Living Entrepreneurship Blog / Babson Entrepreneurs

Week 10: Summer Venture Program 2018

Maya Mutalik ’21, founder of Hope Sews, presenting at Summer Venture Showcase

It’s hard to believe that we are officially done with the 2018 Summer Venture Program. Our entrepreneurs have accomplished and grown so much these past 10 weeks and it truly showed during our culminating event, the Summer Venture Showcase. Let’s take a look at how our startups got here.

The first half of the week was a grind for our entrepreneurs. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday our startups repeatedly rehearsed their final presentation at the Federal Reserve Bank. With the help of the Blank Center and Speech Center staff, our entrepreneurs were ready and excited for Thursday’s showcase.

William Tanadi ’18, founder of William Palmer Eyewear, at Summer Venture Showcase

400 people lined up to see our startups Thursday, July 26th. These people consisted of members from the Boston entrepreneurship community, friends of Babson, and supporters of our startups. During the first hour of the event, our teams stood proudly by their booths showcasing their businesses and answering any questions that came their way. As a spectator of it all, I was impressed at how our startups handled themselves given the vast amount of people who attended the showcase. Everyone was fascinated with our 15 ventures and excited to hear more about them during the presentations itself. Aileen Zhou and I took over the Babson College and BabsonEship Instagram accounts where there was a livestream of the event and posted videos/pictures of startups. Be sure to check them out to see the showcase in action!

Kevin Colleran ’03 talking about Early Stage Investing with Debi Kleiman

At around 2:00pm everyone gathered in Morris Auditorium for the presentations to begin. Our startups did an unbelievable job at showcasing their ventures in quick 5-minute pitches. Half way through the presentations, Kevin Colleran ’03, spoke about his experiences being one of the first 10 employees at Facebook and being the Founder/Managing Director of Slow Ventures. He gave strong advice about approaching investors and utilizing your network. After his talk, our startups finished up their presentations. Our ventures really blew our audience away with all that they have accomplished this past summer.

After the showcase, people had a chance to talk with our startups at their booths again. Just to explain the scene a bit: Wish Route hosted a plank competition, Gentle gave out free cards and stickers, Waec had a working prototype of their robot ready to go, Hope Sews and Shay Jaffar both displayed their clothes on mannequins/themselves, and William Palmer Eyewear even made sales!

To say the least, this year’s Summer Venture Showcase was phenomenal. Our ventures really amazed me and everyone else that afternoon. To end the day off, we had a Summer Venture Program Celebration back at Babson Boston. This was a time to commemorate all that our entrepreneurs were able to do these past 10 weeks and to thank those who helped make the program possible. It was also a time to reflect on all the fun moments we’ve shared this past summer, while also looking ahead and just how much more these 15 ventures will grow and accomplish. We ate delicious food and gave away SVP t-shirts, designed by our very own April (Gentle). It was the perfect way to end an incredible summer.

Celebrating SVP