living backwards

February 20th, 2007

The blue letters of my ICal read it months before, but little did I know that our team would be chosen to compete in the Finals of the Miven Partners/Pepperdine Business Plan Challenge.

We were given almost two weeks to double the length of our presentation and present before a amphitheatre full of students, entrepreneurs, and professors at Pepperdine’s Malibu campus.

Needless to say, we didn’t sleep much nor did we successfully manage to balance life, school, our own businesses and the competition.  We worked great as a team – what she couldn’t do, I could and vice versa.  And, before we knew it, it was 8 am on the twentieth.  There was nothing more we could do. Our friends and family came out to support and managed to serve up the samples (aka judges bribes) in good form.

The presentation was fabulous, Adoree was a pro!  We were optimistic and anxious to hear the results, happy to know that we had given it our all and it was now out of our control.  It was noon and the award ceremony wasn’t for another six hours.   However ironic, We were too tired to go home and nap. Unable to sleep on Malibu’s wet lawn, we just hung out.  Something we had not done for ages.

Before we know it we are at Dukes restaurant in Malibu, anxiously awaiting the news.  So. . . .?

At Dukes, we like to say that we both “won” and we “lost”:

We are HONORED to announce that we won Pepperdine University’s Socially-Minded Entrepreneur Award 2007, $1,000 cash, and a Gap Analysis (valued at $5-10,000).

We were disappointed to hear that we did not come in at #1 in the actual competition.  But, we are entrepreneurs and that certainly
won’t stop us!  It is worth noting that we did walk away with an additional $2,500 and a lot of motivation to carry on!

The award demonstrates that we are heading in the right direction. . . we are very proud to have such recognition behind ourselves and our business. And we are honored, that you, too, are a part of it.

Where does that leave us?  I think we will probably sleep for the next few days. . . and then after that, we will take a “fresh” look at our plan, utilizing all of your fabulous feedback in order to make the concept stronger. In addition, we plan to enter more business plan competitions and to speak with angel investors and VCs to help us figure out the best way/ time to move forward.