creates opportunities for urban youth in Knoxville by giving them practical entrepreneurship training and access to the network of entrepreneurs in Knoxville Overview:
Version 1.0 is our starting point of bringing in a grass roots program for middle and high school youth in order to spur on creativity, empowerment, hope and give them the tools needed to express themselves. The goal of this program
is not to create “entrepreneurs” per se’, but to make possible a new and better trajectory for the lives of our kids and our community – to help all of us see and envision the end game, a different future, a new and better opportunity, a different kind of hope, something to not just dream about but something that can be attained.
“Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.”
That particular quote is overused at times, but it is true. Communities continue to seek ways to help in the inner city, but the majority of programs do more to help the “helper” feel better about themselves than they do to affect real change in the communities being served. This is largely due to loose relationships, an unwillingness by the “helper” to really dig into the messy parts of doing life with youth and families in the inner city areas. An organized community of hope is a place of empowerment and self-expression, where kids, families and the communities don’t just “get” something they can wear, a meal they can eat, but instead they can begin to envision a something different for their life, a different trajectory, a different hope for an exciting future. This programs intent is that – life, future, hope, vision, a plan for change that is community wide – not just the direct community, but the entire city. How:
This program will initially be focused on juniors and seniors in high school in the ProjectGRAD schools. The program centers on: teaching leadership and business skills, mentoring individuals and/or teams of kids who want to create a business, the actual “business plan pitch” and then ongoing mentoring of the top teams. Our goal is not to simply crown a winner, but to actually engage directly in the lives of the top three pitches for ongoing mentoring and the launch of their business idea. We know so many ideas start as one thing and end up somewhere else, so our hope is to mentor them along a path moving from birth to actual business. Educational and Plan Development Format:
In v1.0 we will focus on a program starting in August of 2015 and running through June of 2016, then moving to the launch phase from June of 2016 on. The program will entail weekly “facilitation” of topics that will be “taught” by one of our business mentors. This will rotate periodically depending on the topic being taught in that segment. We will focus on a small set of key business books and methodologies but we will focus on the following topics:
• Individual and Organizational Leadership
• Legal, Accounting and Finance
• Human Resources, Operations, Distribution
• Marketing and Sales
• Building a Plan, Pitching and Raising Money
During our launch year of V1.0 the educational courses will run from January through April of the school year. Throughout the entire course we will be helping them think through their ideas of a pitch, but the core focus of the initial phases will be the specific “topics” outlined above. In late April the course curriculum will turn and focus specifically on the process of building a plan and a pitch. We will spend the last of the month of April and all of May meeting more frequently helping the kids develop their idea and their team, if they choose to pitch as a team. The month of May will be focused on the plan building and pitch process. We will meet two times a week with appointed team mentors working with the students on their plan and their pitch. This will culminate in mid-June with the actual pitch itself. The “Pitch”
The pitch will be made to a group of local entrepreneurs from various businesses in a traditional pitch format, with a twist. The judges will also be the mentors who will walk with the winners over the next year to launch their business. The format will also include a two-part pitch. Part one will occur on a Tuesday, and Part Two will occur on the following Thursday. Part One:
Each team will have up to 3 minutes to describe their pitch and what they are looking for, and then the panel will ask questions of each of the teams. When complete the panel will discuss amongst themselves for a vote of the top five. Part Two:
These five individuals, or teams, will then have 48 hours to refine their pitch and then re-pitch them same judges. These judges will then select the three winners. The Winners, The Launch:
The funding will be $2,500 to third place, $5,000 to first place and $10,000 to the top spot. More importantly all three teams will be given much more than that. They will be assigned a mentor who will walk with them to launch their business. The mentor will also have access to the facilitators who have taught the classes over the past several months. This will be used by all of the teams to go further faster through ongoing mentoring, advice, and services – free and for a fee. The mentor for each winner will be responsible for helping each team understand how to launch, to refine, to potentially raise more money and to utilize the funds awarded in the most sensible and judicious way. The individual panel members may also choose to invest in the entrepreneur’s individual or collectively on larger scale, but at a minimum they will be committed to them for a year.
