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Seun Suberu, Founder & CEO, College Plus – 1st Place!
Congratulations to Seun Suberu, who won the SMU Startup Launch Competition last week for his company College Plus.
He was one of the finalists with some amazing competition, but he was chosen as the number one choice by the judges during a very competitive pitch contest.
Seun Suberu created CollegePlus in a team at Google because they felt like the college admissions process was too confusing for most students to make such an important decision. CollegePlus started as a small web app and has expanded to an app and multimedia presence since then. CollegePlus now has many features (and many more to come) to accommodate the needs of the average college student.
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
The previous SMU Business Plan Competition will now be replaced by the new Cox Graduate Entrepreneurship Club (CGEC) Business Accelerator Program. This program will provide SMU students (both undergraduate and graduate students from across all departments) and recently graduate SMU alumni entrepreneurs the opportunity to take a business venture from idea to product launch. This intense and enriching 6-month program offers a unique combination of immersive workshops, mentorship, as well as access to a wealth of entrepreneurial and investor networks. The program is designed to accelerate ideas, technologies, products, or existing businesses into a thriving market by providing support and hands-on mentorship. This program features two competitions; (1) a Semi-Finalist Elevator Pitch Competition that awards non-dilutive pre-seed funding and in-kind donations up to $10,000 and (2) a Finalist SMU Startup Launch competition that awards over $50,000 in cash and in-kind donations.
SMU Startup Launch Competition
Progam Overview
The previous SMU Business Plan Competition will now be replaced by the new Cox Graduate Entrepreneurship Club (CGEC) Business Accelerator Program. This program will provide SMU students (both undergraduate and graduate students from across all departments) and recently graduate SMU alumni entrepreneurs the opportunity to take a business venture from idea to product launch. This intense and enriching 6-month program offers a unique combination of immersive workshops, mentorship, as well as access to a wealth of entrepreneurial and investor networks. The program is designed to accelerate ideas, technologies, products, or existing businesses into a thriving market by providing support and hands-on mentorship. This program features two competitions; (1) a Semi-Finalist Elevator Pitch Competition that awards non-dilutive pre-seed funding and in-kind donations up to $10,000 and (2) a Finalist SMU Startup Launch competition that awards over $50,000 in cash and in-kind donations.
Key Dates
- Announcement of Finalists: February 7, 2022
- SMU Startup Launch Competition: March 25, 2022
- Winners Announced at Investors Dinner: March 25, 2022
- Application Deadline: September 9, 2022 by 11:59 pm CST
About
The SMU Cox Graduate Entrepreneurship Club, founded in 2000, is a student-led organization dedicated to promoting innovation within the SMU community. The Cox Graduate Entrepreneurship club fosters opportunities for student club members to achieve their goals of starting and launching a viable business, exploring venture capital interest, supporting a startup, or inspiring entrepreneurial thinking. The Cox Graduate Entrepreneurship club provides members with resources, hands-on support from the SMU entrepreneurship community, mentorship, and support from the Dallas startup community.
congratulations Seun Suberu - Founder of College Plus, and 1st Place Winner!
Featured 1st Place Winner
Featured 1st Place Winner
Listen To Our Podcast with Valecia Harris - President, CGEC
Announcing the partnership with kNEXTis and BCN
We are proud to announce our new partnership with SMU Cox School of Business. Over the next few months we will be covering the new Business Accelerator Program and showcasing the finalists in the SMU Startup Launch competition.
The Cox Graduate Entrepreneurship Club is excited to announce the Finalists for the 2022 SMU Startup Launch Competition Finalists
We look forward to seeing the work each team and founders will bring to this program. Congratulations!
Adam Siepker | OrcaChat, LLC | SMU Alumni ’20- Undergraduate
Elias Elleffsen | Spiked | SMU Graduate Student- Cox MBA
Hunter Gore | Horizon’s Edge | SMU Alumni ’21- MS Engineering
Irewole Akande |City Health Tech Inc | SMU Graduate Student – Cox MBA
Jude Lugo |Commerce Navigator | SMU Undergraduate Student
Katie Lewis | Borrow | SMU Graduate Student- Cox MBA
Madison McMahan |The Social Panacea |SMU Undergraduate Student
Phillip Truppeli |Principia Technologies | MS Engineering
Seun Suberu | College Plus | SMU Undergraduate Student
Sonia Saeed | spotBOX, LLC | SMU UndergraduateStudent
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Channel, Featured Article, Special Feature, Talk 101
Product Knowledge
Confidence is one of the key factors of the art of selling. I’m not just talking about being able to physically get up in front of someone and pitch or have the ability to pick up the phone and have a conversation with a complete stranger.
That helps, but understanding the reason you are communicating with someone is essential.
I know hundreds of senior people and entrepreneurs that are uncomfortable speaking to people but if you get them on a subject that they love and have knowledge about they can command a room and capture an audience.
I remember when I started my first job in media sales, I had no clue about selling, but I knew I loved advertising. My older brother was a senior executive at a large global advertising agency and I looked up to him and wanted to be like him.
I had tried to get into an agency but I didn’t have the experience, I was only 20 years old and only had a two year diploma from the local technical college in business. But I was enthusiastic, boy was I enthusiastic!
My love of creating messages, and adverts showcasing someone’s products and business gave me that confidence to learn how to communicate the value of media, and why they should advertise.
But I needed to know the details of the medium I was selling.
I had the passion for the methodology of why some should promote themselves, but I was unsure how to convey to a prospective buyer why they should spend money with me.
I found out that there were several very enthusiastic and talented people working for my competitors, and they had more experience than me, and had captured the budget from my prospects, and the businesses were happy with the results.
I wanted to learn about my competitors and understand what they had that I didnt. I found out that they were very similar to my product so I had to set myself apart, and create reasons for businesses to talk to me.
I went to my sales manager and asked what information was there about the power of newspaper advertising ( yes NEWSPAPER – this was back in the ’80s ).
The industry had just created a national association that was researching the power of newspapers and started to put out newsletters with examples and statistics.
These talked about how to sell against Radio and Television and had case studies.
I absorbed all this information, and as I read this knowledgebase my confidence grew.
I walked into businesses with an attitude of I’m the expert in this field and I found that my prospects wanted to listen to me.
My competition found that their clients wanted to see me, because I was adding value to their business, and slowly I moved revenue away from my competition to my book of business.
So as I developed and grew my knowledge, so did my confidence.
Knowledge is a differentiator, and as you can show that you add value to your prospects you will find that your book of business will grow.
There are many ways you can learn today, and we have developed ways to deliver product knowledge to sales professionals and operational staff, including safety and mental health topics that are an essential part of doing business today.
By giving your workforce and channel the tools, knowledge and resources you can create an environment of confident individuals that will embrace your goals and objectives.