Goldman Sachs Small Businesses Student Challenge Winner

Invited by Goldman Sachs to come up with an innovative solution to one of three business challenges.

Goldman Sachs | 10,000 Small Businesses Student Challenge Winner

Highlights

• 1 of 9 finalists from 80+ applicants
• winner for BrooklynCupcake company challenge out of 3 competitors
• awarded a first-round interview with Goldman Sachs, a spot in a Cornerstone event, and a $5,000 scholarship

Full Story

I was selected as one of 3 finalists to represent BrooklynCupcake for the 10,000 Small Businesses Student Challenge through Goldman Sachs. I was one out of 9 students presenting since there were 3 students for the three different small businesses.This implied that I had to create a 5-minute presentation addressing the business challenge BrooklynCupcake wanted to solve.Creating the right presentation can take a whole lot of time (it totally did) and I ended up getting a cold from trying to work too hard (at least that’s what my mum claims). I even still had that cold when I was presenting, but I lucked out and even though I had this sketchy cold voice the day after the presentation, I managed a softer sexier cold voice the day of.Regardless, the hard work paid off and I was selected as the winner for the BrooklynCupcake category!

Final Submission

Finalist Submission | 10K Small Businesses Student Challenge

10,000 Small Businesses is one of several programs developed and supported by Goldman Sachs and the Goldman Sachs Foundation focused on accelerating the growth of high potential small businesses to create jobs and grow economies. Since its launch in 2000, the program has reached over 4,000 leaders of high-growth small businesses and social enterprises across the country.

Entry Submission

Entry Submission | 10K Student Business Challenge

10,000 Small Businesses is one of several programs developed and supported by Goldman Sachs and the Goldman Sachs Foundation focused on accelerating the growth of high potential small businesses to create jobs and grow economies. Since its launch in 2000, the program has reached over 4,000 leaders of high-growth small businesses and social enterprises across the country.

With all that being said, what stood out for me the most throughout the entire trip was how everyone got to work on 200 West Street. The Goldman Sachs building/tower is huge so what everybody does is enter through the first floor, take an elevator to the 11th floor (the Sky Lobby) and then from there, they have several different elevators they can use to get to the other floors. There was an elevator hallway for Floors 12–14 for instance and then another for Floors 30–40 and so on and so forth.

Everyone was so used to all the elevators and there were so many people just packing inside the next available elevator. It felt like something exciting was always about to happen but at the same time, I felt a lot like a sardine.Needless to say, I learned a lot about what kind of environment I’d like to work in for the future. I have just never been into very big crowds… or (sigh) business suits.Anyways, I’m going to use all $5K of what I earned to pay for the Fullstack Academy tuition, which is going to cover roughly half of it all

Goldman Sachs | Student Programs