ComeFail Idea Competition

Have you ever had an idea but didn’t know where to go for help? Do you have a desire to do something meaningful, something that can impact the lives of others? Have you ever thought of creating your own business or being part of a startup company? For me, I have aspired to become an entrepreneur for many years. So when I arrived on campus, I wanted to get as involved in the realm of social entrepreneurship as possible. I noticed though that there wasn’t a space for students to easily connect, brainstorm, and share their changemaking ideas. This lead me to create ComeFail, an online platform that would allow students to collaborate. To promote the ComeFail concept, I needed seed funding. The Alvarez Spark Innovation Fund gave me sufficient funds to jumpstart my idea. I held a Facebook competition that encouraged students to share their ideas on our Facebook page. The idea that responded best to constructive criticism and received the highest number of likes would win $500. I posted flyers and idea boards all around campus and spoke at quite a few classes. Speaking in classes gave me more confidence in my public speaking skills, which is important in sales and marketing. The competition became popular and hundreds of people were engaged with the Facebook page. From this experience, I learned that students enjoyed posting and looking at others’ ideas. The ComeFail concept seemed to work! The competition gave us momentum and helped us win more funding from the NewDay challenge. This allowed us to ultimately build our own platform. Starting something in college has been the most formative experience of my life. I would recommend to any student to build something. You never know where to start and you never know where you will go, but that is the beauty of it. When you take on a large project there are all sorts of opportunities for learning and growth.