On November 17th, 2018, Vesta Source’s president Joyce participated in DECA’s Western Region Leadership Conference. She and a group of three others competed against students from all over Western USA in a business pitch competition called DECA Garage.
DECA Garage is an entrepreneurial competition led by a former Shark Tank winner, Jason Lucash, and can be described as a crossover of Shark Tank and Kickstarter. Competing teams have to come up with their own innovative product and pitch their idea to a panel of judges. Joyce’s 
team created Rise: an expandable/compressible high heel product catered to working women. After a weekend of intensive product preparation and hours of pitching, Team Rise passed the elimination round and advanced to the top 3 finalist round. They were able to present their pitch at the closing session to all the conference delegates (2000+ attendees) and 5 Shark Tank judges. In the end, Rise won the the judge’s vote for best pitch and placed first overall. Joyce and her team took home $1,000 in prize money, and Joyce’s share of $250 happily went towards Vesta Source funding!
Joyce says, “I love that I’m able to merge my interests and use skills in entrepreneurship to fund my projects in sustainable energy. The $250 can buy so many solar lamps for Tanzania, I’m really excited!”
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