DeKalb Students Win Regional Innovate WithIN Competition

Article by KPC News | April 26, 2021

WATERLOO — DeKalb High School students and siblings Matthias Hefty and Sydney Hefty won first place in the Innovate WithIn Region 8 competition with their business, Acacia Ranch Show Goats.

They received $1,000 and a trip to Arizona. They now will compete at the Innovate WithIn state competition in June.

The Northeast Region 8 pitch competition was held in virtually in partnership with Purdue University Fort Wayne on Friday from 1-5 p.m.

Region 8 includes 12 counties: DeKalb, Steuben, Noble, Whitley, Wabash, Huntington, Allen, Wells, Adams, Grant, Blackford and Jay.

Acacia Ranch Show Goats raises high-quality, cost-effective goats for the growing number of 4-H members throughout the region seeking to show the animals.

Earlier this month, the Heftys’ presentation about their business won first place in the business division of Trine University’s annual Innovation Challenge

Innovate WithIN bills itself as “the most elite high school pitch competition in the country.”

The competition aims to teach students how to view life through a lens of innovation and entrepreneurship, while building a life of purpose.

The organization said it seeks to spark interest in innovation and design-thinking to solve problems, coach students through the process as they develop new ideas and accelerate student solutions to market-ready ventures.

Each competing team in Innovate WithIN delivers a “Shark Tank”-style, 5-minute pitch to a panel of judges at a regional finals event. To prepare, the teams receive guided counseling sessions from the Indiana Small Business Development center to help prepare their business models.

Regional finalists then participate in an eight-week bootcamp where they collaborate with world-class innovators, entrepreneurs and others from a celebrity network to bring their ideas to reality. The bootcamp is designed to develop market-ready prototypes and revenue models.

At the state finals, regional finalists will pitch their new, refined businesses to a panel of government officials, venture capitalists and local entrepreneurs.

Each member of the state-winning team will receive $10,000 in seed funding, $10,000 in tuition to any Indiana college, and additional prizes worth $5,000.

Article source: https://www.kpcnews.com/thestar/article_7c94f3ce-1861-567e-b413-fbee97fdfef5.html