Start@Shea Rewind: A Once-Over of October
It’s been another packed month for Start@Shea and we can’t say enough how amazing this October felt. First, we officially kicked off the Freshman Ambassador Program with our first workshops. The ambassadors were paired with their mentors who they’ll have as resources and guiding voices throughout the start of their involvement in Shea and their freshman year. The past few weeks, the Development Team gave crash courses on how to create a LinkedIn and resume. We can’t wait to see our freshmen grow over the course of the year! When I was an ambassador last year, I loved my coffee chats, workshops, and bonding events so much so I’m excited to see others experiencing it.
We also hosted our Elevator Pitch Competition (EPC) this month, culminating in the finals on the 25th! EPC is the start to what we call the pipeline that students can follow to get their startups off the ground and become fully launched companies. More on the pipeline later! The idea behind an elevator pitch is a business idea you can explain on an elevator ride in about a minute. If you want more information on the EPC, check out Sophia Cassidy’s (CSOM ’23) Discover blog! Sophia, EPC team lead, reflects on the EPC finals, “I’m really happy with how the event turned out. It was our first time hosting EPC in the new building, which made everything feel very close to home and cohesive, and ultimately enabled such a shameless event. We had an impressive lineup of students and extremely strong pitches all-around — everyone did such a great job! It was my last time running this event so I was a bit sentimental but I know the event is in good hands and I can’t wait to come back and watch in the future!” It was so amazing to see over 100 students packed into the 245 Beacon Street auditorium supporting their classmates! All the teams absolutely killed it giving their 60-second pitch, and a special shoutout to BC Acoustics for their halftime performance.
After our judges Christina Quinn, Doug Shaw, and Peter Bell deliberated, 3rd place went to Isabel Wibowo (MCAS ‘23), Cate Cheevers (MCAS ’23) took 2nd place, and Ted Wind (CSOM ’25) won our crowd favorite vote. And the winner is *drumroll please* Zarah Lakhani (Lynch ‘24)! Congratulations and thank you to everyone who came out, it was such a special night!
The next thing to highlight is our next step in the pipeline: The Lab. The Lab is our open incubator for student startups. It originated out of the gap between EPC and the Accelerator Program so we could facilitate the transition between the two. We received 21 applications and welcomed all of them as student startups in the making. There was also great class diversity within the cohort, with each grade represented. The team, led by Jack Russell (CSOM ‘23), gave the cohort guidance, mentoring, and workshops to help move from ideation to product development and execution.
Jack said about the start of the lab, “The Lab had a great start this past week teaching 16 new student founders what they should be thinking about as a founder right now. We had a great discussion on defining pain points, trying to keep in mind product market fit, and the need for constant customer research! Next week, we will take our next step with our business development model session, where we will be discussing pitch decks, investor relations, and monetary plans!” We can’t wait to see these student startups’ progress by the end of their time brewing in The Lab!
In collaboration with the Hatchery, Start@Shea also helped to put on the Haunting of 245 Beacon Street! The Shea room was the hub for all things laser cut pumpkins while the Start@Shea team was in the HatchBack helping put together spooky paper lanterns. Personally struggled on my own lantern front but we thrived nonetheless. Thanks so much to everyone who came out and to the Hatchery for inviting us to share the Halloween spirit!
The Shea team also had some nice bonding time together! We spent some time bouldering on the rock wall, had a lovely dinner, and got into our usual Sheananigans. This is the perfect time to mention that we’ve opened up board applications for next semester! Apply by Friday, November 4th at 11:59 PM if you want to join this amazing group and make ideas happen. We’ll also be hosting a Shea community dinner on Thursday, November 10th at 6 pm open to all. RSVP here. We can’t wait to see everyone there!
Finally, we launched our Alumni Newsletter and revamped website. The newsletter is the best way to stay up to date with all we’re putting on and doing around campus after graduation. We love staying in touch with our alumni so please subscribe here! Also, check out Shea’s new look for the new website. Just visit startatshea.com–shoutout to Emma Raith (CSOM ’24) for the amazing revamp!
That’s all for this month at Shea. Once again, here’s the link to board applications (due EOD Friday 11/4), the Community Dinner RSVP, and our subscription form for our Alumni Newsletter. Thanks so much for reading and if you’re reading this on release day… Happy Halloween!
Thanks for reading! We are Start@Shea, the student executive team of the Edmund H. Shea Jr. Center for Entrepreneurship at Boston College.
If you want to learn more about who we are, what we do, and our upcoming events, please feel free to visit our website. You can also subscribe to our newsletter here, and if you have any further questions or comments, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at startatshea@gmail.com!
