Camp BizSmart Crowdfunding Contest Winners

This fall, Piggybackr teamed up with Camp BizSmart to run a contest for their entrepreneurial student alumni. Here's a guest blog from co-founder Peggy Gibbs.

The first Piggybackr and Camp BizSmart crowdfunding contest for aspiring entrepreneurs concluded this month. Camp BizSmart, a summer business academy for 11-15 year old students, challenged teams to raise money, awarding the team that raised the most a meeting with a Silicon Valley VC and a $250.00 matching grant for their cause.

The winning team was "Treasures 4 Teens" – led by Michael Daboll a 16-year old Camp BizSmart alum from Los Gatos, CA who at the end of the contest, had raised $3,484.00 and earned 180 effort points through Piggybackr.

Treasures 4 Teens is a nonprofit Mike started in 2010, after realizing that teens were not getting age appropriate gifts during the holiday season toy drives. He was pleased to crowdfund to get the word out about his nonprofit, especially before the busy Christmas season hit. Money raised will be used to purchase iPod shuffles for hundreds of teens. They are still raising funds here.

We were so impressed by the competition participants that we granted “JewelRead” the 2nd place team a special $200 award in recognition for their tremendous team collaboration and persistence, skills we value here at Camp BizSmart! They ended up raising $2,875.00 dollars while earning 734 effort points on Piggybackr.

JewelRead is a new organization on a mission to share the joy of reading with underpriviledged kids all around the world. They raise funds to distribute books to less fortunate kids and even started their own jewelry shop to help raise funds.

The team, led by Jennifer Veis met this past summer at Camp BizSmart and went on to win an international competition at Stanford.

Jennifer shared that she was thankful “for all the helpful tips that were given us throughout the competition" and how the experience helped the team learn "countless things ranging from how to better collaborate to the art of crowd funding."

In third place was “Blue Amber Films", created by Camp BizSmart Alum, Christian Gutierrez. Christian demonstrated keen marketing skills and creativity. While just beginning the launch of his film company, we expect to hear great things from him in the future.

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These student projects all represent different ways which Camp BizSmart alumni are following their passions and making a difference. We congratulate them all as well good luck as they follow their dreams. 

We are always pleased when Camp BizSmart alums receive attention for their hard work, persistence and passion. Recently, reporter Khalida Sarwari, a reporter for the San Jose Mercury News, interviewed the Camp BizSmart alumni of JewelRead. Check out their article here JewelRead’s goal: For all kids to enjoy books.http://www.mercurynews.com/saratoga/ci_24358412/saratoga-jewelreads-goal-all-kids-enjoy-books

We look forward to the next wave of projects and ideas that our Camp BizSmart alumni will post on Piggybackr and are pleased to have formed this partnership with Piggybackr.com which has made it possible for our alumni to post their projects to gain support.


About the Author

Peggy Gibbs (Co-founder of Camp BizSmart) has served as a senior executive at innovative non-profits for over 25 years. Her work includes start-up design, strategic partnerships, and management for cutting-edge social enterprises focused on education, arts, health, and technology solutions. Peggy’s work with school districts has brought engaging education programs to many students, parents, and teachers throughout the Bay Area. Most recently, she was VP of business development for the award-winning social enterprise company Benetech. She serves on the board of University of the Pacific & School of International Studies, and is a board member for the Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce.

Camp BizSmart is a product design, business plan and entrepreneur academy that inspires young entrepreneurs 11 - 15, & provides hands-on training to develop essential skills and create innovative new products for cool companies. Camp BizSmart encourages our Alumni to continue their journey as aspiring entrepreneurs. To read more about Camp BizSmart summer programs at Stanford University or see past student innovations, please visit: www.campbizsmart.org

Partner Spotlight: Camp BizSmart & Getting Started as a Youth Entrepreneur

Our CEO, Andrea shares about her experience teaching at Camp BizSmart.

I was invited to be a guest faculty member at Camp BizSmart this summer, which takes place on the Stanford campus.  What is Camp BizSmart?  It's a summer entrepreneur academy for young people ages 11 - 15 that takes place in the Silicon Valley, CA.  CNN Money named them as one of the most unique camps in the United States!  

Students come from all around the world as far as India and China, but mainly the United States and get their hands and feet wet in product design and marketing.  While a few students come to camp with their own company ideas, most students are just eager to learn more about the world of business.  

To sum it up - teenagers get to go to camp for 2 weeks, learn directly from company executives, and solve REAL business problems for companies.  How cool is that?  You might ask - what does a 13 year old know about solving a company's problems?  

Well more and more companies (Piggybackr included) are realizing that Millennials (anyone born in the 1980's or later) use technology and buy products differently than previous generations - so they have incredibly important insights.  We here at Piggybackr took it so seriously, that Reed Kavner, our VP of Product came along to take notes.

Our Head of Product, Reed with Dr. Mike Gibbs, Founder of CampBizSmart
Photo Courtesy of CampBizSmart

I taught the students how to crowdfund, shared a tips on how to start a company, and presented a mini business case to them.  Student teams were asked to help redesign Piggybackr's landing page.  For anyone who runs a web-based company, your landing page is very important - it's like your storefront.  

Teams were given about 25 minutes to redesign our landing page so that it would appeal to other young people like themselves.  I was blown away by the students' work.  From some unexpected ideas like "you should add a game to the landing page so kids come to play" to incredibly insightful ones like "your color scheme is too similar to Facebook - it needs to be brighter," we were blown away!

At the end of each class, each team presented their feedback and we got to choose our favorite teams.   We've already started incorporating some of the student's feedback.  Anyone notice the brighter blue color in our navigation bar?  At the end of the camp, teams work on their own projects and even get to pitch ideas to a real panel of investors.  

Winning CampBizSmart team during Class #3, Stanford CA
Photo Courtesy of CampBizSmart

Young people often ask me "Andrea, how do you become an entrepreneur and start your own company?"  I'll admit that being in the Silicon Valley makes it easier because people are always open to new ideas - everyone either works for a start-up or knows someone who does. The short answer is learn as much as you can wherever you are.  Ask people who you think are interesting if they are will give you advice.  It's never too early to start.  There are a ton of opportunities out there to learn, things like a Camp BizSmart, that are designed to help you take your first steps.

Though camp is over, and school's about to start, many Camp BizSmart students are thinking about their ideas and how to take them to the next level.  In the next few weeks, we'll see Camp BizSmart students launch team fundraising projects on Piggybackr to get funding to take their projects to the next level.  Stay tuned!  Thank you Dr. Mike and Peggy Gibbs and Camp BizSmart for a wonderful summer!