The ability to present ideas is as important as the idea itself — especially in the world of business. The College of Business Administration (CBA) at University of Cal Poly ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½ believes in hands-on learning as a core tenet for student preparation and offers a series of networking events, workshops, and business pitch competitions on and off campus throughout the academic year through the Cal Poly ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½ Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEI). The CEI sponsors this series, known as The Bronco Startup Challenge, which is designed to challenge and support students from different backgrounds, specialties, and interests to create a unified vision and bring their ideas to life. “The event’s goal is to bring together a community of entrepreneurial students, to allow them to present their ideas, practice their pitches in an environment similar to shark tank events, get feedback, develop their network, and have fun,” explains Professor Nastaran Simarasl, associate professor, strategic management and entrepreneurship. “As a professor, I prioritize thorough preparation, adaptability, and professionalism for student teams in competitions like the CPP Fall Fast Pitch,” adds Denis Iurchenko, assistant professor, Management and Human Resources Department.
The success of these events inspired Professor Simarasl and fellow competition sponsors to incorporate the competitions directly into their curriculum, engaging a student base beyond volunteer competitors. “In the fall of 2023, I served as a bridge between the CPP Student Innovation Idea Labs (SIIL), the main host of the competitions, and other entrepreneurship faculty members in the College of Business,” says the professor. “I persuaded Professor Denis Iurchenko to include the competition in two sections of his Introduction to Entrepreneurship (MHR 3410) course, as I had successfully implemented the idea of including the Fall Fast Pitch Competition for the first time in my social entrepreneurship course (MHR 4440) in the fall of 2022, and my students and I liked it very much. My students in the class pitched their social venture ideas that they had developed during the fall 2022 semester in the 2022 Fall Fast Pitch Competition, and a few teams from this class won the first, second, and third places.”
Professor Simarasl went on to explain that the goal is to have the Fall Fast Pitch Competition as the precursor to the Bronco Startup Challenge. In that order, the students would pitch ideas at the Fall Fast Pitch, and then use the experience and feedback from that competition to develop their ideas for the BSC in the spring semester. “With Student Innovation Ideas Lab Faculty Director Kenneth Lamb’s support this spring, I have brought a few other College of Business Administration and the Huntley College of Agriculture faculty members on board, as students from various disciplines will compete for the 2024 Bronco Startup Challenge on April 18.” Simarasl also serves as an advisor of the Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization (CEO) club and has brought the CEO club Eboard and the Student Innovation Idea Labs (SIIL) team together to cohost the two pitch competitions. “The CEO club and SIIL’s joint marketing efforts have successfully spread the word about these competitions, and we have already had several students from different disciplines seek out our help finding industry mentors and preparing for the BSC competitions. We hope to use both competitions as steppingstones to take our student entrepreneurs to the annual Sunstone CSU Startup Launch competitions.”
“These competitions are true manifestations of the polytechnic identity we embrace at Cal Poly ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½: They engage students in hands-on experiences, equip them with diverse knowledge and skills they do not necessarily learn in their courses, connect them to mentors, help them develop their network in the entrepreneurship ecosystem, and, most importantly, boost their self-efficacy.” — Nastaran Simarasl,
Associate Professor, Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship, College of Business Administration, Cal Poly ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½
Most recently, the Fall Fast Pitch Competition was held in November of 2023, bringing out the school’s best entrepreneurs in a university-wide entrepreneurship competition where each student team had five minutes to pitch the core components of their venture idea, such as their value proposition, target market, and promotion strategies.
Here is a list of winners and judges from Fall Fast Pitch 2023 at Cal Poly ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½:
2023 Fast Pitch Competition Results
- 1st Place: Way 2 Go
Founders: Sharon Chen, Lucky Hughes, Chris Peacock, Angel Solano, Larissa Wellman
- 2nd Place: Invent and Venture Yourself
Founders: Rosa Martinez, Yvette Cardenas, Sophia Ha, Kimberly Camargo
- 3rd Place: Unified School Ride Share
Founders: Alyssa Even, Julia Burton, Sydney Daruwala, Sucre Herrera, Aubrey Moran
- Crowd Favorite: Lotus Energy
Founders: Summer Tauch-Hubbard, Josue Ibarra, Jayden Aggers, Amir Samuel, Mike Bernal
Competition Judges: Nitin Dvivedi (SCORE Mentor), Maha Ghosn (CPP International Business and Marketing Professor), and Jesus Bermudez (CPP Administrative Analyst)
Applications for the Spring Pitch Competition are due by March 31, 2024, and the competition will be held April 18, 2024.
For more information on these competitions, and to learn how you can get involved, check out the website here.