My Entrepreneurship Story

I have had quite the interesting experiences with some entrepreneurs I have encountered here at the University of Florida. I never knew so many students at such a young age would have such wild and big dreams. One entrepreneur that has always stuck in my brain was the inventor of Cocovana, Sheldon Barrett.

I met Sheldon at an Entrepreneur Club meeting Spring semester of 2015. The President of the club, David Nassau, was a guy with a lot of connections and he had invited me to check out the event. The event involved a "pitch" competition and his stood out to me.. and won first place. His product was a coconut opener designed to safely core out the middle of the coconut to dispense coconut water for people traveling or just simply having one. The tool also works well for other fruits. He recently just earned a patent for his idea and his website is under construction but here is the website: http://www.cocovana.com/ .

His pitch was well prepared, very captivating, and engaging. But most of all, it was understanding and he showed his "coconut" twist in action. His pitch definitely sold me.

Sheldon Barret at a Pitch Competition. 

As a back story on why I am enrolled in ENT3003 is because I am minoring in Innovation. A part of wanting this minor, I must take classes that involve creativity and entrepreneurship! So far, I have loved all my classes, especially working in teams and being able to be hands on to create a final product to showcase. I hope out of this class, I gain more insight of why entrepreneurs do what they do and how they do it. Most people could not live the lives of entrepreneurs and we must give them credit where it is due.