Business Accelerator is a class at LFHS that students take if they succeeded in the previous year’s Business Incubator “Pitch Night”. The course allows groups to grow their businesses using the funding from Pitch Night. Three months into Accelerator, all five groups have made major improvements to their company.
SafeSorella
SafeSorella is a safety device in the form of a keychain. It has a small alert button that will put the victim in contact with local law enforcement in an emergency. The group temporarily pivoted from their original idea of a safety necklace, as it is still in development, but is planning on pursuing this in the future.
Despite having to pivot ideas, senior Owen Kohut believes that the group is still making good progress, although they have a lot more in store.
“We plan to continue selling our safety keychain while also continuing to develop our necklace with our engineers,” said Kohut.
ParkingPal
ParkingPal is an app that provides local homeowners with an efficient way to connect with students who are seeking parking spots near the school. It aims to provide an easier way for students to find homeowners looking to rent their driveways at an agreeable price.
“In the past three months, we have worked on creating a functional website that will hopefully be ready by second semester. Once we get our website running, our plan is to use the money we earn from website transactions to build our app,” said senior Charlotte Arvia. ParkingPal is also planning on meeting with Spothero, a similar parking app, in hopes to potentially work out a deal.
Athlattic
Athlattic is a sports equipment and apparel resale business run on a website that allows students and parents to easily sell to potential buyers. So far, things have been running smoothly.
“We’ve focused on getting an LLC and Bank Account for our business, while also presententing to the APT and LFHS Foundation,” said senior Quinn Brown.
Right now, the group is spending their funds from pitch night on improving various features on their website. They are currently working on ways to market their website through social media and through reaching out to parent organizations in the area.
Velox Photography
Velox Photography is a service that provides customers with access to high quality sports
photos during their games. So far, Velox has already made multiple sales and has even shot a birthday party.
“We’re currently trying to work with team parents for sports like basketball to potentially shoot all of their home games. We’re also hoping to have more media days in the future once we build up to it,” said senior Karl Nagel.
Season Ready
Season Ready is a website that offers film analysis of hockey players looking to improve their game. The group has already been able to complete their website and are currently working towards increasing customer activity.
“Our goal for the future is to find a way to take our business from simply the classroom to a business that can actively help athletes. We are trying to analyze film for at least three sports players over the next few months,” said senior Charlie Engelberg.
All groups are currently working towards improving their companies in every way possible, including their current sales competition where the winning group wins a signed Patrick Kane jersey. Each business will pitch to investors some time in the second semester in hopes of even more funding.
