Rochester Student Entrepreneurs Competing For $16,000 in Funding

Rochester, MN (KROC-AM News) The Rochester Public School District's first 'Pitch Night' for INCubatoredu@rps students will take place virtually tonight, with $16,000 in funding up for grabs.

According to a news release from RPS, INCubatoredu is a national entrepreneurship program and the first of its kind in Minnesota. INCubatoredu is a year-long course available to all junior and senior year students at RPS. The students have the opportunity to create and fully develop their own product or service with the help of real entrepreneurs and business experts that serve as volunteer coaches and mentors; guiding student teams through the process of developing their product.

The teams and mentors work through the processes of developing hypotheses about a business concept, testing those hypotheses, adapting, and continually learning and improving.

This cycle of experimentation is combined with foundational business content such as marketing and finance. The course concludes with the students pitching their ideas to investors to generate seed money to grow their operations.

Three student teams from the INCubatoredu@rps program will be pitching their ideas tonight, May 26th, at 6 p.m., in a Shark Tank-style manor to the INCubatoredu@rps Board of Advisors.

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The three teams are competing for up to $16,000 in funding to help support their entrepreneurial operation, with the help of Think Bank and the Prow Company.

The student teams are:
• Hoodini is in innovative business in the hooded sweatshirt industry that has created the Spyracell to not only look fashionable, but keep hoodie strings straight and secure.

• MagnaBoxx is a product for teens and young adults that helps to “secure the charge” by preventing your phone charger from coming out of the outlet.

• MusiQuorum is a social media app that is connecting up-and-coming artists, producers, and others in the music industry to collaborate and create together

The Board of Advisors includes:
• Tim Penny – Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation
• Jennifer Hosfeld – Think Bank
• Joe Powers – Powers Ventures

You can watch 'Pitch Night' on RPS's YouTube page here.