On April 23, the third Trillium Lakelands District School Board (TLDSB) Young Entrepreneurs in Action Showcase took place at the Fleming College Frost Campus in Lindsay.
In this Dragon’s Den style event, 13 participants made up of individual students and teams from secondary schools across the Board presented a five to seven minute business pitch to four community judges: Victoria Jessup from Kindred Coffee Bar, Hailey Bennett and Catherine Smith from Ampere, and David Cowdery from Launch Kawartha. Each of the judges are actively involved in entrepreneurship in varied ways, and not only used their business experience to decide the winnings, but also provided students with probing questions and advice to help advance their understanding about design thinking and what it means to start a company.
During the day, students heard from guest speaker, bestselling author, and solopreneur, Dennis Geelen, about how to build bold, profitable businesses with less hustle and more heart.
“It was so nice to see the next generation of entrepreneurs having the courage to bring their ideas forward,” said Geelen. “I was honoured to get to share some wisdom and inspiration with them. The future is bright!”
After much deliberation, the winnings were revealed and all 13 participants were awarded $12,000 in total!
The top pitch was awarded to Lindsay Collegiate and Vocational Institute student, Ollie Ferguson, for his company Donut Designs — a graphic design company focused on designing video game race cars and custom small scale models of race cars. Ferguson will now move on to the Provincial Showcase at the Ontario Skills Competition in Toronto on May 6.
“The TLDSB business pitch event was spectacular! I was super impressed with the other students’ ideas and I believed everyone had a good shot at winning,” said Ferguson. “Being able to get feedback from the judges really helped me understand what I can do to excel my pitch and become a better entrepreneur.”
“I am so impressed by the students. In addition to the innovative business ideas, they demonstrated incredible presentation skills and composure in a very nerve-wracking situation!” said TLDSB Experiential Learning Consultant, Katie Albisser. “The dragons presented the students with challenging questions about their businesses and they responded with composure and grace. This event promotes business skills, but the students have also gained tremendous skills in problem-solving, organization, financial literacy, and public speaking.”
