Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management recently put together a blog series to address the multifaceted experience of female entrepreneurs.
Over the course of four weeks, a team of female entrepreneurs unpacked what it meant for them to pitch, launch their ventures, and more. Two blog entries have already gone live on Inside Kellogg and readers can expect two more entries in as many weeks.
The blog featured the three co-founders of Cariset, a designer leather backpack for women. Second-year MBA students Allison Brown, Cara Maresca, and Kristina Moore developed an idea during their first year at Kellogg to create a women’s backpack that had it all: designer touches, comfort, branding, and exceptional customer service. Not surprisingly, Cariset’s path from soup to nuts had its fair share of ups and downs, which the co-founders discussed openly in the blog.
So far, the series has covered topics such as, “Learning to Let Go of Perfect: A Perspective on Entrepreneurship” and “What It’s Like to Pitch at Northwester VentureCat.” Key takeaways from these entries include:
- Striving for perfection is a detriment when starting a company. Instead, to create a new product, you have to be open to explore ideas, make mistakes, and test prototype after prototype.
- Focus on moving forward and learning. You won’t get things right the first time; your pitches will flop, your prototypes will fail, and your branding will be off-base. The key is to approach every situation with two overarching goals: to move forward and learn.
- For a successful pitch, focus on your precise story. When the Cariset team prepared for VentureCat, they struggled to identify the precise story they wanted to tell the judges. It took multiple iterations based on feedback from faculty and classmates for them to hit their mark.
- Practice is vital. You can’t go into a pitch cold. The Cariset team practiced their pitch, thought through judges’ possible questions, and made slides for everything until they could do it all without getting flustered or losing their place. It was this practice that led to their win and $5,000.
To read the full entries and discover all the fantastic insight available from these three women entrepreneurs at Kellogg, start with “Kellogg Entrepreneurs: Building a Better Backpack from Scratch.” Stay tuned for additional blogs coming soon.
