Written by Thais Rezende

“I knew the event would be powerful, but I didn't realize it would bring me to tears,” was the comment I got from an audience member who introduced herself to me after the competition. A lot of others had similar comments when describing their experience during the World Wide Women Girls’ Festival, and our 1st BizWorld Girlpreneur Competition. We are all still smiling thinking about what this event meant to all these young entrepreneurs and the profound way it will influence their future. They could not have imagined they would be pitching their business ideas to top venture capitalists at this young age…. And they were amazing!

We chose five companies with girls ranging from 8-17 years old, and all of them exuded passion, confidence, and smarts. These Girlpreneurs worked hard on their business ideas and were selected from a pool of many compelling entrants.

At the end, a company had to be chosen as the winner and after much deliberation our judges selected MySelf. A company formed by sisters June, Ginger and Holly Bernstein of Mill Valley who bravely and boldly pitched to Tim, Mark and Sue, and answered tough questions to beat out the competition. Their prizes include $2,500 seed funding for their company and the gift of the BizWorld program to their own schools so that they can help inspire other young entrepreneurs.

People in the audience also had a chance to vote for The People’s Choice winner, and they picked Lucia Patterson of Oakland, for her company, Lucy’s Sushi. 9 year old Lucia wowed the audience with her hard-hitting and well-executed business pitch, and left the judges practically speechless.

I truly enjoyed seeing Sue, Mark and Tim interact with these Girlpreneurs. They treated them with such respect and truly cared about giving these young entrepreneurs good business advice for their companies. They were inspirational!

WATCH LUCY'S SUSHI WORLD (VIDEO)

As a mother of 3 girls, I couldn’t help but think these are the opportunities I want to see opening up for them. I want the world to realize they are powerful, smart, and full of great ideas. I want them to be respected, have a voice, and act upon their dreams. BizWorld is creating a better world for them and every child in the world. A world where they can take control of their financial future, be creative, and where there are no wrong answers, just learning opportunities.

When we designed this competition, we had one thing in mind: to sprout the spirit of entrepreneurship among girls… and boy (girl) did we do that!

At BizWorld, we believe entrepreneurship is a life skill. A life skill that needs to be learned by all kids just like math or English are learned at schools today. Not every child will be an entrepreneur when she or he grows up, just like not all of them will become mathematicians or writers; but we can inspire every child to become the architect of their future and empower them to transform their world through our entrepreneurship programs!