Suitup Incorporated

James goes to KIPP Academy, a charter school, on East 156th in the South Bronx in New York City. He is a 7th grader who hasn’t really thought about what he wants to be when he grows up. He doesn’t particularly like school but gets good grades in math and struggles in English Language Arts. His ELA teacher says if he can just apply himself, he’ll do better. He’d rather stay in Math class.

James was one of the 30 students chosen by his teacher to participate in a SuitUp competition at Felix Gray, a startup eyeglasses company in Soho. Felix Gray employees partnered with SuitUp to create a business competition in which students create a new pair of glasses that solves a need in society. Felix Gray employees coached James and his teammates on the marketing, financing, and strategy of their new glasses before helping them prepare a pitch to live judges.

James said “I want to be part of SuitUp because I want to experience what a CEO would do and experience working with other people. I would gain knowledge about how to communicate and work together with others...as well as facts about business.” Not knowing anything about SuitUp, James dove right in, getting to know his coaches: one of the co-founders of Felix Gray, a product manager, and an operations associate.

Through the four-hour competition, you could see the “lightbulb” come on for James. He contributed ideas (coming up with a GPS locator glasses that reads your heartbeat), gave feedback to his teammates about their portions of the pitch, and worked directly along the co-founder of Felix Gray to identify the profit margin of their product. James loved the experience. Even when his team didn’t win. Without SuitUp, he shared, “I wouldn’t get taught any of this stuff at home, at school, or in my neighborhood.”

Although James’ team didn’t win, he shared that “grit” is something he learned from this experience, “especially when things don’t work out.” After the competition, James shared that he wants to learn more about business administration, and one of his coaches told him to look into Baruch’s business

school.

SuitUp strives to make these connections for all students, and knows that even a four-hour competition can make a huge impact in students’ lives. At James’ school’s competition, 100% of students said they learned something new, 92% could see themselves having a career that uses the skills taught in the competition, and 100% of students said the corporate volunteers from Felix Gray made an impact on what they want to study when they go to college.