DECA Incubator's primary purpose is to create a welcoming environment for students around the Bay Area to pitch their ideas. On May 24th at Lynbrook High School, teams will have business concepts ready to impress judges and win cool prizes. All new ideas, apps or physical products, will be accepted, so sign up now!
DECA Incubator is an event that sparks entrepreneurship in students from the Bay Area. Presenting new and innovative products to judges, participants compete for prizes and other incentives. We strive to create a welcoming environment for all entrepreneurs that have an idea they want to pitch. To clarify: you don’t need to be part of Lynbrook DECA to compete!
As a competitor, your main job is to sell your business to the judges. Think importance, as in what makes your business’s product viable and better than the competitors. This part relies on creativity, and remember to think out of the box! Your business can be a twist on an existing company or something entirely new. Here’s a more detailed schedule.
Each team will have their own booth and will present science fair style to judges as well as to other guests who attend. In addition, a detailed 10 minute (max) presentation of the business, a 1-2 page summary (addressing points in the rubric, and a mockup of the working product (if applicable) will be required. There are also some rules and requirements competitors should look over.
There are a few critical aspects to your business that the judges are looking for, such as the main problem, target market, unique value proposition, product features, and competitive advantage. Remember to bring any presentation materials such as laptops, poster boards, flyers, or working prototypes on the day of!
There will be some amazing prizes given out to the competitors that display their product in the most viable one. In addition, we will have guest speakers from prominent companies to come discuss business ideas with our competitors and guests.
To compete in this exclusive and unique event, sign up here!
Cofounder and General Partner of 1517 Fund
Danielle Strachman - Danielle is a cofounder and general partner of 1517. She has worked with young entrepreneurs for about a decade. In 2010, during the founding of the Thiel Fellowship, Danielle joined to lead the design and operations. She's worked with some of the most prestigious founders like Vitalik Buterin and Ritesh Agarwal. Previous to her work with Peter Thiel, Danielle founded and directed Innovations Academy in San Diego, a K-8 charter school serving 400 students, with a focus on student-led project based learning and other alternative programs.
General Partner at Emergent Ventures
Alok Nandan - Alok is a Partner at Emergent Ventures. Previously, Alok ran a product strategy consulting firm advising a number of high growth startups. Prior to that, Alok was a Director of Product at TempoAI and later at Salesforce which acquired TempoAI in 2016. Earlier, Alok led product teams at YuMe (IPO: NYSE) where he joined at an early stage and experienced its evolution into a public company. Prior to that, Alok held multiple product management roles at Microsoft, with the last one in Windows Azure. Alok was also co-founder of ToneThis a mobile technology startup. Alok holds a Bachelors in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Kharagpur, a Masters and Ph.D. in Computer Science from UCLA. Alok is also a co-inventor for three technology patents.
Cofounder of the Holberton School
Julien Barbier - Julien Barbier is a cofounder of Holberton School. After working on countless startups and working with aspiring software engineers all over the world, Julien noticed that even after years of studying and thousands of dollars spent, students were still not able to acquire all the skills required to be seen by companies. He began Holberton School with Sylvain Kalache in 2016 and since then graduates have found jobs at top companies such as Facebook, Google, and Apple. Julien has attended Paris Diderot University as well as the European Institute of Technology for Biochemistry and Computer Science respectively.
Founder and Principal at Cohere Insights
Andrea Amaraggi is founder and principal at Cohere Insights. She has more than 20 years of consulting experience in all aspects of program development and management of analytics applications on both the business and technology side, for companies of various sizes and industries around the globe.
“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”
“One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out.”
“If you can push through that feeling of being scared, that feeling of taking a risk, really amazing things can happen.”
