REGINA — A new entrepreneurship program is giving Regina high school students a rare chance to build and pitch real startups before they even graduate.
The eight-week initiative, Elevate XP, brought dozens of students together with mentors to develop business ideas aimed at solving real-world problems.
For high school student Sneha Gaire, that meant tackling one of Saskatchewan’s most familiar challenges: winter.
“My business partners and I have lived here almost all our lives. And we really saw how much our family struggled with the snow issue here,” she said, noting her group has been developing a de-icer. She knows producing such a product won’t be easy, but feels the research her team has done is a strong start.
Meanwhile, students Misbah Syed and Hamza Nabeel developed a website to simplify finding grants for high school sports.
“We have seen a lot of our high school friends sending GoFundMe links to help support their season. Because they can't afford to cover all the costs after the subsidies,” Syed explained.
Syed said grant information can be difficult to access and understand.
“They get presented with a bunch of options, and all this information is really overwhelming.”
Elevate XP is run by Enactus Regina, a business and social innovation club at the University of Regina.
Co-president Kairo Holness said the idea behind the program came from what he wished he had as a teen.
“I felt like I needed more. How do I raise money? How do I pitch to investors? How do I market myself? I feel like I didn't really know those skills as a teenager,” he said. “And obviously, as a teenager, it can be really hard to ask for help and to look for resources.”
As part of the program, each team pitched to 16 investors, including Cultivator and Bravo Tango. After their presentations, each group walked away with $500.
“They got to invest some money into their business instead of just having their idea, because it's going to be really difficult to start a business these days, inflation prices are higher,” Holness noted.
Next, teams will showcase their projects on Elevate XP Day.
“On January 31, they get to pitch their business ideas to anyone,” said Holness. “We're gonna be opening invites to anyone throughout the whole city, and we're trying to fill the seats.
“There's prize money on the line, and we're going to have a panel of judges evaluating them, but it's really just to showcase what they've learned and what they've achieved since the first week of October.”
Holness said the long-term plan is to continue Elevate XP every year.
As for the students, Gaire said her group will keep researching their product to see how far they can go. Meanwhile, Syed and Nabeel could see themselves going down a non-profit route.
“We really want to make something that can help them out. Because after all, you can donate to help someone out [for] one season [or] two seasons,” said Syed.
