Whether Rohan Mukherjee ’19 was describing perfect ice crystals or the precise “spoonability” of that first scoop from the container, his passion for ice cream helped convince the judges to fund his proposal at Carleton’s Start-Up Fellowship Competition winter term.
“Who needs money when you’ve got ice cream?” Mukherjee asked the judges.
Turns out, you can have both.
By developing their own locally sourced Minnesota Nice Cream brand, Mukherjee (Hoboken, N.J.) and Beau Smit ’17 (White Bear Lake, Minn.) were one of two teams to bank $10,000 at the inaugural competition. They planned to use their winnings to get their ice cream (including a maple syrup flavor named Call Me Maple) stocked in Minnesota grocery stores and co-ops this summer.
Jeremy Keane ’17 (New York City) and Mitchell Biewen ’17 (Golden Valley, Minn.) also earned $10,000 for Campus Red Caps, which delivers customized care packages to Carleton students during the academic term.
“Students think that if they want to be entrepreneurs, they have to go to business school,” says economic professor Nathan Grawe, who constructed the competition. “But more than anything, entrepreneurs are problem solvers. They don’t get to choose which parts of the problem they want to work on. They work them all. That skill fits with the Carleton mission.”
To enter the competition, nine teams comprising 27 students submitted 10-page proposals. Each team was then matched with an alumni mentor, who helped them refine the proposal.
In February students made their pitches to judges Kathy Roland ’80 of Oak Investment Partners in Minneapolis and visiting economics professor Bruce Dalgaard. Prize money came from the dean of students’ office, the Raymond Plank Professorship of Incentive Economics, and the Ada M. Harrison Distinguished Teaching Professorship of the Social Sciences.
“The rise of technology has fundamentally changed how business works,” says Roland. “It allows young people to grow the career they want, how they want. In the past, people wouldn’t even listen to you until you were 30 or 35. Now, young entrepreneurs control their own destiny.”
Real money means real potential for the winners, but whatever comes next isn’t as important as the fact that the projects got off the ground. Students gain valuable experience by working with alumni experts and refining their business plans, says Grawe, who plans to hold another competition next year.