Pi515's "Day of Innovation" taught six important lessons: passion fuels entrepreneurship, leaving the echo chamber is necessary, great mentorship is key, diversity drives innovation, youth notice problems and the future is bright.
Pi515’s “Day of Innovation”—where 24 girls came together to pitch their business ideas, networked, and took away 10K while they were at it—was an incredible success. We’ve never been so grateful to have such a group of judges, participants, and mentors. But now that the dust has settled, we’ve had some time to reflect, and we think there are some more stories to share here.
As we dive deeper into the stories of these successes, it becomes clear that there are more lessons to be learned beyond just those highlighted in the pitches. With each interaction, we learned something new and valuable that we couldn't wait to share with others. With that being said, here are six key lessons we learned from our Girls Entrepreneurship Summit.
Passion is the driving force behind our dreams, ambitions, and goals. It's what motivates us to wake up early, stay up late, and work tirelessly towards achieving our aspirations. We saw firsthand how much passion GES participants brought to their business ideas—from Peyton Twelmeyer fixing her own focus problems with a daily planner to Ealaf Adams, driven by the lack of quality representation in movies and TV.
It's easy to get stuck in your own ideas and perspectives, but entrepreneurship requires you to think outside the box. GES participants were asked to seek out diverse opinions and feedback, both from their mentors and their peers. By just leaving the echo chamber, they were able to create businesses that addressed real-world problems.
Additionally, the Day of Innovation gave a chance to network with fellow young entrepreneurs, mentors, and judges from a wide range of backgrounds, gaining valuable insights, making new connections, and further broadening their horizons. Some even formed partnerships and collaborations playing roles in their future success. In the world of entrepreneurship, meeting new people and forming relationships is crucial for growth.
A step in leaving the chamber is finding people your own age… but it’s also finding people more experienced. We believe that mentorship is crucial for growth, both in entrepreneurship and in life. Our girls were fortunate to have access to a group of dedicated mentors who provided guidance, support, and feedback throughout the six-week program. We’ve seen firsthand how much of an impact mentorship can have on the success of a young entrepreneur.
When you surround yourself with people who come from different backgrounds, you're more likely to come up with different solutions. We were lucky enough to have a diverse group attending the Girls Entrepreneurship Summit, with girls from different schools, neighborhoods, and cultural backgrounds, and we’re incredibly proud that this diversity was able to lead to the creativity and innovation we saw in their business ideas.
Girls Summit participants may not have had decades of experience in their industries, but they had something else: a fresh perspective. They noticed problems that more seasoned entrepreneurs might overlook, and they came up with creative solutions that others may not have thought of.
The “Day of Innovation” was a fantastic example of this, with participants pitching ideas that ranged from a local henna booth to a customizable cookie bar. These young entrepreneurs were a reminder for everyone that youth can and should be a driving force in entrepreneurship.
Overall, we were blown away by the talent, creativity, and resilience our girls demonstrated throughout the Girls Entrepreneurship Summit. They faced challenges head-on and came out stronger for it. We at Pi515 have no doubt that they will go on to achieve great things in their careers and in their communities, and we can only hope to be another pit stop in the journey of countless more female entrepreneurs.
