FCPS Holds Annual Start Up Frederick Competition

The Frederick County Public Schools Career and Technical Education curriculum department virtually hosted the sixth annual Start Up Frederick competition on Wednesday, May 12.

The competition, which is modeled on the television show "Shark Tank," is meant to encourage entrepreneurship and connect students and employers. Nineteen students from the different high schools that competed in school-based competitions, went head-to-head in the FCPS contest. Three-thousand dollars in prize money was up for grabs from Nymeo Federal Credit Union.

First place was awarded to Jasmine Osborne from Tuscarora High for her business concept, Muser. This is a social networking app for musicians and businesses within the music industry to help them network, promote and perform.

Second place was awarded to Oakdale High team members Nirek Brahmbhatt, Jonathan Hammer and Aryan Kalathiya for their business called Menyou. This is a restaurant menu filtering app for those with food allergies, dietary restrictions and other special food needs.

Third place was awarded to Governor Thomas Johnson High School teammates Cooper Gurrie and Samyak Jain for their business, Event It! This plan helps companies and organizations stage events by doing all of the behind-the-scenes promotion, coordination and set-up.

Three local business professionals judged the competition: Eric Black, Director of Compliance and Risk at Nymeo; Jose Bueso, Chief Operating Officer, Past President and Co-Founder of Dynamic Automotive; and Michael Caroglanian, Owner and President of Tire World of Frederick.  

The students submitted a five-minute recorded video business pitch prior to the virtual competition, and then presented a 60-second elevator pitch live via the Google Meet streaming platform. Each team then answered one question from each judge. The students were scored on the following five categories: Creativity/Innovation, Product/Service Clarity, Market Potential, Competitive Landscape and Operational Sustainability. The event was emceed by Career and Technology Center and Governor Thomas Johnson High School student, Kyra Randolph.