Entrepreneur Ronnen Harary’s tour to invest in the next generation of startup founders had its 15th stop on USC’s campus on Monday at Pardee Plaza, with the billionaire investing in multiple student projects.
Twenty-five students had sixty seconds to pitch their idea to Harary at the “Airstream” — a mobile trailer serving as the campus tour’s home base, parked — with an additional minute of follow-up questions. No decks, slideshows, or resumes were allowed, just a quick pitch.
The event was part of Harary’s “No Experience Necessary” Challenge, a tour that stops at 33 American and Canadian colleges, giving students the opportunity to pitch their startup ideas directly to him. Harary is the co-founder of Spin Master and co-creator of PAW Patrol and Bakugan.
If Harary decided on the spot to greenlight the idea, 500 dollars was awarded and the challenge began for the student: use the money in one week to develop the idea. Ten winners nationwide will be chosen from the student founders who follow through with their ideas, each walking away with $25,000, according to NEN Challenge’s website.
Prior to coming to USC, Harary had already given out more than 120 $500 dollar checks, having completed over 14 stops, according to an email from David Weissmann, vice president of media strategy at Gova10, the public relations firm representing Harary in an email to Annenberg Media.
One of the winners of the pitching competition, Katie Van Arnam is a senior majoring in journalism who is co-running “Courage Tees” with her mother, an adaptive clothing brand for cancer patients.
Van Arnam underwent two years of chemotherapy treatment for the blood cancer lymphoma when she was eight, and her mom noticed that the port device some patients including Katie needed to draw blood and provide treatments forced the patient to take off their shirt.
“This is a very vulnerable and uncomfortable experience,” Van Arnam said. “We created a shirt with plastic snaps that opens to the port, so you don’t have to worry about exposing yourself. We try to have fun, colorful designs, so it’s something you actually want to wear, and you can still express yourself while you’re going through treatment.”
With just one week to provide progress, she plans to make an aggressive pursuit.
“The plan is to rent a car and drive around to as many hospitals in Los Angeles and Southern California as I can, and drop off shirts and flyers to try to get some buyers that way,” Van Arnam said.
Omniya Mohamed, a sophomore majoring in global business also won, with “The Henna Pen.” Growing up in North Sudan, all of the women around Mohamed practiced the art of Henna every day. Mohamed said it’s a sign of beauty, loyalty, and friendship.
“My idea was to make an intuitive design that’s easy to use,” Mohamed said. “The next plans for my business is to actually get a working functional prototype by the end of the seven days.”
Mohamed was inspired to create the project after learning about “the power of hello” from professor Marianne Szymanski, who teaches business for entrepreneurs, non-business majors and entrepreneurship of the toy industry at USC.
“The power of hello doesn’t mean nepotism, and it doesn’t mean just knowing connections. It’s the quality of putting yourself out there and talking to a lot of people and making a lot of new friends,” Mohamed said. “From all the friends that I have, they’re the people that have guided me along the way and have given me perspective and ideas that I never would have had.”
Szymanski said Harary’s challenge represents this concept because students had to have the confidence to say hello, which is a life skill that will serve them well in the future. She believes that college is the best time to create ideas and start a new business, and she tells students this in her classes.
“I think his campus tour is really motivating young students in their 20s to say, ‘Yeah, why not?’” Szymanski said. “I started my business when I was 23 too, ironically, and what do you have to lose in your 20s? You don’t have the responsibilities as you do in your 30s and 40s and beyond.”
Harary is the co-founder and co-CEO of Spin Master, a company valued at $1.1 billion, widely known for creating kids’ toys like Hatchimals and Air Hogs, according to a Forbes profile. He is also the founder of The Ronnen Harary Foundation, a humanitarian effort that has supported numerous projects from providing educational scholarships to young people and beautifying historical spaces in Jerusalem, according to his website.
“I wrote my book, ‘No Experience Necessary: Why Betting on Yourself in Your Twenties Is the Best Decision You’ll Ever Make, to encourage the younger generation and every generation where when you’re in your 20s to lean into the life that you want to live, right, and define your own version of success,” Harary said in an interview with Annenberg Media.
He said that this generation of college students that he has met so far on the tour have shown a determination to make a difference with their entrepreneurial endeavors.
“This generation has a lot of pepper, a lot of fight. I get people that pitch at the challenge, and they come back and re-pitch, even if they didn’t win,” Harary said. “Just a lot of desire to do special things in their life, and also an incredible desire to do something for themselves, but also do something good for the world.”
Editor’s Note: Katie Van Arnam is a producer on Live From the Halo. Van Arnam does not write for Annenberg Media and was not at all involved in the creation of this article.
Edited by Nina Kremer