Pitching a business plan to the founders or top executives at firms such as OppenheimerFunds Inc., BlackRock Inc., the Boston Celtics and USA Network would give even a seasoned entrepreneur pause.
For two recent Crenshaw High School graduates who presented their student-business plan for Groovy Smoothies to several of those heavy hitters in New York last month, it was a welcome challenge.
"It was an empowering experience," said Ariana Drummond, 18. "Just being able to do that was amazing." Drummond and business partner Autumn Taylor, 18, went to New York for the national business plan competition for high school students held each year by the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship.
The women, now in college, won second place last spring in the Los Angeles regional competition sponsored by the Merrill Lynch Foundation. Their plan made it to the semifinals in New York, one of 12 to do so. It didn't make it to the finals, where the first-place winner took home $10,000.
Another local student, Evelyn Espinoza, 17, whose business plan for Hippie's Candles took first place at the Los Angeles regional competition, also presented at the New York event, which is sponsored by OppenheimerFunds.
Espinoza didn't make it to the semifinals, but she's undaunted and is considering selling her candle business to fund a new venture: making the ecologically friendly packaging she had trouble finding for her candle products.
"I'm not discouraged," said Espinoza, a senior at the Soledad Enrichment Action Girls Academy charter school in downtown Los Angeles. "It's not a bad thing. It's more an experience you learn from."
For more information about the NFTE program in L.A., go to losangeles.nfte.com.
cyndia.zwahlen@latimes.com
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Governor's conference
The meeting will attempt to forge recommendations on 10 topics:
AB 32: Global Warming Solutions Act/energy
Access to capital
Entrepreneurial encouragement
Healthcare
Innovation and technology
Procurement
Regulatory reform
Taxation
Transportation
Workforce development
Source: California Office of Small Business Advocate
