On Her Way to Being India’s Next Billion Dollar Company and She Just Turned 20
When I was asked to be a semi-finals judge for our Entrepreneurs’ Organization’s Global
Student Entrepreneur Award (EO GSEA) competition, I was excited to be a part of it. I’d certainly heard how impressive these students were, how creative, how inspirational. But really I had no idea.
EO’s competition draws more than 1000 entries from college students from around the world. As a judge, I was part of a team of judges who picked a top winner from seven competitors who had won their local competitions in Costa Rica, Russia, Sweden, or even down the road in Chicago. Their stories were amazing:
– The student from Indonesia who processed a local plant to create oils used in the perfume and pharmaceutical industries. He was so successful he was able to triple the daily wages of his employees – to $3 a day. Oh, he also withstood a local middleman who placed a gun against his temple and told him to close his business. And we think WE have problems with our supply chains!
– A team of young women from Colombia who created a nail salon business that grew rapidly from a few tables in the back of a friend’s bar to multiple locations.
– A Nigerian woman who created an inexpensive soap product and novel distribution system as part of her determination to find the diarrhea that kills 25% of the people in her country because of lack of soap.
– The young woman from India (she says she’s India’s next billion dollar company and I would never be one to bet against her!) who created a novel, physiological method for training elementary school childrens’ brains to learn in a different way. The method proved so successful that she already has more than 100 franchises of her system in cities around the world.
– These young entrepreneurs were impressive even with rather mundane ideas. The least innovative business we saw in our judging panel was a Chicago college student who rented inflatables and furniture for kids parties and corporate events. Despite a rather competitive market, the company grew so rapidly that both his parents quit their full time jobs to come work for him!
None of these entrepreneurs had graduated yet, and they weren’t all business or technology majors. They came from every discipline (a farm-to-table matchmaking website for chefs was run by a political science major!), and they brought the passion, energy and creativity that we typically hear can only be found in Silicon Valley, Harvard or Stanford. I wish I could spend more than a day listening to these business concepts – they were all winners for me.
