Patterson High teens enter kinder type of Shark Tank

What do soles with interchangeable shoe tops and a ride-sharing app for college commuters have in common?

Everything that matters, in the eyes of judges at Patterson High School’s annual Shark Tank-style scholarship challenge.

“It’s not the idea,” said Bruce Thompson of Thompson Chevrolet Buick GMC in Patterson. “If they’re idea people, they’ll have lots of ideas. It’s how much effort they’ve put into how it could work.”

He and nephew Derek Draper reviewed nine small business plans dreamed up and laid out by teens for the Charles E. Thompson Entrepreneurship Challenge (CETEC). Draper, a tech entrepreneur, designed the scholarship program to honor his grandfather, dealership founder Charles Thompson.

Draper’s firm, Pattern Technologies of Menlo Park, and Google pitch in the scholarship funds. The Patterson-Westley Chamber of Commerce provided business mentors. Patterson Unified teachers helped students develop their ideas into a comprehensive presentation.

Each business idea needed to give concrete information on how proponents would raise money to their plan get off the ground, advertise, budget sales and costs, and to show they had done research to see what competition was out there.

Zip Up Shoes inventor Flor Sanchez was first up, presenting her idea for economical and easy-to-pack children’s footwear. Her plan was to start locally, making the shoes herself and advertising on social media. Once she worked out the kinks, Sanchez said, a market website service for $18.75 a month, outfitted with a shipping app to charge the exact mailing cost, would take her business to the next level.

Sanchez had her price point – $15 per sole, $10 per upper – as well as sales and hiring projections, plans to advertise through a YouTube star’s site and pay an Internet search engine, and an idea of how much she might make.

Would she consider selling her idea to an existing company, Draper asked. She had studied that, too. No, Sanchez said, she wanted to make a go of it herself.

For competitor Keeley Gordon, the scholarship presentation was a warm-up before taking her business idea to a meeting at California State University, Stanislaus. Gordon’s Catch A Ride, or CAR, app aims to connect Stan State students commuting to the Turlock campus from Patterson.

“People are going a lot of the same places, but we’re not going together,” Gordon said, pointing out the higher cost and environmental consequences of so much single-occupant travel. CAR users would pay or receive a few dollars each ride, with the service taking a 15 percent commission.

Her pricing plan had not been fully fleshed out, but she has a brother with computer programming skills to help her launch.

A team of three young women pitched the idea of an umbrella with mister (for hot days) and detachable, transparent curtain (for rainstorms) as The Weather Shield. In-depth fiscal planning assuming Wal-Mart would carry the product capped a presentation that began with an unmistakably teen promotional video, complete with dancing. The trio included a consumer survey taken on Twitter.

Presentations paired serious business learning and a youthful vibe, often tackling traditional business needs with cellphone-based solutions. Other business plans showcased ideas for school technology, apps to ease applying to colleges, a gym with included nutritionist, and social media services.

The teens met after school for four weeks to develop their plans, said teacher Tony Lomeli.

The competition, in its third year, gives three college scholarships a year: $9,000, $6,000 and $3,000. One winner, now in college, has made a go of her business idea: a computer app to help people find parking spaces, said Patterson Unified Superintendent Phil Alfano.

“We think this is a unique and valuable program for students and appreciate the hard work everyone has put into it,” he said.

The district hopes to expand the program to younger grades, said Las Palmas third-grade teacher Christine Anders, who watched the first presentations.

“We could be thinking about how to improve a product,” she said. “Where’s a problem? What’s a solution? That innovation piece.”

This story was originally published March 5, 2017 at 4:41 PM with the headline "Patterson High teens enter kinder type of Shark Tank."