Students Pitch Social Ventures at “Entrepreneurship: A Force for Good”

Students from across Georgetown University gathered to share their socially conscious business ideas at “Entrepreneurship: A Force for Good” on Feb. 18 at the university’s McDonough School of Business. Fourteen student teams – representing Georgetown McDonough, the College, the Walsh School of Foreign Service, the McCourt School of Public Policy, and the School of Continuing Studies – pitched at the event, with ideas ranging from a story sharing platform to recognize university employees to partnerships to provide income opportunities around the world.

Awards included:

• First place: OneTouch, a company through which individuals can donate money toward meals and cold-weather supplies for the homeless. Led by Kamar Mack (C ’19);
• Second place: Hemeos, an independent blood stem cell registry. Led by Doug Grant (MBA ’16), Jon Fernandez (MBA ’16), and Craig Poland, (MBA ’16);
• People’s Choice Award: Ciudadano, an online learning platform to make the U.S. citizenship process easier. Led by Kesiah Clement, (SFS ’19).

More than a dozen Georgetown faculty, Entrepreneurs in Residence, and local entrepreneurs served as judges for the competition. This marked the fourth year for the social innovation event, which was sponsored by the Georgetown Entrepreneurship Initiative and the Global Social Enterprise Initiative.

“Helping the homeless in severe weather; assisting with the immigration process; creating jobs – these are the issues that our Georgetown social entrepreneurs are solving,” said Ladan Manteghi, executive director of the Global Social Enterprise Initiative. “These are real issues and our students are creating real answers.”

During the event, David Simnick, CEO and co-founder of Soapbox Soaps, shared his insights with students.

He emphasized the importance of evolving while staying true to the company’s mission, and keeping talented people around you.

“Build a network of people who are champions of you,” he said.

“It was great to see so many students from all across campus pitching business ideas and supporting their classmates,” said Jeff Reid, founding director of the Georgetown Entrepreneurship Initiative. “Georgetown students are great at recognizing how entrepreneurship is a powerful force for solving problems and creating value all over the world. The world needs more entrepreneurial problem solvers, and we look forward to helping these aspiring entrepreneurs continue to iterate and improve on the ideas they presented at this event.”