Winners!

of the New Venture Challenge Social Impact Prize

A week ago, our team of three pitched Terra Wear to an auditorium, in competition for the Social Impact Prize of the New Venture Challenge. There were six other teams competing, all with intriguing and thoughtful ideas and designs. Prizes were awarded to first, second, and third place, with an additional Environmental Sustainability Prize. We came into the event thinking we had a good shot at the sustainability prize, but without great hopes for the general prizes. After all, a used clothing swap isn’t the most sexy idea in the world.

The sustainability prize was awarded first, and when we didn’t end up winning that, we happily sat back to watch our competitors, assuming we were out. But to our very great surprise, we ended up winning the whole thing! Along with a giant check for $5,000 to start developing our idea. We were pretty darn shocked.

We’ve been approaching this project with a healthy dose of skepticism, and our commitment has ebbed and flowed with our varying levels of excitement during different stages of the process, so it was empowering to see our idea validated by impartial judges.

We’re in the midst of creating an LLC in order to accept the prize money, and after that we’ll begin to prototype our concept, design out a website experience, and improve the brand. And we really need to start hunting down donations.

I’m so grateful to be paired with two incredible teammates in Vanessa Frye and Josh Sheetz. Despite having different interests, skillsets, and backgrounds we’ve been an awesome team!

Onward.