Family focus key in LSUS Pilot Pitch winners

Family focus key in LSUS Pilot Pitch winners

SHREVEPORT - In LSU Shreveport's annual student entrepreneurial competition Friday, a focus on products and services that benefitted families underpinned the winning pitches.

LSUS's Pilot Pitch, a contest in which students develop and present their business plans in front of a judges' panel for cash prizes, produced pitches from three undergraduate finalists and six graduate finalists in the Davis Business Engagement Center.

Undergraduate winner Paige Schuldt used her own experience as a mom of a 13-month-old baby to create The Nurture Nook, a portable pop up that provides breastfeeding mothers a place to nurse.

Graduate winner Max Haubrich sought a solution to the run-of-the-mill children's birthday party with his business idea SurPrize!, an all-in-one boutique toy store that offers kids and their guests an immersive birthday party experience.

As a new mother, Schuldt said she experienced the isolation of staying home because of nonexistent public breastfeeding options.

"I started to feel isolated, overwhelmed, and uncomfortable in public, so I just opted to stay home," Schuldt said. "We have so many festivals and events going on here.

"Moms are forced to choose to nurse or pump in a hot car or in an unsanitary public restroom -- or stay home."

But Schuldt birthed the idea of The Nurture Nook, which is a furnished pop-up space for festivals and events that would allow mothers to nurse their babies in a comfortable, private setting.

She and her husband manufactured their first Nurture Nook and debuted the product, which is equipped with fans and blankets to manage weather conditions year-round, at her first event this September.

"I firmly believe that The Nurture Nook should be a free public service, and I've built a revenue model that is a perfect blend of rental fees from event coordinators and venues, sponsorships from local businesses, fundraising that's already begun, and donations from the public."

Haubrich, a Philadelphia resident who is an online MBA student, aimed to combine the gift-giving and birthday party experience into an interactive yet intimate occasion with SurPrize!.

"Our vision is that we want to create a birthday party experience inside of a toy store," Haubrich said. "Kids attending a birthday party learn practical generosity - no more abstract concepts of what it might look like to give a gift, they pick out the gift and give it to the directly to their friend.

"This also innovates the toy store model to ensure they are pillars of their community for years to come."

The physical space is part toy store, part interactive birthday experience.

"A story plays out on the screen, and our amazing staff and actors help the kids run through the story," Haubrich said. "At various points, they encounter what are called SurPrize! points, in which they are given gifts that they can then give to the birthday child based on that child's interest.

"This makes it simple for parents to give meaningful gifts but shows kids a more practical way to be generous."

Haubrich explains that birthday parents and the parents of birthday guests contribute beforehand to a "birthday pot," which allows the store to acquire gifts from their inventory and generate a story for the party.

The original target market would be high-income families in urban areas with future franchising plans to expand into other markets.

The graduate and undergraduate winners each received a $3,000 prize and six months of support from the Entrepreneurial Accelerator Program, a local mentorship program designed to improve an idea or business plan.

SurPrize! edged out other graduate student projects that included Bayou Boxables (Bridgette Hocke-Hendry) and Centera (Melanie Cappel).

Bayou Boxables is a "glamping" concept that converts shipping containers into makeshift cabins steeped in Louisiana culture that would allow families to more comfortably enjoy the great outdoors.

Centera is a customer relationship management software specifically designed for PACE organizations (Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly) to better facilitate older adults to live at home instead of in nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

In the undergraduate division, The Nurture Nook bested business plans like Pedal Pursuits (Caden Mayeaux) and Community Complex (ZaMoriah Wesley).

Mayeaux's love for aviation pushed him down the path of imagining a human-powered aircraft device that can be attached to a bicycle and lift the rider into the air, flying among treetops in the backyard or at a park.

Wesley's love for the outdoors (minus the heat and bugs) motivated her to design a building that feels like the outdoors complete with artificial grass for community gatherings.

Second-place winners in each division receive $1,000 and EAP support while third-place winners receive the EAP mentorship.

All nine finalists will receive a $500 credit for a class in LSUS Continuing Education.

Pilot Pitch is much more than just a one-day business presentation competition - it's the culmination of a monthslong process that assists students in sharpening their ideas and business plans through workshops and mentorship with LSUS faculty and local business leaders.

"Pilot Pitch is a perfect example of what we're striving to do at LSUS, which is to connect students to not just the expertise of our faculty but to the expertise of our community partners," said Dr. Helen Taylor, LSUS Provost. "Engaging in experiential learning is the sustaining value, the opportunity to learn from faculty and industry professionals throughout this process."

Dr. Mary Lois White, Dean of the LSUS College of Business, added that extra emphasis was placed on recruiting students, both business majors and others across campus, starting this past summer.

"We went out to university preview sessions and new student orientations to get students interested in this idea early on," White said. "Not everybody got to the final stage where they submitted all of their deliverables, but they have ideas for next year and know how the process works.

"We're looking at this as a multi-year pipeline so that by the time they get their complete pitches ready, they are in great shape. We couldn't do this without our Pilot Pitch organizing committee, our faculty mentors, the Entrepreneurial Accelerator Program, and our judges."