After taking first and second place at the North Texas leg of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship’s National Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge, two student startup teams made their pitches for a shot at this year’s championship title.
As the eight-month long pitch competition reached its semifinals round on Wednesday, Dallas middle school student Edie Setnick and Grand Prairie teens Melissa Alfaro and Adriel Resendiz made their pitches to a panel of judges comprised of tech leaders and founders.
“Through the lens of entrepreneurship, NFTE brings relevancy to core academic subjects alongside traditional business development skills, showing students how to use their knowledge, maximize their potential, and become creators,” NFTE North Texas Development Director Nikki Miller told NTX Inno via email.
While Alfaro and Resendendiz no-brush toothpaste concept failed to into the semifinals, Setnick’s company Pain Freeze moved and now has a shot at $12,000.
This year, competitors were not able to gather in New York, where the annual competition is typically held. However, that didn’t stop 46 other teams from across the country tuning in to show off their ideas and entrepreneurial talents.
Miller said in a winning team, the NFTE looks for ideas that have a clear problem they address with a clear solution. In addition, judges look for the persuasiveness of the pitches, as well as the short- and long-term goals the students have set for themselves.
Setnick, a student at Henry Longfellow Academy took the stage to present his innovation called Pain Freeze, a two-part adhesive ice pack that sticks to parts of a patient’s body treat pain. She said she hopes to one day landing partnerships with brands and retailers to take her product to market.
“People are already uncomfortable when they get injured. I would like to do everything I can to make injuries as comfortable as possible,” Setnick said via email. “People shouldn't have to worry about their ice packs slipping off when they already have to worry about being hurt. I speak from personal experience when I say being hurt is not fun.”
Following her pitch, Alfaro and Resendiz, both students at Grand Prairie’s School for the Highly Gifted, made their pitch form Kapsular, a capsule filled with the recommended amount of toothpaste, designed to promote healthier habits and provide a more sustainable alternative to traditional toothpaste tubes. The product works by popping a toothpaste-filled pod in your mouth, along with some water. Rinse it around, then spit. The team is also looking to eventually take their product to market through partnerships with dental professionals and brands.
“As teens, we noticed that brushing your teeth with the regular toothpaste tube and toothbrush wasn't practical. It's inconvenient, time consuming, and boring. We wanted to provide a more innovative alternative to brushing your teeth, while taking in consideration of our community and environment,” Alfaro and Resendiz said via email. “We want to show our society that young entrepreneurs can make a difference in our community. We hope that through our hard work and dedication we can inspire the next generation to be brave and seek new opportunities.”
While the NFTE’s mission since launching in 1987 to foster innovative ideas and an entrepreneurial mindset in upcoming generations, J.D. LaRock, NFTE president and CEO, said that purpose has become even more important during the pandemic. He said that about one in four NFTE alumni go on to start a business, which during the crisis could mean more jobs and economic opportunities in communities impacted by the pandemic’s financial effects.
“For over 30 years, our programs have been activating the entrepreneurial… changing lives and paving the way toward a more equitable society,” LaRock said via email. “Historically, it is small business and startups that jumpstart job creation in an economic recovery, so there’s a case to be made that entrepreneurial education is more important than ever as we begin to imagine a post-COVID world.”
