“Sharks” Lindsay Jorgensen and Kush Patel decide whether to make an investment at the LHS Shark Tank event May 8, 2015. (Photo by Suzette J. Lucas.)
Suraj and Akash Kura were the winners of the LHS Shark Tank event May 8, 2015 with their invention Compad, a mobile standing desk inspired by their father’s commute to work. (Photo by Suzette J. Lucas.)
By Amy Macintyre
It’s not every Friday night that students at Lawrence High School get to take over the teachers lounge, eat pizza and chat about TV, but at the 2nd annual Cardinal Shark Tank Competition on May 1, LHS Business and International Studies Academy students discussed their favorite “sharks” as they prepared for the night’s upcoming business presentations by their fellow students.
When asked his favorite shark, Kush Petal said enthusiastically, “Mark!” after a dramatic pause as he pointed from head to toe. The 18-year-old senior and B&IS Academy co-president painstakingly styled himself after Mark Cuban, billionaire entrepreneur and cast member of ABC’s “Shark Tank.” The competition was modeled after the hit reality TV show.
“It’s an incredible learning experience and a lot of fun,” said Michael Cimorelli, LHS math teacher, B&IS Academy leader, and creator and organizer of the Shark Tank event.
The competition, which was open to all Lawrence township school district students and teachers, attracted 10 teams of entrepreneurs and 4 teams of investors, otherwise referred to as “sharks.” Five members from the local business community volunteered as judges, and at the end of the presentations, the 100 attendees in the audience were given the chance to cast votes live on their smartphones.
The entrepreneurs each had a chance to introduce their companies with a presentation and offer the sharks a share of their business in exchange for an investment. While the young entrepreneurs vied for offers, the sharks were considering proper valuations, vetting their prospective investments and getting the best value for their money. Unlike Mark Cuban, the LHS shark teams each had a set budget of make-believe money they could invest over the course of the evening.
“They are taking their own ideas for products or companies and trying to convince not just the sharks, but some of the most successful members of the Lawrence Business community that they can be successful with these ideas,” Cimorelli said.
“As an entrepreneur myself, I value not only the quality of the business idea, but what creative ways the entrepreneur thinks about their ideas,” said Elias Jo, Lawrence resident and founder and CEO of Entourage Yearbooks, located in Princeton Junction.
Jo participated as a judge and sponsor. So did local business people Don Addison from Mrs. G Inc., Frank Di Meglio of Northwestern Mutual, Andy Maskell of Santander Bank and Kelly Ford of Edison Ventures.
Cimorelli said the entrepreneurs’ goals were to present the needs of their company and provide financial estimates all while demonstrating the utmost professionalism.
Professionalism was just one of the qualities that caught the attention of the judges when Suraj and Akash Kura presented their winning invention, Compad. Inspired by their father’s commute to work, Suraj, 11, and Akash, 10, set out to make a mobile, standing desk that reduces the risk of broken or damaged laptops dropped by clumsy hands.
“He always takes his laptop to work and back and so if he wants to work while he’s on the train, all he has to do is set up the Compad, put his laptop on it and done,” Suraj said.
The Kura brothers brought their prototype on stage with them, a laptop harness and desk system that can be attached to any backpack made from leather straps, PVC rulers, hinges and a harness.
After premiering their homemade commercial that was perfectly reminiscent of the exaggerated “As Seen On TV” infomercials, Suraj and Akash got down to business with the sharks. In a series of slides, they outlined just what they needed to grow their company from a prototype to supplying big-box retailers. They offered 25 percent equity in their business for $50,000.
“We’ll give you $50,000, but since your invention really hasn’t been tested truly yet, we’d like 30 percent equity,” said Dan Wolf, history teacher at LHS.
The Kura brothers jumped at the first bite. “We’ll take your offer,” they said without a moment’s hesitation and swiftly made their way across the stage to shake hands with their new investor.
“You won’t regret it!” Wolf assured as the audience applauded the swift deal.
Jo said the judges were impressed by the Kura brothers’ presentation because it was thoughtful and distinctive.
“They saw a need, which was how to help their father use the time he takes to commute effectively and created a product and idea out if it. That was thoughtful and creative,” he said. “Pretty advanced thinking for young entrepreneurs.”
Students weren’t just pitching inventions on the stage. The sharks had a chance to invest in a wide variety of creative company ideas from 3D-printed toys to food trucks to even tech start-ups.
LHS junior Szymon Dlugowski received 1st runner up with his company Adboxity. When Dlugowski, 18, isn’t in school, he’s making custom websites, working at a local printing business as a marketing manager, and working on his own start-up. He saw the Shark Tank competition as another way to get the word out about his company.
Wearing a custom Adboxity T-shirt, he asked the audience, “What if you bid on ad space? What if there’s an auction where you know that you are not going to pay more than someone else is going to bid for that same space?”
“When you’re competing with other people you know that someone is going to spend that money to advertise and that way you can know that you are going to get a good price for it because that’s what other businesses are paying,” he said as he explained Adboxity. “It’s always competitive.”
Patel swooped in with the first offer. “When I think about this company, I think of it as the next GoDaddy or Amazon,” he said. “This is something that can definitely expand very quickly.”
There was a short pause before offers started to fly. The $49,000 Dlugowski initially asked for reached $200,000 as the sharks circled him to get in on the ground floor.
“I’d like to be your Sean Parker,” Patel said as a nod to the Facebook investor. That statement, along with an offer of $200,000, bought him 9 percent of Adboxity.
The entrepreneurs may not have been able to take home the hundreds of thousands of dollars offered up by the investors, but they do get to keep the invaluable lessons that will help them succeed in the future.
“I think that the communication and presentation skills developed through this experience are huge,” Cimorelli said. “It’s so important for students to leave high school with confidence in their abilities to speak in front of groups and communicate their ideas effectively.”
However, Suraj and Akash will be leaving this experience with a little more. The brothers will have the opportunity to visit Edison Venture, where they will receive a $500 investment and guidance in moving forward with their company.
“We’re going to keep going; never give up,” Akash said. They plan to keep working on their company and project sales in the “few hundred thousand” in the next few years.
Considering the success of last year’s winners, 11-year-old entrepreneurs Emily and Lyla Allen of the Kitchen Twins, their goal isn’t too far fetched.
The Lawrence twins were just 10 years old when they went to collect their winnings at Edison Venture and impressed the company’s CMO, Kelly Ford. With her help, the Kitchen Twins’ bake-your-own kale chips are now on the shelves of 300 grocery stores.
Cimorelli hopes to continue the annual LHS Shark Tank competition for years to come.
“It ties into the goals of the Business Academy; to provide real world experiences to help prepare our students for their future careers and to build stronger ties with the Lawrence business community,” he said. “We hope we can grow the participation.”
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