Living Entrepreneurship Blog / Babson Entrepreneurs

SVP Week 10: Showcase Week!

2019 Summer Venture Program Cohort

After ten weeks of entrepreneurial growth, the Summer Venture Program came to an exciting finish this week with Thursday’s Summer Venture Showcase. Here’s the recap of SVP’s final week!

Monday, July 22nd and Tuesday, July 23rd

  • SVP teams practiced their Showcase presentations in the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s Morris Auditorium. Building off of the feedback they received last Wednesday from MassChallenge CEO Siobhan Dullea, the SVP teams made improvements and tweaks to their presentations in preparation for the Showcase.

Wednesday, July 24th

Our entrepreneurial counterparts from Laval shared their insights with the SVP teams following Wednesday’s dress rehearsal.
  • We returned to the Federal Reserve for our final dress rehearsal, where each team had the opportunity to practice its Showcase presentation in front of their peers and advisors. We were also joined for the rehearsal by our entrepreneurial counterparts from Université Laval (Quebec City, Canada). SVP entrepreneurs shared feedback and insights with the Laval entrepreneurs throughout the summer, and they were able to meet each other in-person for the first time over lunch on Wednesday. Laval University is in the second year of developing their “Programme d’été pour entrepreneurs,” a summer accelerator modeled after Babson’s, as part of a strategic collaboration funded by Geoffrey Molson MBA’96. To learn more about Babson College’s exciting collaboration with Laval, check out this article.

Thursday, July 25th

Program director Bob Stringer on the SVP entrepreneurs: “They’ve been eating, sleeping, and breathing their startup ventures.”

This was the big day that the SVP entrepreneurs had been working towards all summer: the Summer Venture Showcase! With over four hundred guests in attendance, the thirteen SVP teams presented their dynamic businesses.

The Showcase began with Blank Center Executive Director Debi Kleiman and SVP Director Bob Stringer each offering opening remarks reflecting on the ventures’ progress and the incredible support SVP has received from the Babson community, as well as SVP’s sponsors. Our awesome sponsors this summer were:

Entrepreneur and investor Matt Coffin ’90 shares his tips for entrepreneurial success with the Showcase audience.

In between venture presentations, Blank Center Executive Director Debi Kleiman moderated a fireside chat with Matt Coffin ‘90, successful serial entrepreneur, investor, and Blank Center advisory board member. Coffin reflected on his own entrepreneurial journey and shared his advice with the audience, including the qualities he looks for in founders as an investor: Grit, determination, and a different, unique perspective on a problem.

Following its presentation, the Dottie team discusses its product with Showcase guests.

Following the presentations, SVP entrepreneurs met with audience members at their businesses’ tables in the Federal Reserve’s Beehive space to network and answer questions.

To conclude their time together as a cohort, the entrepreneurs and advisors of the 2019 Summer Venture Program shared a celebratory dinner at the Babson Boston campus. Advisors Beth Goldstein, Clynton Caines, and Eric Braun reflected on the progress of the SVP teams they worked with, and the teams expressed their appreciation for the efforts of the Blank Center staff towards making their Summer Venture Program experience a success.

During our end-of-program dinner, SVP advisor Clynton Caines congratulates the Rostock team on its progress this summer.

And with that, the 2019 Summer Venture Program has come to a close! The SVP teams and staff are grateful for everyone who supported the ventures and came to Thursday’s Showcase. If you were unable to make it to the Showcase, you can watch a recording of the venture presentations and the fireside chat at babson.edu/svp. Although they are done working together at WeWork and Babson Boston every day, many incredible friendships and partnerships were formed within the SVP cohort of entrepreneurs. We can’t wait to see the continued success and growth of this talented group.

The Blank Center has an exciting year ahead! For the latest updates on ePitch, B.E.T.A. Challenge, and more great resources for Babson entrepreneurs, be sure to follow @babsoneship on Instagram and Twitter, and Babson Entrepreneurs on Facebook.