By Jaci Gorrell | Contributor
Six business ideas will be cast into the water and left to sink or swim this evening as a part of Taylor's third annual Shark Tank.
Competitors will have five short minutes to make a splash with a presentation promoting their products or services in the hopes of hooking the sharks. The event will begin at 7 p.m. in Cornwall Auditorium, and doors will open at 6:45 p.m.
According to event Co-Coordinator senior Sam Petersen, though the competition is closely modeled after the ABC television show "Shark Tank," Taylor does a few things differently. "If you watch the show, it's cutthroat and not super encouraging," Peterson said. "This has its own Taylor flair."
Business leaders from across Indiana are invited to sit in as sharks and entrusted with distributing the $5,000 in prize money. These sharks are not out for blood, but they do have high expectations for competitors.
"The first thing I'm looking at is how well-prepared (competitors) are." David Bolling, shark veteran and Indiana entrepreneur said. "Have they thought this through? Are they comfortable presenting? Part of being an entrepreneur and a leader is getting other people to believe in your vision. You've got to be confident and share your thoughts."
Entrepreneur-In-Residence Andrew Fennig has been helping competitors prepare to face the sharks. He likens good pitches to stories. They begin with a problem (the antagonist) and end with the product as a solution. To him, the key to crafting a business pitch is focusing on the heartbeat of all startups-projecting a vision of the world that's different than the way it is now.
Competition entry Advocase is one such vision, headed by sophomores Josh Graham and Caleb Truax III. Their idea involves bringing iPads to Toledo daycares for kids to draw pictures about inspiring words or phrases. The team hopes to turn these digital drawings into phone case artwork that will be sold to raise money to benefit Advocase's daycare partners.
For Graham, the preparation process began months ago when he was inspired at the Praxis business conference. "The idea Praxis put on my mind was, 'Think of why you want to start a business and who you want to benefit with your product,'" Graham said. "I began to think locally. Poverty is a big issue in Toledo, especially in the inner city."
Graham began to explore ways to help underprivileged children while getting them involved with a product, and Advocase evolved from there.
Junior Nolan Sponseller is another competitor. Hewill be pitching his mobile car-detailing business, Rollin' with Nolan. A service that offers car washes to business professionals, Rollin' with Nolan spawned from Sponseller's love for vehicles and the idea has been growing for the past three years.
Though the process excites him, Sponseller is wary of casting his idea into shark-infested waters: "It's kind of scary to be vulnerable, because from an entrepreneur standpoint, their business is like their baby, so just having it out there to take criticism or have people analyze it is pretty scary."
With vulnerability, practice, courage and a little shark bait, competitors will put their products on the line tonight and wait for what most people hope to never experience-a shark bite.
