Texas Border Business
McAllen. – On February 18, twenty-two youth entrepreneurs presented the market space of their new idea/product market space at the McAllen Youth Entrepreneur Factory weekly session. During that meeting, each participant talked about their competition and what drives that specific market space. Creating a Category Map of your market space is one of the tools that the program uses to build entrepreneurial skills on participants.
The McAllen Youth Entrepreneurs Factory is an eight session program that help students gain a better understanding of how to develop a business idea and find its path to market. The event is presented by the McAllen Chamber of Commerce and the McAllen ISD and sponsored by Sylvan Learning RGV.
The program and competition is intended to simulate the real-world process of entrepreneurs soliciting start-up funds from early-stage investors and venture capital firms. This program is divided into the following phases: First, interested participants should attend an orientation to learn about the process and activities required to complete the program.
The second phase is the Idea Lab. The Idea Lab program is an eight session program that proposes several tools to help participants define their competitive advantage, their market space, their target customer and their first actions to arrive to the market place. The last phase is the development of the project summary and presentation. The program will offer one grand prize of $500 and one-second-place prize of $100.
The judge’s function as venture capital investors deciding which business venture they would most likely fund. The quality of the idea, the path to market, and the clarity and persuasiveness of the idea, all influence the judges’ decisions. Ultimately, the winning projects will be the projects in which the judges would most likely invest money.
The program began on January 27, 2014. Registration is closed. For additional information on the program contact Eduardo Millet, (956) 682-2871 or emillet@mcallenchamber.com
