On Wednesday, December 4, Purchase College, SUNY took a page from reality television when they presented their own startup pitching competition, modeled on the popular ABC show Shark Tank. The Seventh Annual Shark Tank Competition gave students the opportunity to pitch their business ideas to entrepreneurs and investors.
The judges and audience determined the winners who received awards for their business pursuits. The $5,000 in prizes was provided by the Dr. E. Lawrence Deckinger Family
Foundation.
- This year’s grand prize of $2,500 for new business idea went to Meghana Ambati, a Chemistry major and Pre-med Studies student who pitched her idea for “Feeding Greens,” a company that will buy produce with mild imperfections (which grocery stores reject) from farmers at a discount rate and will distribute them for sale at discount prices in school systems within communities that are food deserts.
- The award for Purchase Community Enhancement for $1,500 went to Oliver Culliton, a Psychology major whose nonprofit business idea, “Beyond the Blurb,” will sponsor a lecture series at Purchase that will focus on student mental health.
- The Audience Favorite Prize for $1,000 went to Everett Currier and Kirry Kaufer. Everett is a MA student in the Entrepreneurship in the Arts program and Kirry is a Creative Writing major. They pitched an idea for “The Den,” a student space they would like to create at Purchase that would give students a place to build community by coming together to play board games and have music performances.
“Shark Tank offers Purchase students incredible opportunities. We have contestants who are already running their small businesses, and the competition provides them with the chance to contemplate scaling up and dreaming big. Additionally, we have students who only have their big idea, and Shark Tank assists them in formalizing it into a doable business plan,” said Assistant Professor of Economics, Iuliia Chikish, who spearheaded the competition.
This year’s Shark Tank event was made possible by generous contributions from the Dr. E. Lawrence Deckinger Family Foundation.
The “sharks” were a diverse group of entrepreneurs who provided invaluable feedback after each student’s presentation.
They included:
Nick Read
Founder and CFO of Read & Right LLC
David Settanni ‘09
CFO of Settanni Financial
Priya Tejpal
2023 Shark Tank winner and Restaurant Entrepreneur
Julie Tsai
Real Estate expert at William Raveis and Entrepreneur
John Tucker
Co-founder of SalsaFresca Grill
