AMHERST — Many teenagers interested in getting their nails done at local salons may find they can’t afford the service, and even when reasonable prices are offered, such as for press-ons, their low quality may cause chipping or allergic reactions.
As a young entrepreneur who previously ran an art business during the COVID pandemic, Samarah Hasan-Kepes of Easthampton is aiming to help clients by creating a venue where unique, custom fabricated press-on nails can be ordered, before one day launching a full-serve salon where patrons can see a technician while also getting food and drink.
“At Polished Perfection, we’re all about giving you beautiful, high-quality nails that fit your style and make you feel great,” said Hasan-Kepes, explaining the concept to a three-judge panel during a business pitch competition at Amherst Regional High School late last week.
A self-described award-winning gymnast and accomplished pianist, the seventh grader at the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School in Hadley outlined other aspects of her business plan, such as an online loyalty program and the short videos she posts to YouTube, which together helped her earn $500 in the inaugural Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship SummerBiz program.
“I’ll use the money to invest more in the business and to get better stuff,” she said, adding she was surprised to be the winner because she started late in the two-week, four-hour per day program.
Having the summer program come to Amherst has been a longtime dream for Irv Rhodes, an entrepreneur and educator, who recalls that 20 years ago he taught the same program to 150 students in New Orleans. It became a reality in Amherst with the assistance of the Amherst Recreation Department, both director Rey Harp and outreach director Becky Demling, and buy in from Town Manager Paul Bockelman.
The students’ “shark tank”-like elevator pitches for their businesses, each about 10 to 12 minutes long and using overhead slides, were made after going through the special NFTE curriculum, with the class held at Amherst Regional High School and the pitches done at the school library.
University of Massachusetts Commonwealth Honors College student Junoon Giridhar was the instructor, helping the students to flesh out their ideas that someday, he said, could make them financially well off.
“These kids have incredible ideas that can change the world,” Giridhar said.
Student pitches
Astrid Knyt of Amherst, who will be a ninth grader at the PVCICS, did her presentation titled “IMA Tutoring: Unlocking Our Potential,” which would partner with school districts to train tutors. Knyt said she is co-founder of the business with fellow student Regina You, and wants to address how students following the pandemic have fallen behind grade level. This gives people an opportunity for impact tutoring.
Knyt outlined a marketing plan and the hopes for the compound annual growth rate in the enterprise once it launches.
A third student at PVCICS, Ryan Lu of Amherst, who is in seventh grade, talked about his “Pitch Perfect” idea, an artificial intelligence-powered app that will help youths 8 to 16 years old get the notes of a violin played right every time, sort of like having a private teacher available around the clock.
A member of Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra, Lu said his business plan would to be to have 300 people using it within three months. He then took out his violin, demonstrating to judges the Violin G Major Scale Analyzer to show when his notes are off.
Ayal Zick and Quincy Brundy, an eighth grader and ninth grader, respectively, at Amherst Regional, joined together for their presentation titled “Make Meals and Money with DishNet.”
This plan for DishNet would bring freshly prepared meals from local chefs directly to customers, similar to how DoorDash functions with restaurants.
Their vision is for having a kitchen where some chefs could prepare the meals from a variety of cultures and an ever-changing variety of home-cooked meals. “We hope in the future to become a real thing, expanding to more cities beyond Amherst,” Brundy said.
Finally, Orion Perry of Springfield, a ninth grader who will be at Putnam Vocational, developed “Who are You?” observing that with many teens not being able to answer that question, and for those who are stuck or lost, the peer-to-peer mentorship program would be essential.
Entrepreneur program
During the two weeks, Giridhar handled the curriculum and gave advice to put the students in a place where their businesses could be successful.
“It forced them to be competitive. I told them always question everything, even if you think it’s going to be a powerful business,” Giridhar said.
The BizCamp had special visitors, such as Bob Lowry, founder and owner of Bueno y Sano, who told the students he got into the business so he could take charge of his own destiny, adding that 95% of business is attracting people and treating them well.
“If you’re going to do something, you’ve got to do a great job, and stand out a bit,” Lowsry said. Within six months of opening he had 300 to 400 people a day at the restaurant.
Don Gallagher, who owned a fish distribution company with seven trucks, told students to seize the time and keep their heads and chins up.
“You don’t know who’s in the elevator, you don’t know who will hear that pitch,” Gallagher said.
In future years, the students in the inaugural program could return as mentors. Rhodes said he is convinced this will be a multiyear program, likely with even more participants next year.
As each of the students made their presentations, the three judges — John Page, executive director of the Amherst Business Improvement District, Robert Allingham, marketing and communications manager at the Amherst BID, and Talib Sadiq, high school principal — asked questions to learn more and guide them in their proposals. Then, after 15 minutes of deliberation, they announced the winner, after each participant was handed a certificate of completion.
Page called DishNet “an impressive app” and applauded Lu’s violin playing, and Allingham appreciated Perry’s unique, personal proposal, and called Knyt’s tutoring “a very clear issue and a very clear solution to that issue.”
“All of you have tremendous ideas,” Sadiq said.
Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship describes itself as a “global movement for equitable access to entrepreneurship education” with an aim to “ignite the entrepreneurial mindset in youth from under-resourced communities.”
Jennifer Green, senior manager for programs for NFTE’s New England office, was present for the pitches. Green said young people are needed to solve problems and bring amazing ideas that can be developed in the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
“What you’ve done here is absolutely mind blowing,” Green said.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.