MSU students win first place in business competition

MSU students win first place in business competition

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Mississippi State University won first place in the 4th annual SEC Student Pitch Competition, held this year at the Raymond J. Harbert College of Business at Auburn University earlier this month.

The winning team is comprised of Shelby Baldwin of Ridgeland, Brandon Johns of Tennessee, and Calvin Waddy of Madison. They pitched Buzzbassador, a software that automates back-end services to help brands create ambassador and influencer programs. The University of Missouri finished second and Texas A&M University finished third.

The SEC Student Pitch Competition provides teams of SEC students at the undergraduate or graduate level a platform to showcase their ideas for ground-breaking products and services to a panel of judges. New this year was an informal elevator pitch challenge, during which teams had one minute to describe their idea to internal voters. Shelby Baldwin from Mississippi State won the challenge with the quick overview of Buzzbassador.

"I've had an amazing experience at the competition," said Baldwin. "It's been inspiring to see all of the amazing businesses coming out of the SEC, and it was humbling and incredibly exciting to be voted the winner of the elevator pitch."

Also new for 2019 was an app development challenge. The university team members were split up to form six new teams charged with creating an app and earning "investments" from the SEC advisors in attendance. The teams had two hours to brainstorm and design posters and one minute to outline their app.

The featured pitch competition began on Monday morning with each team presenting to two different sets of judges. After the initial pitches, those judges advanced three teams to the finals, where they presented later the same day to a separate panel. Nine individuals aided in the selection of this years' winners.

The 2020 SEC Student Pitch Competition will take place next fall at the University of Georgia.






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