St. Louis CAPS Student Wins Elevator Pitch Competition

In November, Tara Weiskopf-Kuehn, a senior at Affton High School and a student associate in the St. Louis CAPS global business and entrepreneurship course, was selected as the winner of the high school division elevator pitch competition.  The competition was sponsored by the Center for Entrepreneurship at Saint Louis University and took place on actual elevators in an office building in downtown St. Louis.  Tara received a check for $500 to put towards her idea.

Over 100 high school students submitted ideas and 12 were chosen as finalists.  St. Louis CAPS student associates earned 4 of the 12 finalist spots.  In addition to Tara winning the competition, Ajla Halilovic and Brad Hartmann, both from Oakville High School, took third place and fourth place respectively.

Contestants had approximately 30-45 seconds to pitch their idea to a judge that was riding in the elevator with them.  If a judge liked their idea they would hand the contestant a business card and the contestants with the most business cards was considered the winner.  At the end of one elevator ride, the contestants would exit the elevator and wait their turn to pitch to a different judge and repeat the process.