On August 12, CUBE, Carolina’s social innovation incubator, held a pitch party to showcase the concepts behind its new cohort of social ventures. The pitch party, held at the Top of the Hill on Franklin St., was the culmination of a two-week summer accelerator.
CUBE’s summer accelerator included interactive workshops from experts in the field of social entrepreneurship and tours of successful social companies. The pitch party allowed Carolina Students to give their own three-minute spiels to an audience of over 60 people about how they hoped to change a current social or environmental situation for the better.
“The accelerator introduced me to a lot of aspects of building the infrastructure for a solid business that I had not yet thought of. The most helpful aspect of the incubator, I think, was working on the pitch, clarifying how we can communicate our goals, mission and value,” said one CUBE team leader.
Some highlights included the pitch for So Good Pupusas, a student-created company that uses a food truck to finance scholarships for undocumented latino student who cannot afford higher education. The company brought in samples of the tasty Salvadorian treat, a gesture that was well received. Another was Meantime Coffee Company, a 501(c)3 student-run coffee shop that uses fair trade coffee beans and invests profits back into Carolina.
These students had clearly learned how to hone their “elevator pitches” into full-length presentations—a skill that is certainly necessary for attracting investors. In addition, the program helped students make valuable network connections in the Triangle area, giving them an early advantage to establish a startup in the region. The pilot program was a success and will likely be continued again in the future.
In the meantime, check out this video of we are giving their pitch!