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The Scottsdale Community College (SCC) Business School hosted the Little Pitch, a small business competition for student entrepreneurs. SCC students from diverse majors presented business plans in the contest similar to the NBC network show, Shark Tank.
Jeni Himmer, a student in the General Business and Marketing program at SCC was this year's Little Pitch winner.
Himmer is the owner and co-founder of Radnaut Prints, an online printing business that caters to the art community. The company offers a platform for artists to have their creative works displayed in high-quality prints, on shirts, drinkware, linen bags, mousepads, and other items. Radnaut’s tagline is, “See your artwork as something radical.”
The creative student-led business got its name from a play on the word astronaut. Himmer said, “Astronauts explore space and at Radnaut we explore rad artwork.”
“We applied at the pitch to get money and advice to help iron out the details of what we offer. We just started the company seven months ago but we have done really good so far, our gross was about $2,000.”
The competition featured a panel of local business leaders and SCC faculty who reviewed the student ideas, offered advice and determined the winner. Those judging were Ben Ellis, the Founding Partner of E & G Real Estate Services; Kiem Ho, the Chief Brand Officer of moonshot11; Cristina Carlson of Creative Therapy Solution, PLLC; Derek Greene, the President of Plush Installation and Get Your Move On, LLC, and SCC Business faculty member and TEDx speaker Rick Krug.
Business faculty member Susan Peterson serves as her mentor and takes pride in her win. “We built great connections with the judges and we hope to meet with them again to push us in the right direction,” noted Himmer.
Himmer also has a certification in Social Media Marketing from SCC. The knowledge and techniques she learned in the program help her manage the company’s website (radnaut.com), Facebook and Instagram accounts to engage with artists and potential patrons.
Himmer and her business Radnaut Prints will continue on to the Big Pitch Competition hosted by Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) and the Center for Entrepreneurial Innovation (CEI) on Mar. 18 from 5:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., at the Rio Salado Conference Center.
The Big Pitch competition brings together student entrepreneurs from across the 10 colleges which comprise the MCCCD at an innovation competition and boot camp during Spring Break. Over 60 applied, but just 10 semifinalists, representing each college, will compete for $20,000 in cash and prizes to launch or develop their business.
The Entrepreneurial Studies program at SCC is comprised of a set of interdisciplinary classes designed to teach one how to transform an idea into a business entity and beyond. The program’s courses include topics in raising capital, building financial security, business plan writing, new venture legal issue management, financial projection, in addition to marketing and market research.
For more information, visit the SCC Business School or contact Program Director, Mark Barton at 480-425-6913 and [email protected].
For more information or to RSVP your attendance at the competition visit The Big Pitch