During lunch periods Feb. 11, students in the Incubator and Accelerator programs of INCubatoredu at DGN presented their business startups in the Commons. This group of students presented booths around the open space for various products and services from the entrepreneurship elective, from clothing items to public speaking organizations.
“I think the classes are important to students because they move students from just learning about business to actually building something real. Traditional classes often focus on concepts. An Incubator class focuses on execution,” Incubator and Accelerator teacher Andrew Himes said. “Students learn how to identify real problems, validate ideas with real customers, build prototypes, pitch to investors or judges, handle failure, and pivot. The skills they learn are transferable skills for any career, not just business.”
One of the businesses being created in the Incubator program is StriveX, a mentorship seminar program created by seniors Terrence Burton and Phillip Cupial. StriveX brings guest speakers to DGN to motivate students in athletic and business programs.
“There will be a seminar, February 25th, in the College and Career Center during period 3C. We’re going to have a DGN Alum, class of 2016, who started a business, and now it’s worth $100 million. He’s going to be in there talking and giving some advice and life lessons,” Burton said.
Unlike in other classes, DGN’s two levels of INCubatoredu have the entire school year to create products that aim to benefit the student body and make a profit. While some take the service route, many others make tangible products like Sweet Apparel, an initiative to improve upon DGN’s wearable memorabilia selection.
“We’re trying to reconnect with the community, and create spiritwear shirts that are better for students,” senior and Sweet Apparel co-founder Nolan Montague said. “We really liked the shirts the way they were our freshman and sophomore year, when they were more graphic and more people bought them, and they were a higher quality.”
While replacing the responsibility of spiritwear from the student activities office, Sweet Apparel also gives something back to DGN’s extracurricular programs. The business sells Nike Dry-Fit shirts at a discount while also using proceeds to aid the school and its activities.
“A big thing for us is the community involvement. So, along with just selling shirts, we give 10 percent back to charity organizations like the Booster Club, to try to help out our sports teams,”
Montague said.
For each of these student-led businesses, the Feb. 11 showcase was an important milestone for their businesses. However, it was the first of many presentations for the Incubator and Accelerator classes this semester.
“Students have three more rounds of validating their business concepts on their own while we build out our financial models. Then we will have our final trade show and end of their pitches in the commons and North Auditorium,” Himes said.
Until this Pitch Night May 6, student feedback from the showcase will shape the trajectory of each of the startups. Until then, Incubator and Accelerator students are grateful for the Feb. 11 showcase.
“It’s really great marketing to have the whole school down here at this point in time. They get an opportunity to speak to a lot of different people. who do a lot of different things, and have different goals. So we’re expanding our brand today and getting more people, more foot traffic to our business,” Burton said.
