You have to sell your business idea to a group of strangers in the time it takes to ride an elevator. Ready?
Matt Aguilar was. The Franklin Park resident won the fifth annual Elevator Pitch Competition held at the University of Wisconsin — Platteville, where he is a senior studying business marketing.
Twenty-five students were given two minutes each to pitch a business idea to a group of business owners and business organizations.
Aguilar won with his pitch for a business he’s working to make a reality, an online yearbook for high schools. Along with his partners, he’s applied for four patents and his just starting to look for funding.
“The big challenge was telling the whole scope of the business in two minutes,” said Aguilar. “When I first started practicing, it was four to five minutes.”
Aguilar’s outgoing personality is something of an exception for the participants in the competition, said Prof. Kevin Bernhardt, moderator of the event.
“They tend to be more toward introverted,” said Bernhardt. “They are not comfortable, often, in getting up and talking in front of a group of people.”
And that’s not great for anyone, let alone business students.
“We’re all pitching something all the time,” Bernhardt said. “Entrepreneurs are not different.”
Aguilar doesn’t have any trouble presenting.
“He kind of breaks the mold for that,” Bernhard said. “He’s a little more extroverted. He thinks quick on his feet.”
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Aguilar also credits his win to the TV show Shark Tank where entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to potential investors.
“I love that show,” Aguilar said. “I’ve been watching since they started the series. I had a really good idea, because of that, what to say.”