Congratulations to Carol Sung and Esther Sherry of Farmingdale State College who won
first and second place respectively in SUNY Long Island PitchFest this past fall!
SUNY Long Island PitchFest is a joint business plan competition that offers an experiential
learning opportunity for students to become competent in delivering their entrepreneurial
pitches to a panel of judges and gain valuable experience and feedback on their business
models. This competition is a collaborative effort between Stony Brook University,
SUNY Old Westbury, and Farmingdale State College.
This Fall semester SUNY Long Island PitchFest was a virtual experience with almost
100 people in attendance in the virtual audience. Carol Sung took home first place
and took some time to reflect on her experience, “This year, I was able to compete
in the SUNY LI Pitch Fest and place first place with my product, TangYuan, an application
that revolves in the revitalization of Chinatown, NYC, for locals, visitors, tourists,
and small businesses.
As an interaction design (visual communications) student, preparing for this competition
taught me an abundance of knowledge in developing a business pitch. When I first heard
about the event, I only had two days to submit an application before the deadline;
however, since I spent a majority of this semester creating a product for my senior
project, and I was eager to pitch the product idea, receive feedback, and see how
far I could go.
While preparing for the competition, I liked to think as if I was going on Shark Tank.
I wanted my product to have a story with meaning and purpose. I wanted to immerse
myself with research and knowledge of my product. Competing in this event allowed
me to further develop my product and overall senior project as I was able to explore
the business aspects of creating and launching a product.
Overall, I am very thankful to have the opportunity to participate in this competition.
Next year, I encourage everyone to participate in the 2023 SUNY LI Pitch Fest. Everyone
should always go out of their comfort zone and give things a go. You never know how
far you will go!”
Esther was the runner up and they had this to say about their experience, “I just
want to take a moment to share my reflections participating in this year’s PitchFest
hosted by Stony Brook University, SUNY Old Westbury, and Farmingdale State College.
My business pitch was inspired by my senior thesis. The question being, ‘How can we
use Web3 to create social systems that encourage environmental stability?’
The solution? A product I call Eco Chamber. The first iteration focused on a soil
testing chamber that would collect the status of soil around the world via consumers
who receive the product and get seeds to cultivate their own produce.
The pitch fest definitely helped me think about the full ecosystem of such a product
in the market, as well as realistically what would be required for something like
echo chamber to be established.
I’m thankful to say I got runner up for first in the competition! I will continue
developing a more robust and refined iteration that focuses on localized and practical
social systems revolving around the soil and seeds.
Overall, I am thankful to have the opportunity to actually identify a problem in the
world and create a solution that was validated by participating in the business pitch
competition! It motivates me to work even more diligently on my senior project and
continue to grow beyond!”
From the audience to the judges to the competitors to the organizers, we all had an
amazing time participating in PitchFest. Don’t miss our next competition; participate
in any way you can!
But why should you enter SUNY Long Island PitchFest next year? You can compete for
the opportunity to win monetary prizes to fund your start-up competitions and receive
guidance and mentorship from our mentors that have years of experience in their respective
fields. The experience you receive from SUNY Long Island PitchFest can be buildable
towards other pitch competitions like the New York State Business Plan Competition.
There will also be opportunities to network and connect with industry leaders and
entrepreneurs just like yourself.
You can submit your application and business proposal to your university representative
once applications open in the fall for the first round. Thereafter, our judges will
review your video pitch submissions and select the finalist to compete and deliver
a live pitch along with a live Q&A section with our judge’s panel.
Congratulations again to Carol Sung and Esther Sherry! We hope to see all of you at
our next business competitions, whether that be as a competitor or in the audience,
which include the New York Business Plan Competition (NYBPC) this spring and SUNY
Long Island PitchFest next fall!
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Want to Compete in a Competition like PitchFest this Spring?
Do You Have The Next Big Idea?
The goal of New York State Business Plan Competition is to encourage student entrepreneurs to self-identify and provide them with tools and resources to develop their fledgling ventures. All will receive entrepreneurial development support; up to twelve will receive cash awards and the opportunity to compete for larger prizes at the statewide level. Students compete at the Campus finals level for an opportunity to advance to the Long Island Regional Competition where they compete against students from NYIT, SUNY Old Westbury, Stony Brook University, Adelphi, and Hofstra.
2023 Competition
Farmingdale continues to participate in the Long Island Regional program as part of the New York Business Plan Competition (NYBPC). No Farmingdale State college student will be turned away.
2023 NYBPC Industry Categories
*subject to change
Safety, Power, & Mobility
Health & Wellbeing
Food & Agtech
Learn, Work, & Play
Products & Hardware
Software & Services
Applications are now live on the School of Business website!
For more information on the NYBPC please visit their website.
