Three student-entrepreneurs shared a Small Business Development Centre (SBDC) $2,000 prize purse after successfully pitching business ideas to four “sharks” at International School of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology’s (ISBET) fourth “shark tank” event.
Stafford Bain, 11, a sixth-grade student, received half the prize purse, $1,000, for his idea, Site Forge, a website design company.
Stafford opened his pitch, asking the “sharks”, “Who here wants to be a great entrepreneur and make great money? In order to do that, you need a digital presence, and that’s where my company Site Forge comes in.”
He also spoke about the services he offers.
“You see the professionalism in my website as a young child, imagine what I can do when I get older,” said the tween.
Stafford said he came up with his concept a year ago after watching a YouTube Short about website design. He said he plans to invest his $1,000 windfall.
“The first thing I’m going to do is invest [the funds] in AI research to make more websites faster, so I could get a larger audience,” he said.
Stafford said the experience taught him “confidence is everything”.
Twelfth-grade student Darian Sweeting, 17, was judged second for his product Life Line – a wearable safety alert system. He took home $700.
Darian said he was inspired to create the product after his friend was murdered.
“After her untimely demise, I wanted to do something about it,” he said during his pitch.
He told the “sharks” that his Life Line would be affordable, made in a sleek design that could go unnoticed, and that it would contact authorities within five seconds after a button is pushed.
He said he plans to use the funds to build the prototype.
“With this check, I would put it towards buying and building the prototype in the form of a bracelet with Arduino kits, which is an electronics platform that allows anyone to easily learn how to build interactive devices,” he said.
Hénri Todd, 13, an eighth-grade student, rounded out the top three.
Hénri received $300 for Hénri’s Snack Haven, homemade fruit punch and lemonade. It was an idea, he said, that came about two years ago, when he as a student at another school.
“It started during our school’s annual enterprise day as a small student business selling hotdogs, candies and drinks. But something stood out immediately — the homemade fruit punch and lemonade sold out first. That’s when the focus shifted from general snacks to specializing in refreshing, high-demand homemade beverages.”
The first thing he said he would do out of his winnings is pay tithes.
Nine sixth through 12th-grade students were given five minutes each to convince a panel of four “sharks” as to why they should be awarded seed money for their companies.
Samantha Rolle, SBDC executive director, who doubled as a “shark”, said in determining the ultimate winners, she and her fellow “sharks” — Dr. Leo Rolle, CEO, Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers’ Confederation; Ceri Howells, CEO, CLX Logistics Bahamas; and Hollis Lightbourne, business development consultant, considered who could utilize the funds.
“We were really looking at those low-hanging fruit who could use the funds almost immediately to expand their business,” said Rolle. “There were presentations where they expressed and could show that they were already operating, so that was impressive. And we wanted to make sure they got the funding they need to continue to operate. Then, there were a number of persons, particularly Mr. Stafford, where his presence was just so pleasantly overwhelming — and he knew his business, and he was charismatic, and he was informative. So, all of that led to the decision.”
Precious Thompson, ISBET principal, said she was proud of her students and that experimental learning is the way forward in education.
“This is the new way of learning — experimental learning, hands-on learning, because this adds to getting the kids engaged. We have to move beyond standardized testing and looking at that as the only way to evaluate our kids. No number of tests that they have to sit down and formally take will allow them to learn the skills without them doing it hands-on.”
ISBET’s Shark Tank, held on Thursday, February 19, at SBDC on Gladstone Road, concluded the school’s business week. Students engaged with Bahamas Development Bank and Tourism Development Corporation representatives on Monday, February 16, their leadership and business day. On Tuesday, February 17, students visited EV Motors, Paradise Pedis, The Mall at Marathon and Auto Mall to experience how businesses operate in real time. And on Wednesday, February 18, the school’s marketplace business expo was held in Rawson Square. School officials said 98 percent of the 34 student businesses sold out of their products.
