We had a blast hosting some budding entrepreneurs from New Design High School at the office last week.
Our 9th-grade visitors all belong to BUILD NYC’s entrepreneurship experience program and are in the middle of planning and launching their own small businesses. 🙌
Working with BUILD NYC
We’re big fans of BUILD, an organization that uses entrepreneurship to launch students living in under-resourced communities to high school, college, and career success.
Throughout the school year, the students receive mentorship as they build their own startups for products of their own design. They also get a lot of experience—from pitching their product ideas to pitching for funding, and more.
In fact, our CEO Peter Sullivan served as a judge at two recent BUILD presentations, the “Idea Pitch” and the “Investor Pitch,” where he evaluated team projects and offered constructive feedback on their pitches, product designs, and business plans.
It's GO time! @pjsullivan3 is back on the judging circuit @BUILD_NYC's #InvestorPitch, where these high school students are crushing their startup presentations ? pic.twitter.com/fdXNH4XpJU
— Jackpocket (@Jackpocket) March 5, 2019
It Takes a Village
Our Senior Product Manager Jeff Glazer gave a demo of the Jackpocket app, and explained how it takes a village to make it all work, from developers and designers to marketing and customer support teams.
Adam Rothstein of Subversive Capital (back) spoke about his career investing in companies of all sizes
Next, Jackpocket Board Director Adam Rothstein, a venture partner in Subversive Capital, spoke about his career investing in companies of all sizes, and the challenges and successes along the way.
Ears perked when Adam described building startups into multi-million dollar businesses! He described the highly competitive fundraising scene, and ended the talk with best practices for pitching as the kids prep to sell their products to the public at BUILD’s Student Sales Bazaar later this month.
BUILD NYC's Student Sales Bazaar is less than two weeks away! Join us to shop one of a kind student products and meet our extraordinary student entrepreneurs! #StudentEntrepreneurs @WeWork @Chase pic.twitter.com/nPbbo2XFqw
— BUILDNYC (@BUILD_NYC) April 5, 2019
Breaking It Down
Afterwards, each student business team had a chance to learn about Jackpocket employees 1:1 and to show off their one-of-a-kind product ideas. We heard pitches for a jewelry travel bag, a fastenable pouch for your “go-to” items, an eco-friendly de-stressor, and a personal clamp for keeping steady on the train. Nice!
The Jackpocketeers gave some feedback on their presentations. And as with any good field trip, we ended the visit with pizza and snacks.
Thanks again to BUILD NYC and New Design High School for the visit! We’re rooting for you at the Sales Bazaar!
