Wesley Hall
90 seconds. This is how long an individual is given to sell a product to win money at the Bison Idea Pitch competition. The event was hosted in the Waldron Center and the guest host was entrepreneur JC Hite. Six finalists were selected from video submissions sent to the judges a few days before the competition. The finalists rehearsed their pitches and presented them in real time on Friday.
The prizes were $200 for third place, $500 for second place and $800 for first place. There was also an additional $200 award for the people’s choice winner. The finalists were Junior Nic Hermann, Senior Aiden Davenport, Junior Gerardo Murcia,Senior Luke Huddleston, Senior Darcy Durden and Junior Noah Schutzler. Hermann won first place and the People’s Choice awards, Davenport won second place and Durden won third place.
Davenport’s pitch idea was an app called FairTix. The idea behind his pitch was that popular ticket selling websites are price gouging with overpriced tickets and hidden fees. He wanted to create an app that promotes fair and honest pricing for ticket buyers.
Davenport said the best advice for the Bison Idea Pitch is to treat it like a practice for the Bison Shark Tank event, a similar competition with a five minute speech.
“I think people should do it because it’s good practice for conveying lots of information quickly,” Davenport said. “I think if you were looking to practice for like actual business then you would want to do a bigger competition with more time where you can actually go into details of why the product is successful instead of, ‘how quickly can I say a bunch of words in 90 seconds?’”
Huddleston’s pitch was a pill dispensing system called MediMate; a machine that reminds people to take their medication.
Huddleston said the competition allows participants to practice their entrepreneurial and public speaking skills.
“I know public speaking is not everybody’s cup of tea so I would encourage everybody to get out of their comfort zone and try something new,” Huddleston said. “Worst case scenario, you get experience and get some feedback. Best case scenario, you walk away with a cash prize.”
Bison Idea Pitch judge Brian Harrington said the concept of the competition is an elevator pitch. Harrington said the competition helps prepare students for real world scenarios where they are only given a short amount of time to sell their product.
“How many times do you meet somebody and they’re like, ‘Hey, you’re a sophomore and you’re a marketing major, what do you plan to do after school?’” Harrington said. “You don’t have an answer for that which can be very difficult, so it definitely prepares them to think quickly on their feet.”
The next competition the Waldron Center will put on is the Bison Shark Tank in Cone Chapel at 6 p.m. on Oct. 24.
