Fall 2017 Pitch Challenge Transcript

[On Screen] Mike Cottrell College of Business - University of North Georgia - ENTR 3020 - Entrepreneurial Mindset & Process - Fall 2017 Pitch Challenge

Dr. Ruben Boling, Director, Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation: We did the student fast pitch challenge which is the ending product of what comes out of our Entrepreneurship 3020 class which is a startup class. It teaches students how to really find a market and product match.

Jacob Mahaffey, UNG student and Management Major: The name of it is PopStand. It's essentially, it's a guitar case and stand combination product so that you don't have to have a guitar stand and guitar case. You have both in one.

Dr. Boling: The final portion of it is to present their proof of concept in a 6 minute pitch with 5 minutes for questions afterwards.

Rajpal Sagoo, UNG Alumnus and President, MDD Holdings, Inc.: It's very important for students to get some first hand experience on how to have these pitch contests. They're asked the tough questions that investors who may be interested in their product are gonna ask and it's better to do it and get that grounded now and how to answer those questions and how to get those problems resolved so that when they do come to the investors, they should have no problems getting the funding they need.

Jacob: Even though it's a class, it really immerses you into the idea of getting a product, having an idea, testing that concept, getting people to say they confirm or deny it and just getting into the bones of what it takes to prove a concept.

Dr. Boling: Our students always perform well and they got some great ideas that are potentially future companies and future businesses.

[On Screen]

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Mike Cottrell College of Business - University of North Georgia