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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

Alumnus’ small business vies for big prize

Kelley School of Business MBA graduate Vinay Kolluru’s small business, Jet Pitch, has landed a spot among the ten finalists in Dell’s “America’s Favorite Small Business” competition.

“Dell, in support of small businesses, had this competition that was open to any small business across the country — all fifty states,” said Kolluru, CEO and co-founder of Jet Pitch. “They were allowed to submit a video describing how the business embodied the American dream and how technology was required for the business to grow, succeed and thrive.”

Jet Pitch is a consulting firm that uses technology to fill in gaps of major companies’ recruiting processes.

The finalists’ videos are now posted on Dell’s YouTube page. Kolluru said he found out his business is competing against an estate liquidation consignment shop, a boutique fitness studio and seven more small businesses from across the
country.

Each is relying on the votes of viewers and competing for the grand prize: $50,000 in cash and $25,000 worth of Dell products to give the business a boost.
The inspiration for Jet Pitch began in 2010, after Kolluru’s first year as an MBA student at IU. He witnessed his classmates being ignored by companies’ recruiting efforts, which he said was not due to lack of talent at Kelley but due to Bloomington’s location.

“Even though it is somewhat of a high-profile program, we still had a problem because you’re in Bloomington,” he said. “That geography doesn’t lend itself to a lot of the Wall Street firms or the major consulting firms or even some of the consumer goods firms paying attention to students coming out of there, because they’re just not in the right geography, or they’re not the right core group of schools.”

Jet Pitch is trying to even the playing field by allowing recent college graduates to submit videos of themselves, which they then present to large corporations looking to hire, he said.

“We’re trying to help students specifically who are very talented but not necessarily at schools that are within the scope of companies’ recruiting efforts,” Kolluru said.

Jet Pitch currently works with 13 universities, including IU. Kolluru said if Jet Pitch comes out on top at the end of the competition’s 13-week run, he will use the winnings to improve the system’s efficiency, invest in more cutting-edge video equipment and ramp up marketing efforts to increase awareness.

“I think it would really help streamline a lot of things in our economy,” he said. “With a lot of corporations struggling, budgets (are) being constrained. I think this is a perfect solution for them to find talented candidates they would have otherwise overlooked, and that would spur on innovation.”

Kolluru’s video, as well as the videos of other finalists, are available at youtube.com/dellbusiness.

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