Entrepreneurial savvy put to test at MHC

By Medicine Hat News on December 14, 2019.

Medicine Hat College business students had a Dragon’s Den-style business pitching competition last week, featuring products such as edible shotglasses and a house sitting app.

Jaubron Widdis was part of the team that won first prize in the second section with Hide-a-Shot, a biodegradable, water-soluble shotglass that contains a pre-portioned drink of your choice.

“It’s encased in a gel packaging, but it’s totally edible, so you can just pop it into your mouth, or pop it into a drink and you have a mixed drink right there for yourself,” he explained. “It’s really convenient and great for the environment.”

He says the product is particularly convenient due to its light weight and portability.

It was received very well by the judges, who had the opportunity to sample a mojito delivered through Hide-a-Shot.

“It’s very unique, so once they had a chance to try it, they really enjoyed the burst of flavour in their mouths,” Widdis said. “They were pleasantly surprised.”

The runner-up was an online house-sitting service called “Voyage Gatekeeping,” which connects homeowners to house sitters.

“It started off kind of like Skip the Dishes in my mind, where there were people who wanted drive-thru orders, but in this case instead of drive-thru orders it was house sitters,” said team member Brody Bonogofski, who has himself been a house sitter for the past couple years.

In developing the app, they realized there was just as much a market for people looking to house sit as there was for those looking for a sitter.

Instructor Miranda Davies told the News the value of this assignment is it takes students through the steps of generating business pitches in a way that’s challenging and fun, referring to it as an “active experiential learning classroom.”

Throughout the semester, they’ve practised pitching their ideas and refining them based on feedback from experts in the community.

“It’s a really tough class and really tough process,” she said. “Students who have made it to this – we had 21 teams competing at the end – had their business idea edited quite a few times. It’s really fun for them to be able to understand gaps in the marketplace.”

Davies says the diversity of MHC’s student body was especially instructive.

“We had some really good ideas, because our students are from a lot of different areas of life and have a lot of different experiences,” she said.

The students weren’t restricted to pitching Medicine Hat-based businesses, Davies added.

“We had a number of really cool ideas about helping (alleviate) poverty and water solutions in parts of the world – some in Dubai, some in India,” said Davies. “It was really innovative and very interesting.”

ATB contributed cash prizes to the competition, with first place in each section taking home $600 and second place $300. Third place received $150, as did the award for most impactful.

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