And first place goes to...

Me.

Although this is not as big as Kazia making the soccer team (congrats! congrats! congrats!) I still won 200 bucks. I placed first in the Elevator Pitch Competition sponsored by "Students in Free Enterprise" (SIFE).  It is a competiton that tests your ablity to pitch a consise, informative, interesting business idea to a poetential investor in less than two minutes, or the durration of an elevator ride.

I participated last summer in this competition and it was attended by a smaller group. I placed second out of seven or so competitiors. At that time I pitched an idea for an online home furnishings company. I learned from that experience what I could do better this time. My first pitch and idea was too complex, too wordy for an elevator pitch. I needed something more concise.

This time there were over 20 participants and an even larger audience. I was a bit nervous seeing that each competitor got to see every pitch. But I also kind of thrive on that type of thing. My strength here was going to be my presentation. I was noticing a few good ideas but even fewer were presented well. I was number 17 in the line up. Armored in a professional attire that would make even a wall street banker think twice about his shoes,  I greeted the judges confidently. (classic Donna Karen Signature black suit, blue/white pinstripe ralph lauren shirt and a classic gold tie) However, I didnt nail my presentation how I wanted to. It was ok but not as smooth as had been my pitch to my roomates on the way out the door to the competition.

After everybody had presented the judges deliberated and I was unsure if I were going to place. You never know, judging is rarely objective, its full of biases- both unintentional and intentional. When they came back and announced 3rd and 2nd place I figured I had lost out since my name wasnt announced but to my suprise, and really I was suprised, they called my name for 1st! I was very excited, especialy because they had unexpectadely doubled the cash prizes. I just won 200 bucks, two buy-one-get-one-free buffets at Craigos and a free dessert coupon for Craigos.

Oh, you may be wondering what I pitched. I startedby calling attention to an headline article in the Standard Journal about how the crippled national housing market has left the upper valley standing. Real Estate is still Idahos number one investment.

Its a modification to the already proven and succesful practice of House Flipping. My team is able to revolutionize the flipping model of Buy-Renovate-Sell by eliminating the initial hurdle of home aquisition all together. Instead we work with existing home owners who are motivated sellers of older homes in good neighborhoods, which the upper valley is in abbundance of. First, the home is appraised by an independent source. Then, we work as an independent contractor to renovate key areas that our expert team has identified to provide the greatest return. We finish the job and walk away. The house is aprasied again and sold by the home owner as usual. We recieve as payment the difference between the pre-renovation appraisal price and the post-renovation sale price. Returning 25% of that difference to the homewoner just for allowing us to perform the service. Based on Idaho averages we are looking at $10-40k return in just a 60-90 day turn around period!

Our competitive advantage lies in our ability to minimize risk by eliminating the need for home aquisition, reducing turnaround time by limiting our involvment in the buy/sell stage and our ability to provide an actual monetary return to the home owner for a non-monetary investment. No other flipping model can do this. This is House flipping streamlined and on steroids.

It was a fun experience