[ot-caption title=”The Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship operates in South Florida public schools. (via Wikimedia Commons, NFTE)”]

Last Wednesday, February 24th, Pine Crest held its second annual NFTE business competition to decide which team will represent Pine Crest at the regional competition at Miami Dade College on March 9th. NFTE stands for Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship and is a South Florida organization that specializes in helping local underprivileged students learn key introductory entrepreneurship skills. These ideals of self-employment, financial soundness, and a future beyond blue-collar jobs present less fortunate students with a different style and view on life.

Within the context of Pine Crest, the school held a smaller version of the regional competition to determine which of the four teams that signed up would represent the school at the Miami Dade College NFTE business competition. The four teams were composed of juniors and seniors and presented their unique business ideas to a panel of judges in the ICI. Teams were instructed to create a seven to ten minute presentation that included the idea, target market, demographics, financial statements, and expansion. In the order they presented, the four companies were You&I Technologies, DanceChat, DropLt, and CrowdLaunching. You&I Technologies was designed to provide elderly customers with basic information technology support that was accessible through calling at a cost per minute usage. DanceChat took a novel approach to social media platforms with a dancing and competitive focus. DropLt placed emphasis on competition as well as achieving lower water usage by creating a smart water meter. Finally, CrowdLaunching had the idea to be a middleman that paired those with novel business ideas with experts that offer their services in exchange for equity or money.

Following each presentation, the two judges had a quick five minute question and answer session with each company. When the final plan came to a close, the judges deliberated and awarded You&I Technologies 3rd place, DanceChat 2nd place, and DropLt 1st place. DropLt is composed of juniors Jason Meisel, Andre Radensky, Joshua Berger, and Jacob Zipper.  This team of four has the hopes of bringing a “Nest-like” reinvention of the water meter to help the environment by lowering water usage through providing financial incentives to residences and hotels.  By providing these homes and hotels with the information about the quantity of water they are using and wasting as well as creating with the national water usage average and local average, DropLt hopes to help the environment. DropLt will be presented at the regional NFTE competition with the prospect of winning that competition for Pine Crest.

Sources: Pine Crest, NFTE Photo Source: Wikimedia