On Tuesday Jan. 29, the Patty Abramson Social Venture Lab, known as the Hopper Tank, hosted its first multi-round competition, and four of the seven participating teams moved onto the final round. This year, an influx of student participants led to the creation of the semi–final round. By Friday morning, the results were in: Four student-led companies, Jolly Journal, Great Minds, CraftGenius and ThriveSpace advanced to the final four. On Feb. 7, GDS middle school advisories will vote for one of the four companies to win a 1000 dollar investment.
Hopper Tank, like the reality TV show Shark Tank, is a competition where student entrepreneurs design and pitch a company geared towards solving a specific societal problem. Instead of Mark Cuban or Barbara Corcoran choosing what to personally invest in, every middle school advisory selects one group to receive the 1000 dollars, and the group with the most votes takes the money home. But, like on Shark Tank, investors—outside venture capitalists using their own money—also attend the assembly and can individually finance any Hopper Tank venture.
In Hopper Tank’s inaugural year, 2021, four students participated individually. Now, this year, 43 students are competing on seven teams for the investment money. Because of this rapid expansion, the venture lab created a preliminary round this year, judged by GDS faculty Bobby Asher, Anthony Belber, John Burghardt, Greg Dallinger, Amanda Deringer, Julia Fisher, David Gillespie, Lee Goldman, Emily Livelli and Glen Russell. (Fisher is the Bit’s faculty advisor.)
The lab was created in 2021 by Jenny Abramson ’95, founder of Rethink Impact, a venture capital firm that focuses on female and non binary–led companies. Abramson started the project in honor of her late mother Patty Abramson, also a venture capitalist. The Hopper Tank team is also led by seniors Laila Bapna, Nora Sachse and Grace Zia, all of whom have won the Hopper Tank competition in past years. Additionally, the Hopper Tank heads assign a former contestant to support each team. These former contestants coach the entrepreneurs throughout the entire process.
Jolly Journal, created by juniors Andrew Bennett, Lucas Qi and Raghav Belle Trichur, is an alternative media company that publishes positive and uplifting stories on its website. “Teens are in the most dire need of a change,” Bennett said. According to their presentation, 63 percent of Generation Z receives news from social media sites like TikTok and Instagram, and those platforms share a disproportionate amount of negative news. The team plans to hire a journalist to write uplifting and inspirational stories. Jolly Journal will rely on school subscriptions to fund their business, and the platform allows school administrations to control what stories their high schoolers see.
Before the presentations began, judges appeared uncertain about what was in store for them. No teacher has ever evaluated a Hopper Tank presentation. By the end of the presentation, almost every judge in the room looked impressed. “Are you sure we can’t vote for all of them?” special gifts officer David Gillespie asked the room.
Great Minds, created by sophomores Evan Donath, Brady Leblanc, Ashwin Pathiyal and Matias Sevak, focuses on middle school tutoring. The Great Minds group told the Bit they believe many families “just don’t value middle school education” because of its lack of influence on college applications. Great Minds offers an affordable, volunteer-run website that connects middle school students with high schoolers in exchange for service hours. (Donath and Ashwin Pathiyal are on the Bit’s staff.)
Freshmen Ella Maas—daughter of Jenny Abramson—Eila Priestap and Ellie Snyder proposed an art box subscription called CraftGenius that provides arts and activities for preschoolers. The subscription also includes a donation component: For every box purchased, one arts box is donated through Martha’s Table to families in need. The group said arts are usually the first program to be cut from underfunded preschools, and some families who want to buy arts and crafts themselves can not afford them.
Lastly, ThriveSpace, a mental health app designed by sophomores Didi Pathiyal and Lulu Wachs and juniors Charlotte Lee and Henry Wachs, motivates students to slow down and relax by playing specially designed video games. The group cited data that shows “one in three students experience stress every single day.” Their app includes five different activities and games designed by the group. According to the team, playing ThriveSpace games, rather than addictive video games, will motivate and empower students to focus on themselves. (Didi Pathiyal is an opinions editor for the Bit and did not read or edit this article prior to publication.)
The three other companies—Next Step Advertising, Wimzii and Green Path—will still have a chance to be funded by outside investors on Feb. 7.
Abramson and the Hopper Tank student heads repeatedly shared their admiration for the entrepreneurs throughout the preliminary presentations. Additionally, in an email to all Hopper Tank contestants obtained by the Bit, Abramson emphasized that, win or lose, the contestants had accomplished something extraordinary: “I hope you take the night to tell someone how awesome you were and that you know that all of your ideas are ripe to become businesses.”