A mix of nerves, excitement and entrepreneurial ideas filled the RMA this Thursday night as five businesses took the spotlight at Lake Forest High School’s Annual Pitch Night. These entrepreneurs were picked from a pool of 16 businesses. These teams have just 10 minutes to pitch their products and ideas to a panel of judges and a crowd to try and earn funds to continue their brands.
This past February, all the business incubator groups had their own MVP pitches in front of judges and community members. After loads of memorization and practicing, earlier this May, these same groups gave another academic pitch. This was held in the business incubator room — a preview to the real deal. From there, four teams were chosen to go on.
The pressure was on for pitch night, the most anticipated event in the LFHS business calendar.
This Thursday, five standout teams, Jamin, Pure Patch, Go Caddie, Humidity Hero and the wild card pick Fresh Fit Insoles — stepped onto the stage to pitch their ideas in what felt like the Superbowl of LFHS business events.
The investors will get $10,000, which will then be divided to the groups deemed most fit. Each team took home a portion of the money, but it was Humidity Hero who received the Pitch Night Cup.
Humidity Hero was first to pitch their business. The Humidity Hero team is very proud of their product and how far they’ve come. CMO Kacey Busam credits the team’s incredibly close dynamic as what set them up for success.
“We really perfected our pitch by practicing a lot, bouncing ideas off one another, and divvying up the work evenly,” Busam said.
Humidity Hero is a 2-in-1, first of its kind hairbrush that is portable and designed to fix all frizz on the go. It has an anti frizz sheet that is attached to the brush, so your hair problems are solved all in one.
“We are super excited to have this opportunity to pitch. We worked hard all year and are confident in our product. Our mentor and teacher have been extremely helpful, and it’s been a super great learning experience for us, and we cannot wait to see what lies in the future for Humidity Hero,” CEO Maddy Cummins said.
The four members of Humidity Hero received $5,000 from the judges. They are excited to use this towards further development and a final prototype of their brush to get into the market.
Then, Jamin – Teddy Atzeff, Emerson Buettner and Asher Baasen – went up on stage. Jamin is essentially social media, but for music. You can collaborate with friends, join music groups and have 30-second feeds.
Jamin has curated a fun and creative feed on Instagram with their featuring of LFHS students choices for ‘Song of the Day’. This not only correlates with their product’s theme of music, but draws the audience in an engaging way.
They even brought this exciting energy onto stage when Baasen did a backflip, wowing the judges.
“Jamin was very happy but also surprised to make it to pitch tonight. We’re ready to see how far we can go, and hopefully we can win some cash,” CEO Emerson Buettner said.
Jamin ended up accepting $2,500. They hope to put this money towards further development of their app so they can continue to grow as a business.
Pure Patch followed up with their pitch. They are all extremely excited on what’s to come for the future of their product. They have had lots of success with their mentor, which they can say has been a key part of their road to pitch night.
“As a team, we’ve worked very hard throughout the year to make our business a reality, and we are all so excited to be going to pitch night. Knowing how hard we’ve worked just feels super awarding to be one of five teams,” CMO Maddie Rode said, “In terms of our product, we decided to approach the healthcare field and created a 2-in-1 antiseptic infused dressing for student athletes.”
Pure Patch ended up earning $1,000. They are excited to use this money to finalize their prototype, drive awareness for sports related skin injuries and for their clinical trials.
Go Caddie then wrapped up the pitch night presentations. Allotting a bid of $2,500, they are a company that gives caddie masters at Country Club’s a chance to schedule caddies in advance. With these funds, they can continue to grow their business and app. Go Caddies not just advanced scheduling, but the app also offers payment options and review systems all in one.
“As a team, we are very proud to make it to pitch night. One thing our group looks forward to is presenting in front of a big crowd. That’s something we are not used to, so we have been practicing a lot. Overall, we are very excited for what’s to come in the future for Go Caddie,” COO Jack Douglass said.
Originally, only four teams were going to pitch night — but one spot was reserved for a wild card pick. That pick went to Fresh Fit Insoles, whose name was chosen out of a cup by Mr. Sheridan.
Fresh Fit Insoles prides themselves in providing insoles that have cooling, comfort, and smell prevention. They got a bid of $1,000, which they will put towards the finalization of their prototype.
“We were very surprised about the wild card pick. We didn’t think we could finish our presentation before Thursday, so we really had to scrabble to make it. But, we are extremely excited to share our business and hopefully get funding to push Fresh Fit Insoles to the next level,” Director Of Marketing, Callum Morrison, said.
Even though this group had less time to prepare due to being picked as the ‘wild card’ just two days ago, they still earned “Best Pitch” from the judges.
The four teams who advanced to pitch night automatically continue onto the Business Accelerated course their senior year. With this opportunity, they use their donations and investments to grow their product and ideas even further. Good luck to these teams and the future of their brand, and congrats on all that you have achieved.
