On March 25th, a group of 4 students — Alice, Adele, Angelica, and Shannon — made a presentation centering around the MEC competition and their product Nutriendy. The relatively underrated competition and the innovative product were interesting topics to the audience.

The group started off their presentation by introducing MEC, or the Model Entrepreneur Competition, a creative competition meant for students to think of their own ideas and create business plans for them. The competition encourages students to observe gaps in the market and to attempt to fill those gaps with an innovative product. The business plans for the products should contain many aspects including product analyses, market analyses, marketing plans, and positions on financial planning and risk management. After drafting a business plan, groups will then submit the draft to the preliminary round. For the final round, groups will revise a final business plan and make a promotion video.

For this group here at SHSID, a first business plan has been drafted. The product the group decided on is named “Nutriendy”, a product that mainly aims to directly connect farmers and consumers. The product has a few highlights: it helps sell farmers’ perishable goods at a lower fee of registration due to the absence of intermediaries, sorts fresh food from farmers into nutrient packs, and provides nutrient packs based on consumers’ income range/willingness to pay. Currently, there are no competitors in the market that have all the functions that Nutriendy provides, showing how this product is a valuable addition to the market.

Not only did the group shared insights on the competition and their product, they also showed the audience hardships they had faced throughout the process. As the group members weren’t very close to begin with, voice calls and meetings had been often extremely quiet. Discussions were hard to drive and ideas were difficult to develop. However, one idea popped up during a meeting — it was one that inspired the group and motivated them to try harder. After that, meetings and discussions became much more efficient and passionate, allowing the group to have an easier time to proceed.

(Written/Pictures by Shannon Supervised by Menglei Wang)