Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Relaxing massage at school & E-Launch final!

After my job, at 11am, I was walking across campus to go to my Art History class when I noticed a lot of people gathered nearby the bridge. I wondered what was going on, and suddenly I remembered that the SBCC Wellness Connection had organized an event that day, called De-Stress Fest. At this event, from 10am to 2pm, some professionals and many volunteers in the club offered de-stress tips, games, yoga, and most importantly: free massages. I love massages, especially by professionals who can massage me with heavy hands without messing up my back… So I couldn't resist and immediately signed up for one spot at 12:15pm. Sure enough, I left my Art History class early to go get the massage. Not that I would recommend skipping class, but I have never been absent anyway, and I have a solid A in the class, so I thought I could afford to do that. I can promise that the additional benefit of the massage definitely outweighed the additional benefit of attending the last part of class :)
The massage was a great way to relax before the storm! In fact, I had no time to waste. After my Philosophy class, I grabbed some lunch, found a quite room, and I began preparing for my E-Launch final. As I mentioned before, the final consisted in a 8-minute business pitch with a Power Point presentation in front of three successful entrepreneur as judges. While they are looking for content and readiness, the professor checks that each student is covering everything that is needed (such as an effective initial value proposition, problem/solution, marketing strategy, industry and competition analysis, etc…) Throughout the semester we prepared five 2-minute pitches, and for the final we put them all together, update the slides, add some more, and and edit the heck out of them! I wrote a new pitch speech based on the new slides, and then edited it more with the professor on Sunday and on Monday. So, by Tuesday afternoon I had already memorized the core of the presentation. However, I had three hours before the beginning of Demo Day, and I needed to memorize the changes from the previous night— such as having added a “Why Us” slide and edited the way we plan to scale the business. With all the help I received from my amazing professor Julie Samson, the result was brilliant. 
At 5 o’clock, Demo Day started. How exciting! Students and judges had a chance to eat some pizza and mingle. At 5:30pm, we started presenting. I was the last one of 8 teams, which means two hours went by before it was my turn…
The audience seemed to really like my presentation. I thought I did a good job, too, but so did most of the teams. It was phenomenal. All of the teams stepped up their game incredibly. I am not authorized to talk about any specific information about what happens in the class or about any of the products or ideas from anyone in the class. In fact, we signed NDAs, or Non-Disclosure Agreements. But I can guarantee all of those ideas are brilliant!
Well, in the end, my friends Rachel and Ken won the competition and the 1,000 dollars with their great presentation and smart dog-related product. They were so good they won almost all of the pitches throughout the semester, too. So they deserved it! I wish them the best of luck in their future entrepreneurial endeavors!
Although I didn't win this competition, I learned a lot from this class. I also made connections with one of the judges, who is an entrepreneur who spent 10 years of his life in Italy— my home country. He gave me his business card, and he seemed to demonstrate a certain degree of availability if I were to need financial help to start my business, which was great.
Overall, it was such an astounding day!!! It feels incredible (in the literal sense) that this class is already over and that the semester almost is over. Time goes fast when you have fun... and I am having the time of my life.
A presto,

- Fede

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