and Utica University)