For the first time ever, UW-Whitewater Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization held a tuition raffle fundraiser, selling over $7,000 and profiting $2,000 of the sales.
CEO continued their successes by winning three out of 11 awards at nationals on Oct. 27-29 in Dallas. They won Best Chapter Plan, Best Interest in Networking and Second Place Best Fundraiser.
“On an annual basis, we are one of the best national chapters of CEO,” Immediate Past President Giotto Troia said.
Troia, a senior marketing major, has been on the board for nine semesters. His involvement in his high school’s DECA program got him started in brainstorming new ideas.
“I just wanted to create something out of nothing and that’s why I kept going,” Troia said.
CEO’s Elevator Pitch competition, hosted in Hyland Hall, was a part of nationals because the finalist went on to the national competition.
Students are given 90 seconds to pitch an idea to an executive and make them want to learn more about it, Troia said.
Troia said in the 90 seconds, students should include what the product is, who the demographic is, what the financial situation is, and name various milestones that have been reached thus far.
There were about 30 members in the CEO preliminary rounds and approximately 14 in the final rounds.
Senior Justin Nothem won first place at the Elevator Pitch hosted by the UW-Whitewater CEO chapter, moving on to nationals to pitch his idea. At nationals, Nothem won second place overall for his elevator pitch.
Troia said the there are a couple thousand people at the nationals competition every year. He also said the contacts he made at last year’s nationals he still speaks with today.
CEO is holding a business modelathon starting on Nov. 18. The first round is writing a 250-word executive summary of what the business will be.
By Dec. 1, Troia said they figure out who’s going to the second round, which is a 750-1,000 word elaboration on the idea. Then on April 4, the finalists from the second round will take part in the business plan finals.
Next week, Nov. 13-19, CEO will celebrate Entrepreneurship Week.
They will host Entrepreneurity; a Jeopardy-like game that’ll ask entrepreneurship questions. The game will be held on Nov. 16 on the large T.V. in the Hyland Hall atrium.
“Everybody’s an entrepreneur,” Troia said. “All entrepreneurship is is a creative process where you take ideas and you try to make them appeal to people.”