Three student teams from the Dept. of Community Development and Applied Economics (CDAE) recently participated in the 2021 annual UVM Business Pitch Competition, presenting their business ideas to a panel of entrepreneurs for a chance at winning over $3,000 in prizes. While only one team was awarded prize money, all three proposed innovative and impactful businesses seeking to better the lives of others.

The pitch competition, organized by the Grossman School of Business and open to students across UVM, marked the culmination of a semester-long project in Assistant Professor Trisha Shrum’s course, CDAE 267: Strategic Planning for Community Entrepreneurship. Students spent the semester developing real world business plans and gaining the skills to be ready to pitch their enterprises to potential investors.

“Starting with a focus on design thinking, students identified important problems facing consumers,” said Shrum. “When I read their initial business ideas, I was blown away by the creativity and high impact of each of their business concepts. From there, they worked hard over the semester to build those ideas into solid business plans and pitches that leverage their transdisciplinary CDAE education to build solutions for stronger and more sustainable communities.”

Eleven total teams competed in this year’s event, held virtually on Microsoft TEAMS. Learn more about the businesses put forth by Shrum’s community entrepreneurship students below.

ABLE

Community entrepreneurship majors Declan Mayo ‘21, Carlie Mashia ’21, and Olivia Crainich ‘22 came together to launch ABLE, an online employment and consulting platform that focuses on connecting job seekers with disabilities to companies looking to increase the diversity of their workforce and help provide equal opportunity for all. As someone living with legal blindness, Mayo said he knows how challenging it can be to seek employment with a disability. In addition to providing services to job seekers, such as resume building and interview training, ABLE plans to work directly with large companies to help them seek out, accommodate and integrate people with disabilities into their workforce.

“We want to help break down the stereotype that workers with disabilities are less qualified and show that they have unique problem-solving skills that will provide long-term value to the company,” said Mayo.

The team was awarded the Most Innovative Technology prize by the competition judging panel, as well as the People’s Choice Award, selected by a live electronic vote of virtual attendees.

Bloom Packaging

Emma Ritson ’21 and Rusty Sugg ’21 are the founders of Bloom Packaging, a hemp-based, sustainable packaging business creating plastic alternatives that can be composted at home. Studying community entrepreneurship and food systems, respectively, the duo was frustrated by the amount of plastic waste being dumped into the environment, despite efforts to recycle or use bioplastics, which must be composted at industrial facilities. “If we continue on this path, by the time both of us are 52, there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean,” said Ritson.

A nationwide rush to grow hemp in the summer of 2019 led to an oversupply and has driven hemp prices down in Vermont. With hemp being a versatile and strong raw material, Ritson and Sugg saw an opportunity to help address both the plastic packaging problem, and provide a new market for hemp growers in the state. They plan to start with producing yogurt and dairy containers and eventually provide sustainable packaging options for a broader range of products.

The Glass Ceiling

Devin Spindel ’21 and Sara Spencer ’21 pitched the development of a new rooftop greenhouse that will serve as a multipurpose event space for the Burlington community. With more people working from home, coupled with a wave of new remote workers to Vermont during the pandemic, the community entrepreneurship majors saw an opportunity to create a unique, new co-working space that would give workers beautiful views of Lake Champlain and the Green Mountains. The space would operate as a café and co-working space by day and cocktail bar by night, with rental services for special events.

“We are unlike any business in Burlington offering a new, unique outlook on the remote workspace and café/bar scene,” said Spinel. The team hopes to partner with local coffee suppliers and bakeries for the café offerings, and the UVM Greenhouse to outfit the greenhouse space.

The UVM Business Pitch Competition is a university-wide annual event led by the Grossman School of Business, with support from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, Office of the Vice President of Research, as well as a number of alumni and community sponsors.