YouthBiz Startup Winners

Congratulations to Business Services pathway student Miles Newbins from Cherokee Trail and Health & Wellness pathway student Charithasri Doddapaneni, Grandview High School for winning the first CCIC/YouthBiz Startup Week Pitch contest held virtually January 25-28th.

The YouthBiz Startup Week was a project planned and executed by Business Services DECA members Kuaw Htun and Donovan Bethea both from Eaglecrest High School and Jacob Martinez from Cherry Creek High School. The event was open to all CCIC students interested in learning about what it takes to start your own business! Participants who signed up to participate were from Business Services, Infrastructure Engineering, Health & Wellness, and Hospitality & Tourism.

The workshop provided insight into identifying your personality, selecting the right team members, budgeting, business idea generation, defining target markets, conducting market research, discovering your competitive advantage, identifying startup capital, presentation skills, and ended with a business concept pitch contest where students competed for the $250 grand prize!

A special thanks goes out to Anna Leer, a Vice President at Youth Biz, and her team of Maite and Ron; Business Services Advisory Board members Rick Walker and Danielle Lammon, Margie Adams, Oli Sanidas and entrepreneurs from the Denver South area for judging Thursday evening. Your mentorship and feedback were extremely valuable to all participants. In addition, we would like to thank the sponsor of this great project - Comcast! Thanks to all who assisted in making this event a huge success!