Businesses for bamboo, jewelry, and virtual reality headsets won thousands of dollars in the 2015 Empower Your Dreams competition. The competition came to a close on the evening of Thursday, March 19. The six of the 12 judges of the competition – Paul Anderson, Peter Hollens, Ryan Schafinger, Adam Sidwell, Scott Stiles, and Jeffrey Harmon – delivered speeches to help the young entrepreneurs succeed in their dreams and goals. Sidwell said, “You can’t be the person making all of the pies. Identify what needs to be done, what only you can do and find some sort of structure to lay responsibility on others for what you don’t need to do.”Following their words, the winners of the Crowdfunding competition were announced. WINNERSAlumni Category 1st: MYBOO2nd: Button Caps 3rd: Cloud Tale Honorable mention: Rice LoveWelster Tropia, BYUH alumni from the Philippines, won the first place prize of $3,000 with MYBOO with his product of bamboo bags made in the Philippines from a Filipino design. The bags, which come in various sizes, are “made by farmers in the Philippines during their off season for extra income. In the Philippines, extra income really helps. The farmers design them,” said Tropia. He said he entered the competition without expecting to win anything, much less first place. Tropia said he is pleased with the win, and he wants to use the money to make a greater variety of bags, and make them better and stronger. “I always wanted to start something that brought something from the Philippines to here,” he said.Unpublished Category 1st: Odinwear 2nd: Ele Swims 3rd: Aloha handmade tie Honorable mention: Thread WalletsYouTube star Peter Hollens said one of the most important things someone can do while starting a business, product, or brand, is to create value for people.The first place prize in the Unpublished category were the three creators of Odinwear, a virtual reality headset. Benjamin Errico, an senior in accounting from Las Vegas, Dillon Deffense, a senior in finance from Los Angeles, and Michael Nightingale, a senior in business management from Minnesota said they were drawn together by their interest in technology. Errico said they researched all the technology about virtual reality video and gaming. “We noticed that there was a segment that was missing in high quality headsets, so we took advantage of it,” said Errico.Deffense said, “If you look on Google, the closest competition would be cardboard boxes that you just drop on your head and put your phone into it. So there’s no real product already developed, but there’s already the applications that go before it. So we just created a product that was both high quality and low price.” The honorable mention in the Unpublished category is already being sold in the bookstore here on campus. Thread Wallets are simplistic in design, meant to hold a few credit cards or even small amounts of cash and can be worn on a key chain. “I like my thread wallet. It is minimalistic, but it works,” said William Powell, a computer science major from South Carolina.Published category1st: Apollo Pieces 2nd: Kapalu Connections3rd: Wizards DuelHonorable mention: Native EdgeBio-medical senior CJ Dadivas and psychology junior Soram Yun created the paracord jewelry business Apollo Pieces to “mesh family history with pop-culture fashion,” said Dadivas. The family history is the military affiliation that made both his and Yun’s family travel, he said. They both had an interest in fashion. “There was nothing on the market that would fit me,” said Dadivas about jewelry, “and one day my dad asked me if I wanted to make a bracelet.” They said they decided to enter the contest two days before it started. “We didn’t expect to get anything. We feel super blessed and grateful for the opportunity,” said Dadivas. They already have orders for 250 bracelets. Yun said they marketed through blogs, giving a link to their Kickstarter. “In that way we got a lot of random costumers from all over this world,” she said.Dadivas said 6 to 9 feet of paracord, which has a load capacity of 550 pounds, is woven into the jewelry. It can be used as “key chains, fire starters or for an emergency,” and have custom molded beads made of rhodium, pewter, brass or 18 karat gold.There are five points that are critical for business, according to videographer Paul Anderson of the Piano Guys: 1. Don’t be selfish: Do something for someone else. You can focus on helping someone else with the proceeds. 2. Take risks and work: Don’t be afraid to fail. Jump into something with both feet. 3. Go for it: Don’t listen to people who say it can’t be done. 4. Think outside the box: Dream big. Do the opposite of what everyone else is doing. 5. Believe in yourself: People all have gifts that they have been given. Enhance your gifts and help others with them.William Arnett III and Maklen Kapalu, the second-place winners of the published category, Kapalu Connection “Houses of Hope” have plans to accomplish the following goals, as pulled from their website: “Houses of Hope will work with local community leaders to build houses in remote regions of Vanuatu that will be rented by the Port-Vila Mission for their missionaries. Houses of Hope, after receiving the rental income, will send a portion of rent monies to local schools to supplement the payment of a teacher, supplies, or physical facilities. Houses of Hope will make it possible for missionaries to proselyte and perform humanitarian work in remote areas.”Arnett and Kapalu are accomplishing the first item of Anderson’s business guide: Not being selfish. They are building houses to help missionaries and the local community grow and learn. Kapalu Connection has been using social media, such as Facebook messenger, to help spread the word of their project.Uploaded March 25, 2015
Writer: Max Betts and Samone Isom
