INC - Month in Review - April 2020
INCubatorEDU@Sheboygan South High School
COVID - The Ultimate Pivot
I put those words in quotes for a couple of reasons: 1) I want to be sensitive to the real challenges that individuals and businesses are facing. It has to be painful to see your business threatened by something that was so out of your control and 2) I want to point out that, while it's easy to look at the challenges and be overwhelmed, great ideas can come from changes in consumer behavior.
Consider the 2008 "Great Recession". Companies like Groupon, Venmo, Uber, and Slack all came do be as people became more frugal, more efficient, and took on more of a "gig" approach to employment. The financial downturn that our economy dealt with was the catalyst to these well-known, multi-billion dollar, companies. No doubt, the same will be said of this time in our history.
Our student teams are also pivoting. All were in the process of getting out into the community to test their goods and services via MVP experiments. They've had to pivot to a "smoke test" MVP model and have worked diligently and efficiently. Congratulations to each team on getting over that hurdle and moving forward! The same will be done with our Final Pitch event, which will be pivoting from a live event to a virtual experience.
Final Pitch Details
COVID also has affected our ability to do a big Final Pitch event but we know that the students have worked too hard to not get to pitch.
We will be moving to a Zoom event, where our teams will pitch to our board for a $1,000 business investment and/or a $250 per person cash prize. The date and time are May 27 at 5:00 p.m.
We will offer viewing space to volunteers and family members first, SASD staff next, and the community will get any space remaining. If you plan to attend, please contact me at gstone@sasd.net by May 10. I will add you to the Google Calendar event, which will include the Zoom entry details.
After May 10, we will open it to SASD staff and then community members. Zoom allows for a limited number of attendees, so please use only use the invite personally.
Virtual Pitch Event
This is outside of INC, but members of the INC volunteer team are invited to participate as mentors to students who will create a 2-4 minute business pitch.
Winners will have a chance to win a Dale Carnegie Training Scholarship and/or have an exclusive lunch with CEO's from Kohler, Sargento, Masters Gallery, and Van Horn Automotive. These opportunities aren't easy to get, so I would encourage any student to think about playing with us to earn a once-in-a-lifetime experience. INC students obviously have plenty of experience to do very well at this event.
We are opening it up to Sheboygan area student first (so they can get priority placement) and then taking it statewide. Details will be released in a Sunday Email.
Volunteers, if you are interested to learn more on partnering with the event, contact Nick O'Brien
INCubatorEDU@SHS
Email: gstone@sasd.net
Website: https://sites.google.com/sasd.net/incubatoredu/home?authuser=0
Location: 1240 Washington Avenue, Sheboygan, WI, USA
Phone: 920-459-3637