Pitch perfect: Melville School hosts 2nd annual student competition

The Melville School of Business will host its second annual Shark Tank-style student competition finale on Friday at Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Richmond campus.

The student pitch competition turns ideas into businesses, products, innovations, and social initiatives.

Of the 25 student teams who applied for the competition, 15 moved onto the preliminary round held in March. The second and final round of the competition will feature eight student teams.

The winners will receive cash prizes and alumni mentorship to support a business launch.

The eight teams have pitches about productivity, wellness tools, gaming, clean energy systems, fashion, and performance apparel. Three student finalists — Sophie Becker, Sarah Collister, and Yash Singh — all said they learned some new pitching skills.

Becker, a first-year technical apparel design student, will pitch a shorts system for bike touring that is designed to make long-distance cycling more practical.

“I have been cycling my whole life. I grew up in a very big bike family, and I’ve always had complaints with traditional bike shorts,” she says. 

Bike touring is travelling by bike from days to months on end. Becker says cyclists have to pack light — making laundry the biggest hurdle.

“Traditional bike shorts have this padding in the middle called a chamois, and it’s usually just foam and that takes the longest to dry,” she says. “If we can remove this, we can not only make it easier to launder, but we could make user preference top of mind.”

Becker adds that bike shorts aren’t often designed for female anatomy and removing the chamois provides choice for female cyclists.

Fourth-year fashion and technology student Sarah Collister’s pitch is also about clothes. Her capstone collection is about interchangeable women’s formalwear.

“It takes your classic full-length dresses and suiting, but makes everything separate so elements can be detached, interchanged, or worn in multiple ways,” she says.

Collister’s passion for fashion ignited before KPU. She’s been sewing for more than 10 years.

“One of my favourite pieces that I ever made was my formal graduation dress from high school, and it was a dress that I only wore once,” she says, adding that this is very common for women purchasing formalwear. 

The 12 outfits Collister designed have more than 12,000 combinations. She says modularity gives people choice in their wardrobe.

“There are less overall dresses that you have to make to get the amount of combinations,” Collister says. “That just inherently lowers costs and the environmental impact that comes with overproduction and overconsumption.”

Founder of AVI Power, Yash Singh, is all about sustainable energy solutions. Singh’s pitch creates portable hydrogen fuel generators that produce zero emissions.

“They’re used to generate electricity wherever you need it — for people prepping for storms, construction crews without access to power — anybody who needs it can use this system,” he says.

Singh’s interest in sustainable technology began at an early age.

“I’ve been working on hydrogen technology since I was in the Grade 6 or 7,” he says. “I’ve been 3D printing, tinkering with [computer-aided design], and engineering solutions for things since early middle school.”

Though hydrogen fuel cells are on the market, they are not sustainable, durable, and affordable, he says.

“Some people think that it’s not that clean. Some people think that the challenges of technology cannot be solved. I’m setting out to try to change that perspective,” Singh says.

Becker, Collister, and Singh said passion is the key behind the competition.

“Even if it doesn’t go anywhere, it’s still good practice. It’s still good to get your ideas out there,” Becker says.

Collister adds that “if you have something that you’re passionate about, you should jump on it.”

“You have this passion, you have this idea, you have something that you just can’t help but wonder — how would it change the world if it was out there? Then, I think you already know you’re going to do it and just do it,” Singh says.

The finale includes a keynote from Larisa Gorodetsky, CEO and founder of New Life Management Services, a housing co-op management agency.

The event takes place from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm at the Melville Conference Centre at KPU Richmond. Registration has closed, but walk-in guests can attend the free event.