BizSugar.com › Startups › The Pre-Seed Stage Gap in Student Ventures

Student entrepreneurs face an important obstacle in developing their ventures. They often lack the money to develop working prototypes.
It’s not surprising to see entrepreneurs seeking validation for their early stage ventures before they have developed a functional prototype.
Over the past three months, I have run four elevator pitch competitions on Northeast Ohio college campuses as part of the Burton D. Morgan Foundation’s PITCH U. None of the 12 entrepreneurs who took home prize money from the competition had a working prototype.