Student Entrepreneurs Thrive at UMass DifferenceMaker Program and Babson's B.E.T.A. Challenge

Red Javelin is an expert at go-to-market strategies and start-up marketing. Many of our clients over the past 17 years (time flies!) come to us when they just have seed money and grow with us until they exit. There are a number of organizations in the Greater Boston area that  help entrepreneurs get their ideas off the ground. Red Javelin regularly offers office hours and mentors founders that need help. Next week, Red Javelin is working with student entrepreneurs at two great local higher learning institutions.

Both of Red Javelin partners, Dana and Lisa have repeatedly served as judges and mentors for student entrepreneurs at local colleges and universities. In fact, on April 4, 2018, both partners are honored to be selected as preliminary judges in local university competitions – Babson’s B.E.T.A. Challenge and UMass Lowell’s DifferenceMaker Program. 

UMass Lowell’s DifferenceMaker program is a campus-wide program that engages UMass Lowell students in creative problem solving, innovation and entrepreneurship. Students compete for $50K in funding to get their idea off the ground. Co-founder Lisa Allocca will be acting as a judge in the semifinals for this event.

As part of the DifferenceMaker program, students are paired with mentors to help them develop their idea and launch their company. Lisa just finished mentoring a founder of a company who participated in the DifferenceMaker program. The founder was a graduate student whose responsibility was to buy lab equipment. He found the process to be very cumbersome and time consuming. As a result, he founded Biophlox – an online marketplace for lab equipment. Check it out!

The Blank Center’s B.E.T.A. (Babson Entrepreneurial Thought and Action®) Challenge recognizes major milestones Babson businesses have achieved by taking action.

Winners of the graduate, undergraduate, and alumni B.E.T.A. Challenge each win a grand prize of $20,000 in cash plus “services in kind” donations from corporate sponsors respectively. In addition, $2,500 is awarded to the two other finalist ventures in each of the three competitions. Applicants compete for prizes by demonstrating success in achieving major milestones by taking action. Co-founder Dana Harris will be acting a judge in the semifinals for this event.

Are you a start-up that needs marketing? Give us a call.