ECU Hult Prize winner talks new pitching experience

Grace Krell pitches her company, SweetSip, during 2019 finals of the Pirate Entrepreneurship Challenge.

SweetSip, an eco-friendly company, designed to decrease plastic consumption, is not a stranger to the entrepreneurial environment found at ECU, the College of Business and the Miller School of Entrepreneurship.

Though they do have sales, they still need capital to expand their business. Therefore, they’ve been making the rounds of entrepreneurial challenges, including ECU’s (and yes, let’s dare write it, North Carolina’s) signature pitch competition, the Pirate Entrepreneurship Challenge.

The company also has captured the attention of the Hult Prize, a crowdsourcing platform for social good. Based on Sweet Sip winning the ECU Hult Prize competition in fall 2019, they recently competed in the Prize’s regional entrepreneurial competition in Lima, Peru.

 In prepping for the regionals, Sweet Sip had to shift on a dime and change their presentation from in-person to virtual. We spoke with team lead Grace Krell (ECU English and communications major) about her company’s experience with the regionals.

“The (regional) virtual pitch competition was vastly different from a live pitch competition,” said Krell. “We did not pitch in front of a live judge panel. Instead, we had a form to fill out and turn in within about one month. We had to include things like our pitch deck, the pitch, supplemental resources, and more information that could help judges make their decision.”

 Mattie High (biology and chemistry major) and Brianna Waters (nursing major) joined Krell in the regional competition.

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