By Miles Flynn | Southern Indiana Business Report
INDIANAPOLIS — Zion and Xavier Dunaway, brothers and students at Salem High School, came away as the top winners of $10,000 prizes in the Innovate WithIN business pitch competition June 21. After advancing through two rounds of the competition, the brothers’ Southern Indiana Bait Co. LLC (SIBCo.) was named the overall winner of the statewide initiative.
Students were asked to work individually or in small groups to submit an innovative idea for a business, product, service or venture, and this year’s competition drew 245 online applications from 815 Hoosier students at 128 high schools. After completing video pitches and regional competitions, the final 10 teams, representing Bartholomew, Boone, DeKalb, Elkhart, Hamilton, Lake, Marion, Monroe, Montgomery and Washington counties, were invited to Indianapolis to pitch their ideas to a panel of judges.
“I’m encouraged and excited to see record participation from Indiana students in this year’s Innovate WithIN competition,” said Gov. Eric J. Holcomb. “Initiatives like this are growing Indiana’s culture of innovation and entrepreneurship and empowering young Hoosiers to start using their creativity and entrepreneurial ideas. Seeing what these students have to offer at such a young age gives me a lot of hope for our state’s future.”
SIBCo. grows from love of fishing
Zion, 17, will be a senior this fall at Salem. Xavier, 15, is going into his sophomore year.
Zion credits their school’s bass fishing team with getting him into the hobby and onto the path that led to SIBCo.
“I started making my own baits as a hobby after Garrett Ellis started the Salem Bass Fishing team through the school,” Zion told Southern Indiana Business Report. “I just thought that it would be cool to make my own baits and got the bare essentials to do it.”
After COVID shut everything down, including school, Zion said he started posting pictures of what he was making. The budding business drew considerable interest. The LLC was formed in September 2020.
“… and when I realized that it might take off, I asked Xavier if he wanted to go in with me 50/50, and he agreed,” Zion said. “So, we began to invest and grow the company together. It’s taken off from there!”
The company offers a variety of soft plastics, and the brothers said their specialties are quality and customization. The brothers are now working on some custom designs that they hope to put on the market to help further set them apart from the competition.
“Honestly, we look like a couple kids doing arts and crafts,” Zion laughed. “It never fails that we get covered in glitter and our shirts sometimes look tie-dyed after getting the colorant on us after a long day of work.”
The business is currently selling through social media and to anglers the brothers meet at tournaments around the region. In addition, the baits are now being sold in seven retail locations. The Dunaways hope to see that number grow, and they’re also in the process of launching a website.
“Like several other startups that grow into something remarkable, we are running the business out of our garage and have pretty much taken over part of the hallway in the house,” Xavier said. “And when it’s a packaging/shipping day, we tend to steal the kitchen table.”
Entering the statewide pitch contest
Zion said he learned about the Innovate WithIn competition from Ellis, the leader of the fishing team and Salem Middle School’s business teacher.
“Without me really saying ‘yes,’ he signed me up that day, and I didn’t even know what we had gotten ourselves into,” Zion shared. “We decided to do everything that was needed to get through the first round of the competition, and things went from there.”
Xavier said it was a challenge and involved completing a lean business model, executive summary, and a pitch deck for the regional finals.
“The regional finals consisted of the top 10 teams that were selected from our region,” he recalled. “Here, we also had to pitch to the judges and were shocked that we won at this level.”
Leading up to the state finals, the brothers worked through a six-week “bootcamp,” including meetings with entrepreneurs and professionals who gave feedback and provided insights into their own entrepreneurial journeys.
“We also created a sizzle reel and finalized our pitch deck and executive summary for the state finals,” Xavier said.
The Saturday drive up to Indianapolis for the finals was tense. The brothers said they knew all of the teams had devoted countless hours to the contest and all of them deserved to win. After the 10 teams had made their pitches and third and second place were announced, the Dunaways thought they’d failed to make the top three.
“When they announced that we won first place, I didn’t know what to think and didn’t know whether to smile or cry,” Zion said. “Shocked would be the best way to describe how I felt. The reality didn’t really sink in at that moment that we had won the biggest entrepreneurial pitch competition in the country for high schoolers.”
Xavier was speechless and said he still can’t put into words just how it felt.
For their win, the brothers each received $10,000 cash prizes; $10,000 to go toward future education; an all-expense-paid business immersion trip to Phoenix Arizona; and several other scholarship opportunities, with some of them being nearly full-ride scholarships.
Looking back, Zion said he thinks some of the bigger factors that led the judges to choose their pitch are that the company continues to show growth and that it has a practical and scalable operation. “I don’t think that we would have won if we didn’t show the amount of traction that our company has,” he concluded.
They thank their friends and family for their support throughout the contest and said they couldn’t have done it without all of their help.
The brothers’ future plans
The Dunaways are re-investing the $20,000 back into the company to increase production with an injection machine and by increasing their mold count. Their strategy is to buy supplies in greater bulk to further increase profits.
They may, possibly, need to look at hiring someone to help them, too, especially when Zion heads off to college in 2022.
“For several years, I have planned on attending Purdue University to major in forestry and minor in wildlife management,” Zion said. “However, I’m not completely sure on what to do because of the growth of the company and the possibilities that I now have to attend a university and major in something such as business and marketing. It’ll be a hard decision that will have to be made sooner than later. At this point it’s a toss-up.”
Xavier isn’t sure what his future education plans are. “I’ve still got three years to decide,” he said. “Ultimately, it will depend on where the business is at that point.”
The brothers do plan to remain in the Salem area and would like to continue to grow SIBCo. into something they can make a lifelong career. Their dream would be to continue expanding their passion through the growth of the company and to be able to encourage and support upcoming youth in the fishing industry as well. They think the contest will end up being a big step toward achieving those goals.
“The exposure that we have gotten because of the competition is unbelievable. Not to mention all of the connections that we have made that will help us further grow the business,” Zion said. “I can’t thank all of the mentors that help with the competition and the individuals that help run the program and the competition itself. This experience, I know, has changed my life and several other high schoolers’ from across the state. I’m proud to say that I have gotten to know several of them and that I can call the ‘most innovative youth in the state of Indiana’ my friends.”
More about the contest
Now in its fourth year, Innovate WithIN, hosted by the Indiana Economic Development Corporation and the STARTedUP Foundation, is Indiana’s first statewide high school pitch competition.
The judges of the competition were David Watkins, state director of the Indiana Small Business Development Center; Sunny Lu Williams, president of TechServ Corporation; Chip Neidigh, CEO and founder of Kairos Consulting; and Christine McDonnell, CEO and co-founder of Codelicious.
The Innovate WithIN pitch competition is designed to foster an entrepreneurial spirit among leaders of tomorrow, empowering students to hone their innovative thinking. It is a component of Holcomb’s Next Level Agenda to make Indiana a hub for innovation and develop a 21st century skilled and ready workforce.
SIBCo., along with all of the final 10 teams, received mentoring services through the STARTedUP Foundation, which focused on helping students develop and execute their innovation and entrepreneurship ideas, as well as providing access to the foundation’s network of mentors and advisers.
Other winners
In second place, Acacia Ranch Show Goats, led by Sydney and Matthias Hefty at DeKalb High School, will each receive $2,500. In third place, AR Odyssey LLC, led by Aidan Mahaffey, Jesse Kogge and Julia Layton with The Academy of Science and Entrepreneurship and Bloomington High School North, will each receive $1,500.
The other finalists, who were honored with certificates of achievement, include:
- EveryBody (EB) Clothing Brand, led by Emmett Bowman from Crawfordsville High School.
- Boost Box, led by Lauren Mitchell and Andrew Blessinger from Edgewood High School.
- Aspire Group LLC, led by Trey Nebergall from Columbus North High School.
- Omega Skin, led by Nimish Bhat from Carmel High School.
- Cramps Revamped led by Allison Bradford from Hobart High School.
- Sheap, led by Gadiel Montiel from Concord Community High School.
- FIA, led by Krishna Thiru, Emma Hamilton and Isaiah Branam from Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School/Zionsville Community High School.
“We continue to be encouraged by the talent coming from all corners of our state and to have a governor who makes a point to not only attend the Innovate WithIN High School Pitch Competition each year, but also spend time learning about the students’ businesses and encouraging the pursuit of their visions,” said Don Wettrick, STARTedUP Foundation founder and CEO. “They are truly representing an exciting future for our state.”