Here at MatchCraft, our entire team is focused on a single objective: helping today’s small businesses grow. And now we’re excited to be extending that mission to the small businesses of tomorrow.
This week marks the start of a year-long partnership with the Santa Monica High School chapter of Virtual Enterprises International, a nonprofit organization that provides hands-on entrepreneurial training, work opportunities, and mentorship to high school students. We’ll be working with Santa Monica’s VEI students as they prepare for young entrepreneur competitions around the country, helping them with their business plans, presentation skills and virtual sales strategies.
This partnership is already paying off for Santa Monica’s high school entrepreneurs: At the VEI 2015 Long Beach Trade Show on February 12, junior Jason Funston took first place out of 63 teams for his elevator pitch about Pheressence, the virtual fragrance company the Santa Monica VEI students created for this year’s competitions. Jason previewed his pitch a few days earlier for Jill Hammond, Austin Luther and Adam Morgan from MatchCraft’s marketing team, who helped him punch up his opening to capture the judges’ attention.
MatchCraft will also be supporting Santa Monica’s VEI chapter financially. At each of the digital marketing industry conferences we’re sponsoring this year, we’ll make a donation for each attendee, speaker or exhibitor who visits MatchCraft’s booth, interacts with the company on social media, or leaves a business card.
“We’ve got dozens of students here at SaMoHi who are passionate about becoming business owners,” says Teri Jones, the Santa Monica VEI program’s faculty advisor. “As part of VEI, we have two student-run businesses currently operating on the SaMoHi campus. Having this support from MatchCraft will allow us to expand our programs and provide hands-on entrepreneurial opportunities for even more business-minded high school students.”
The students take on roles in every functional area of a company, so MatchCraft employees in everything from engineering to HR to marketing will serve as mentors to students as they grow their virtual business and compete with other high school entrepreneurs throughout the year.
Please help us spread the word about VEI and the amazing programs it supports for young entrepreneurs!
VEI: https://veinternational.org/