In 2025 two companies created by students in Skyline’s Business Leadership capstone class, qualified to attend the Virtual Enterprise convention in New York City.
On April 4, Versa Shave, a company that reinvented the razor as the world knows it, along with Financial U, a business created to help families create the right plan to afford college, all headed to New York for the business trip none will soon forget.
After the required prerequisite courses, Skyline seniors in the Business Magnet take the final Business Leadership Capstone class where they create their own business and present in front of the Virtual Enterprise competition judges. Students take on the roles in business such as CEO, CFO, CMO, sales, and more.
Day 1
After a stressful morning the flight landed in New York and the students, along with teacher Robert Shannon, grabbed their luggage and headed towards the shuttle to their hotel, the Doubletree Hilton West. They dropped off their suitcases and backpacks and headed over to Times Square to explore one of the state’s most well known landmarks.
“I love Times Square so much,” says CEO of Versa Shave, Britta Coultas (‘25).“It’s so eventful and there’s always something going on…it can definitely be a little overwhelming.”
The VE students, although in New York, worked hard to ensure they were prepared for their upcoming presentation on Monday, April 7. They rehearse their lines with each other and help keep everyone on track while enjoying their trip. After hours of exploring the city the group met to have dinner together. The students got ice cream and returned to Times Square to visit the landmark at night and see all the lights.
Day 2
Day 2 began with everyone starting their morning in their own way, with some going to the gym, others running in Central Park, and others sleeping in after a long night of exploring and shopping in Times Square. Around noon, the group met up with plans to visit SOHO and Wall Street, taking the New York subway to get there.
“It was a unique experience that I won’t forget,” says Saumil Agarwal (‘25). “It was scary sometimes, it got us places quickly which was really nice. We also saw crazy things like some old lady hopping the gate in front of two police officers who grabbed and arrested her, I’ll never forget it.”
After their subway experience, they visited popular monuments such as the 9/11 Memorial and World Trade Center. “It was a very surreal experience, looking at the fountain because you just see all the names and it becomes reality,” says Versa Shave member, Reily Eidelman (‘25). “Those were real people just going about their day.”
The group made a visit to Wall Street in order to see the New York Stock Exchange and the financial district. They talked about finance and history during the walk. After they returned to the hotel, Versa Shave team members met in the lobby to practice the presentation they would be performing the next day. They spent over two hours practicing in order to truly feel prepared for the long day they had ahead of them.
Day 3
Both Versa Shave and Financial U members woke up early to begin their walk to the trade center. Within the trade center, VE groups from all over the world were milling around and preparing for their performances. Groups were given their room numbers and went to run through their performances one last time.
“I’m feeling good and very confident,” said Versa Shave member Desmond Avis (‘25). “I have a lot of faith in the team and feel that we’ve done everything we could up to this point… I’ll be proud no matter the outcome, I’m very excited to see how we do.”
While Versa Shave was doing their business plan pitch, Financial U was in another room pitching the marketing and finance aspects of their business to another judge. Both groups waited three hours to hear results deciding whether or not they would progress to the next round.
After the long wait the results showed that neither group would progress despite their best efforts and work.
“I felt like it went very well,” said Sawyer Thompson (‘25). “Our group presented very well and we all sounded very confident when we were presenting…I’m pretty surprised we’re not progressing but I’m proud of how far we’ve come and the fact that our business even made it to New York in the first place.”
Although the journey was over for the two business groups, some members still had presentations left for VE and were very busy the rest of the day. Max Adox (‘25) and Pierce Vanoyen (‘25) had presentations in the Global Innovation Challenge in which they were put with random groups from VE and given a business prompt to provide the best solution to. After the presentations the group had an early night to pack and prepare for the trade show taking place the next morning.
Day 4
The VE trade show, beginning at 8 a.m., features students from all over the world selling their products they came up with in their classrooms to others using a VE card. The card has fake money, used to buy other people’s products. The students working at the stands must convince the shoppers to buy their product using their sales skills learned in their business classes leading up to the VE class.
Students’ stands were decorated in order to attract the most buyers to their business. Versa Shave and Financial U hung posters and played music to bring in customers. While some were selling at the trade show, others were watching the other teams who qualified present their business in front of a panel of judges in order to provide insight and advice to students in years to come.
While her team was selling at the trade show, Coultas had to make an unexpected sales pitch in front of judges about Versa Shave in order to compete in a different event. “I was so nervous because I was looking around and saw people rehearsing what they were going to say and I didn’t even know I was supposed to be doing it,” says Coultas. “I’m really glad I did though…I feel like it went really well and I’m excited to see how I do at awards tonight.”
The trade show continued until 3 p.m. and then the awards began. Both Vanoyen and Coultas won in their category, with both students placing third in their events, bringing Skyline home awards from the VE event.
