Greetings from the Utah Valley
Photo: Ryerson entrepreneurship and strategy student Andrew Walls (centre) with other Canadian teams at the International Business Model Competition.
Who wouldn’t want to spend a weekend in the pleasant Beehive State? Last month, fourth-year entrepreneurship and strategy student Andrew Walls brought his startup to the International Business Model Competition (external link) (IBMC) in Utah Valley.
PlantBox (external link) uses 3D printing and hydroponics technologies to create a responsive, customized box for plants to live. The product provides automatic care to keeps plants nourished, making it easier to keep them alive. PlantBox is the first Ryerson University team to compete in the competition (held May 10-11), which this year accepted 32 teams from 500 university applications. Countries represented included the United States, Brazil, India, Japan, China, Jamaica, and more, as well as four teams from Canada.
PlantBox was developed through Ryerson’s entrepreneurship program, and competed through the Ontario Epic BMC and the Canadian Business Model Competition before making it to the IBMC. “The challenge is condensing what you see as being your journey into what’s important to say. You talk about everything that seems important to you,” says Walls, co-founder (with Jacob Turola) and CEO of Plantbox.
“We learned some humility. When you’re in a smaller ecosystem here, you kinda feel like, ‘Well, I’m a big fish.’ You go there and see teams from around the world, and you find out just how incredible people are.” At the same time, competing with the best from around the world has its advantages: “You get to build a network of young entrepreneurs in the same circumstance as you: trying to build a business. I met great entrepreneurs from around the world, including a number from Canada.”
Walls wants to encourage Ryerson’s other emerging entrepreneurs to compete at international competitions like IBMC. “It’s a chance to win money. We ended up getting a prize of about $3,200 Canadian (US$2,500), and that’s the best reason to go: it helps to fund the business. But there’s also the travel: I got a chance to go to Utah. I didn’t know what to expect, but there were beautiful mountains everywhere, the air was so clean, and everyone was so nice.
“You’re also able to refine what you’ve worked on through a concise presentation. To be able to present that effectively, you have to develop to skillset to even be placed in these competitions, and that’s very important. I’m a much more confident presenter and public speaker.”