Thriving Together
Aspiring Student Entrepreneurs Make a Splash in First Ever Business Proposition
“When your butt hits the water, you learn how to swim,” reads the first line of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation syllabus. Mr. Chiment, Laguna Blanca’s math department chair and instructor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, created this course to give his students a real world experience to develop their skills in problem solving, communication, resilience, and meaningful personal and community-wide improvement.
“From these experiences, the students learn the art of constructive failure, namely if the solution doesn't work, then ‘fail early, fail fast, and fail forward.’ For many students this is transformative,” Mr. Chiment explains. “They learn to see the entrepreneurial process as an iterative approach to problem solving and to life. They quickly learn that real quality solutions have meaningful, internal rewards and that bad ideas have consequences, but these consequences usually contain powerful lessons.”
The first quarter of the class is dedicated to reality-based work with three real businesses from the community. This semester’s students worked with J7 Surf Shop, Peace Works Travel, and Presidio Sports to gain foundational training. Then, each student came up with and pitched their own business to the class. Three businesses were chosen by student vote, and those students became the founders of their respective company. Each founder interviewed their peers, and hired a team for their company.
The second quarter of the class is dedicated to developing their companies to pitch at the end of the semester to a panel of investors or “sharks." The three fictional companies that presented on Tuesday were Mentoropolis, Trainer Tracker, and Dscribe.
Mentoropolis is a web-based business that finds professional mentors for recent college grads. The company serves as a way to connect potential mentors with young professionals to create valuable connections in the realm of their careers.
Trainer Tracker is an Uber-style web-based business where personal trainers join, similar to Uber drivers, and set their availability on the application. Individuals needing cardio, strength, and rehabilitation training can search through a wide variety of trainers, and filter by location as well as a user-based rating system.
Dscribe is a web-based platform service connecting excellent note takers with students in need, who are able to purchase notes for a particular class. Note takers are then given ratings based on their provided notes.
After deliberating, "the sharks" selected Trainer Tracker as the company most worthy of their investment. Hani Zeini, Laguna parent, trustee, and “shark,” was "amazed with the job Mr. Chiment and his students have done in an incredibly short time to initiate such a program at Laguna and nurture it to where ideas [like these] were being presented, and have a solid value proposition in the real world.”
This semester, a new group of students will try their hand at creating business plans, and will work closely with Laguna alumni. Ryan Emmons '08 will be representing his company, Waiakea Water, which is the first beverage to be CarbonNeutral® certified for its many eco-initiatives and sustainable practices. Spencer Dusebout '11 will represent his organization, Hands4Others, founded from his 2011 award winning Senior Project in which he studied the economic impact of sustainable access to clean water.
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“From these experiences, the students learn the art of constructive failure, namely if the solution doesn't work, then ‘fail early, fail fast, and fail forward.’ For many students this is transformative,” Mr. Chiment explains. “They learn to see the entrepreneurial process as an iterative approach to problem solving and to life. They quickly learn that real quality solutions have meaningful, internal rewards and that bad ideas have consequences, but these consequences usually contain powerful lessons.”
The first quarter of the class is dedicated to reality-based work with three real businesses from the community. This semester’s students worked with J7 Surf Shop, Peace Works Travel, and Presidio Sports to gain foundational training. Then, each student came up with and pitched their own business to the class. Three businesses were chosen by student vote, and those students became the founders of their respective company. Each founder interviewed their peers, and hired a team for their company.
The second quarter of the class is dedicated to developing their companies to pitch at the end of the semester to a panel of investors or “sharks." The three fictional companies that presented on Tuesday were Mentoropolis, Trainer Tracker, and Dscribe.
Mentoropolis is a web-based business that finds professional mentors for recent college grads. The company serves as a way to connect potential mentors with young professionals to create valuable connections in the realm of their careers.
Trainer Tracker is an Uber-style web-based business where personal trainers join, similar to Uber drivers, and set their availability on the application. Individuals needing cardio, strength, and rehabilitation training can search through a wide variety of trainers, and filter by location as well as a user-based rating system.
Dscribe is a web-based platform service connecting excellent note takers with students in need, who are able to purchase notes for a particular class. Note takers are then given ratings based on their provided notes.
After deliberating, "the sharks" selected Trainer Tracker as the company most worthy of their investment. Hani Zeini, Laguna parent, trustee, and “shark,” was "amazed with the job Mr. Chiment and his students have done in an incredibly short time to initiate such a program at Laguna and nurture it to where ideas [like these] were being presented, and have a solid value proposition in the real world.”
This semester, a new group of students will try their hand at creating business plans, and will work closely with Laguna alumni. Ryan Emmons '08 will be representing his company, Waiakea Water, which is the first beverage to be CarbonNeutral® certified for its many eco-initiatives and sustainable practices. Spencer Dusebout '11 will represent his organization, Hands4Others, founded from his 2011 award winning Senior Project in which he studied the economic impact of sustainable access to clean water.
Perhaps the prominently displayed quote in Mr. Chiment's classroom best describes what he hopes for his students, "Delegating tasks creates followers, delegating authority creates leaders." Based upon the positive response of students and local entrepreneurs, Laguna Blanca is at the forefront of entrepreneurship education.
Community
Laguna Blanca is Santa Barbara’s premier private, co-educational, college preparatory day school for students in Early Kindergarten through Grade 12.