A junior at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point took an idea for a residence hall delivery service and is turning it into a real business, thanks to a startup business competition held this spring.
Haley Densow, Kewaskum, won $25,000 in prizes and in-kind services as the first-place winner of The Pitch, a collegiate business plan competition held at Fox Cities Stadium in April this year. She had to present her idea in four minutes in front of regional business leaders in order to beat nine other competitors.
“When I won, I realized, this is where it starts,” said Densow, a marketing major in the Sentry School of Business and Economics. “Now I can start building the opportunity and investing the money to make my business a reality.”
Densow’s business idea, DormDash, was born when she was a first-year student at UWSP. In several instances, such as a friend asking her to pick up food from the dining hall while he worked at his campus job, when she had COVID-19 and couldn’t leave her room and when her roommate broke her ankle, Densow saw potential in a way for students to use their meal plan and have food delivered right to their residence hall room door, similar to DoorDash and Uber Eats.
She had the idea, but how to make it work? She first reached out to Patrick Gatterman at the UWSP Small Business Development Center to see if he could help.
“Haley didn’t just have a vision or napkin idea, but rather a drive to succeed which was evident from the first meeting,” said Gatterman. “She was able to balance sports, work, extra-curricular activities all while developing an award-winning business model.”
Gatterman helped Densow develop a plan and she worked with campus security and University Dining, where she was a student employee, for input into the concept and how it might work. Gatterman encouraged her to compete in The Pitch and Case in Point, a UWSP Sentry School of Business and Economics team competition in which students are paired with a business client to solve a challenge.
“It was very rewarding to witness Haley in campus competitions such as Case in Point where her role as a leader and public speaker was pivotal for her team,” said Gatterman.
To prepare for The Pitch, Densow created a five-minute pitch of her business concept then rewrote it several times to get it down to four minutes. She met with a business “angel investor” who gave her feedback. She also practiced in front of family and friends.
“All of that set me apart and gave me the pitch I needed for the competition,” she said. When it came time to face the judges, she told herself, ‘What do you have to lose?’ and that gave her the confidence to go ahead.
Winning the competition has given her the time and resources to begin working with developers on the DormDash app and website. She hopes to have it ready to go by her senior year and sell the app to universities that would employ student dashers within their own residence halls.
“My dream is to see all the hard work come to life, to see it working and helping other students,” she said. She is also using the experience to encourage other student entrepreneurs as the public relations officer for the UWSP student organization Women in Business. “We are working to empower women and support their future in business, as well as motivate one another.”
Gatterman is also encouraging her along the way. “Haley has been a pleasure to work with as the answer to many of many questions is met with confidence and eagerness to succeed,” he said. “Throughout this journey it has become evident that she will be a both a successful businesswoman and an overall leader wherever she goes.”
Densow’s career plans include starting other businesses and setting herself up for success at a young age.
“The world is changing and there is always another problem to solve and a business need that will come up,” she said.
She encourages fellow college students to follow up on their own ideas. “Crazy ideas can carry you far,” she said. “You can’t really fail; you can only learn. Go after it while you can and have no regrets.”
