Press Invite and Release

HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS WIN OPPORTUNITY
TO START BUSINESS

Contact Shirin Dewani Belur
BUILD, Director of Operations
(650) 688-5845 work
(510) 378-1252 cell

Menlo Park, Calif.,—May 24, 2004—They're not even old enough to vote but five Woodside High School students are already well on their way to being successful in the business world. Their company, GLO, won first place in a youth business plan competition held at Stanford Graduate School of Business and run by the nonprofit organization BUILD, or Businesses United in Investing, Lending and Development.

GLO was the first of four chosen from among 14 youth businesses competing for funding under BUILD's program to help students in resource-limited communities get into college. The multiple year BUILD program provides students with real-world entrepreneurial experience as well as academic assistance, leadership training, and professional mentoring.

"GLO should be very proud of their accomplishments and BUILD looks forward to seeing them in our Youth Business Incubator as they excel in education and become role models in the community," said BUILD founder and President Suzanne McKechnie Klahr, a Stanford Law School graduate.

The winning business plan details a process by which members of the team plan to make unique, handcrafted, custom gel candles. They hope to sell their candles at school and various local community events.

Members of the first-place team include CEO Kimberlee Weber, 16; COO Grace Rhodes, 15; CFO Edgar Molina, 16; VP Design and Manufacturing Raniel Ramill, 16; and VP Marketing and Sales Josue Cuellar, 15. The students will be sophomores and juniors at Woodside High School next year.

As first-place winners, the GLO team received individual cash prizes of $100 and automatic acceptance into BUILD's Youth Business Incubator located on the border of Menlo Park and East Palo Alto.

Work In Progress, the second-place winner, plans to create a "floating night club" catered to local teens. Team members include CEO Jayson De Los Santos, CFO Enrique Montti, COO Justin Warren, VP Marketing and Sales Jorge Sosa, and VP Design and Manufacturing De'Shawn Lax, all Woodside High School students.

Of the other two winning teams, Latin Style represents East Palo Alto High School and hopes to manufacture and sell handmade "rag" belts and airbrushed t-shirts. Chica Wear, started by Menlo-Atherton students, will offer customized hats for females aged 12 - 25.

The BUILD business plan competition, the fifth such annual event, was sponsored this year by Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, LLP, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs & Co., US Venture Partners, Montgomery Law Group, LLP, Center for Entrepreneurial Studies -Stanford Graduate School of Business, Cooley Godward LLP, Silicon Valley Bank, joe miller's company, BlackBag Technologies, Inc., Comergent Technologies, Inc., and VERITAS Software. Judges and competition attendees included Silicon Valley senior executives, educators, and community leaders.

Previous business plan winners have gone on to Columbia, Stanford, Harvard and University of California at Berkeley, and others are upper-level high school students still running their businesses from BUILD's incubator. The other 10 teams that competed Saturday may apply for acceptance into the incubator through interviews and written essays.

About BUILD
BUILD's mission is to provide real-world entrepreneurial experience that empowers youth from under-resourced communities to excel in education, lead in their communities, and succeed professionally. BUILD encourages students to develop their own small businesses, extending traditional entrepreneurial education far beyond the classroom and providing students with practical experiences and access to talented business, academic and investment leaders in the larger community. Established by Suzanne McKechnie Klahr in September of 1999, BUILD is located on the border of East Palo Alto and Menlo Park, Calif. BUILD can be found online at www.build.org.

Return to the 5th Annual BUILD Youth Business Plan Competition page

View the Business Plan Competition Photo Gallery