Did you know...for the 5th year in a row, Edwardsville CEO students have received instruction straight from the Academic Director for Entrepreneurship at the nation's #1 ranked MBA program for Entrepreneurship 4 years running (Washington University in St. Louis), Doug Villhard?!

Through these sessions, students develop and understand the most important concepts surrounding their individual business ventures. These concepts form the skeleton of their 3-minute business pitches which they give at our annual FISH TANK competition each spring:

✅ PROBLEM: Significance of problem/issue being addressed?
• Is the problem clearly defined? And do I “believe” it to be an actual problem?

✅ SOLUTION: Adequately addresses the problem?
• Can I understand (or better yet “picture”) what your solution is?

✅ CUSTOMER DISCOVERY: What have you learned from talking to customers and/or early sales?
• Do you know your customer? Are you serious about this?

✅ TARGET MARKET: Significant and well defined?
• Did you state who the customer will be? How big the market is? And if the market is growing?

✅ COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE: Concept proven to be better than current competition?
• Did you name your competitors? And then did you say how you are distinctly better?

✅ VALUE CREATION: Clearly articulated how the concept will make money (or cover expenses if non-profit)?
• Did you state your price point? Hint at your margins? Hint at how big the company could be? Or, impact?

✅ PRIZE USE: How prize money would be used to further development of the concept?

✅ PRESENTATION: Overall pitch presentation and organization?

This past week, our students have had an amazing opportunity to receive an incredible gift before their upcoming pitch competition on Friday, March 31st...

Students were able to give their 3-minute pitches to Doug Villhard and CEO of Goshen Coffee Company & repeat FISH TANK judge, Jennifer Hughey, to receive incredible FEEDBACK on their business ideas.

Students are soaking in this feedback and already implementing improvements before the big pitch day next week.

A huge THANK YOU to Doug and Jen for your time, commitment and support of our students and program. We cannot wait to showcase their hard work next Friday!

Looking to attend FISH TANK? We love having community guests join us! RSVP here:
https://forms.gle/XyYQdukHU27qLFwz5