“Why buy a toothbrush, when you could borrow one?” Ryan Ruff, program manager at Intersect, asked a group of Wayne State College students.
The Worst Business Idea Pitch Contest happened on Nov. 4, from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Frey Suite. The competition was hosted by Intersect, a non-profit in Norfolk, and WSC’s FBLA chapter.
“Selling snow cones to eskimos is [a] worst business idea; it’s just made to be fun,” Kelly Legler, business instructor at WSC and advisor for the FBLA chapter, said. “Hot cocoa in July in Florida, not a great business idea, right? It’s just for fun.”
The event was hosted to bring people together and network with each other. The rules for the competition were to keep it school-appropriate and have fun. The ideas could be presented either in groups or individually. Contestants were allowed to use AI to help come up with ideas and refine points for their pitch. The pitches all lasted between 30 seconds and two minutes.
Six business ideas were presented at the event: Adflix, a streaming service consisting of only ads; Air Pug, a white noise machine that makes pug noises throughout the day; a deodorant backpack that actively helped you not smell bad; Edibubbles, candy that looks similar to laundry detergents to help fight urges of eating cleaning products; Manure United, a shipping service company for manure throughout the United States for cheap prices; Oops Cam, a device to make highlight reels of your biggest fails; Rent-A-Baby, a rental service for having the experience of taking care of a child; and Slime Time, athletic shoes covered in grime to help give traction.
Rent-A-Baby took first place, followed by Adflix and Air Pug for the top 3. Honorable mentions were Edibubbles and Manure United. All top three and the honorable mentions got gift cards to Scooters.
Intersect and FBLA wanted to bring attention to this as a networking event and to also bring up the Big Idea Competition coming up in January in Norfolk. The top placing ideas get the opportunity to be able to get grants for their business idea.
“You can get a grant for your business idea; last winner got a $50,000 grant,” Ruff said.
With the Big Idea Competition coming up, FBLA and Intersect both wanted to make students more aware of the event to allow more people the opportunity to get involved with it. FBLA is hoping to keep hosting the Worst Business Idea Pitch Contest to keep raising its awareness of both it and the Big Idea Competition.
