By Ellen Hershberger | Echo
Why are there shark fins popping up all over Taylor's campus? Didn't Shark Week end in August? The sharks encircling the Recital Hall are there to promote an entrepreneurship competition taking place there next week.
The event is modeled after the popular ABC show "Shark Tank." The show features aspiring entrepreneurs making business presentations to a panel of potential investors, or "sharks."
Taylor's first-ever Shark Tank will occur on Oct. 30 at 7 p.m. in the Recital Hall. Teams of students are chosen by Jeff Aupperle, director of Promising Ventures, a program started to connect students wishing to start their own businesses with entrepreneurs in Indiana. The teams will give five minute presentations to a panel of five judges. Ideas with the most potential win a startup fund from a $5,000 pool provided by the Lilly Endowment grant, which funds Promising Ventures.
All of the judges have experience in starting their own businesses or judging similar competitions. Hand-picked by Aupperle, they are more than willing to connect with students at Taylor.
One of the judges, Richard Crist, even has a daughter who goes to Taylor. Aupperle believes this is a great opportunity for students to make connections that could lead to potential internships and jobs.
Aupperle sees the event as a way to display the purpose of Promising Ventures. His desire is to create a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship on campus.
"The intention of (Shark Tank) is to get our students to take that idea or dream that they have, and maybe for the first time share it with people who could give them very good advice or feedback," Aupperle said. "So if the students just get on that stage and share that idea, to me that's a success."
One team that aspires to pitch its idea at Shark Tank consists of senior Andrew Brill and sophomores Samantha Petersen and Nicole Arpin.
"There's definitely something super powerful about sitting in a room filled with people really excited about . . . creativity and problem solving," Arpin said.
Using an idea Petersen had in high school, the three of them have been developing a business plan and hope to use some of the prize funds to research and develop a product. They are hopeful that this opportunity will push them toward their goal of starting their own business.
"Fifty-four percent of millennials want to start something, but they don't know how, which is one of the reasons Promising Ventures was able to come into being," Petersen said. "So I think it's great Taylor is trying to help cultivate this new idea of innovation and entrepreneurship that really will fuel the next coming generation."
Aupperle hopes to make Taylor Shark Tank an annual event, as long as Promising Ventures exists. They are funded for five academic years. After that, the university will decide whether to continue or dissolve the organization.
All students are encouraged to attend the event and consider participating in future Shark Tanks. Anyone can contribute ideas, no matter their major.
"The biggest misconception about entrepreneurship is that it is completely business-focused," Brill said. "You just have to have a creative mind and a willingness to fail. You just have to get back up again and do it better than you did it before."
