Three Magnuson Center Social Entrepreneurship Startups To Compete Internationally
Three startups sponsored by the Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship — NovaChirp, NET Offset and Sea Energy — will travel to Mexico, Portugal and the United Arab Emirates to compete in the Hult Prize Challenge, the world’s largest social entrepreneurship competition, according to program manager at the Magnuson Center Sarah Morgan.
The Magnuson Center hosted the 2024 DartUp Social Blueprint Challenge in the winter, a competition for social entrepreneurship pitches from undergraduate and graduate students. The winning team automatically qualified to compete for the Hult Prize, according to first-place team leader Adriana Chavira Ochoa ’24.
The Hult Prize “challenges young people to solve the planet’s most pressing issues through social entrepreneurship,” according to its website. Prize-winning teams receive one million dollars to fund their idea.
This year, the Hult Prize regional competitions will be held in India, Mexico, Portugal, Taiwan and the U.A.E., while the final round of the competition will take place in England in September. Ochoa and her team of four members — Andre Bouzid ’25, Paulina Cuadra ’25, Elizabeth Ding ’24 and Mike Hanrahan ’24 — will represent Dartmouth as NovaChirp, a cricket powder protein startup, at the Lisbon Summit in Portugal on June 21 and 22.
NovaChirp aims to produce cricket powder for consumption to address climate change and malnutrition in alignment with key United Nations sustainable development goals, according to Ochoa.
“The target is to fight climate change and malnutrition — especially in Mexico, as the poverty rates are growing and because Mexico has some of the highest rates of obesity,” Ochoa said. “Our business model is business-to-business and business-to-consumer, and we would be based in Mexico where it would be lower cost, allowing us to maximize our production.”
Ochoa said she first came up with the idea of using crickets to combat climate change and malnutrition during a trip back home to Mexico City around a month ago, when she ate crickets at a restaurant.
“After conducting research of my own, I found how nutritious crickets really are, so when I heard Magnuson was holding a competition for an idea, I signed up with the support of my friends,” Ochoa said.
Crickets can be an effective solution to malnutrition because they have more “iron, calcium and B12 than most animals,” are “jam-packed with nutrients” — such as the nine amino acids prebiotics — and reproduce quickly, Ochoa said.
“The way we’re consuming livestock… is not sustainable,” she explained. “NovaChirp is able to run this social enterprise in a way that is profitable but also extremely valuable for humanity.”
Despite these benefits, Ochoa said the team is currently struggling to overcome the stigma around insect consumption. She added that NovaChirp is currently working with a food scientist to combat the stigma.
“Crickets are not something that is really familiar to me, but I was always open-minded to it,” NovaChirp team member and consultant Bouzid said. “Trying them and realizing how delicious they were and their impacts sold me there and then.”
Ding, who serves as NovaChirp’s chief financial officer, said she created a film about the startup through the MAD Video Research Contest.
“I wanted to support my best friend [Ochoa] and really found the idea super interesting,” she said. “I felt like the product could really come to fruition.”
The team explained that the cricket protein will be delivered via a dietary cube similar to the chicken bullion cubes found at supermarkets.
“Our products will dissolve into a variety of very simple diets, which will be very effective in spreading to communities who might not have as much access to protein,” Ding said.
NovaChirp will work with coaches from the ISEG Lisbon School of Economics & Management to prepare for the competition, Ochoa said.
Two other Dartmouth teams, NET Offset and Sea Energy, applied to the Hult Prize competition through an open application and were accepted to compete in regionals alongside NovaChirp.
NET Offset will compete at the Monterrey Summit in Mexico on June 15 and 16 and will be supported by the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey. The team is led by graduate student Baptiste Gibrat GR, along with Thayer students Michael May Th and Thomas Hue Th.
In addition, Sea Energy will compete at the Dubai Summit on June 21 and 22 and work with the Hult International Business School. The team is led by Calvin Benson ’25, along with Eva Hymes ’25, Emily Masuda ’24, Shaamil Shaw Alem ’26 and Georgetown University student Arjun Brar.
The NovaChirp team emphasized that they are aiming to win the Hult prize and aspire for their startup to “shift the way [consumers] are consuming.”
“We want to see consumers shifting to a more sustainable choice, a more nutritious choice, a more sustainable choice — and just helping combat climate change,” Ochoa said.
Successful Start-up Founders Offer Advice For Aspiring Entrepreneurs: ‘Embrace What Makes You Different'
The Junior Achievement Free Enterprise Center located in Greenwood Village, Colorado, is where high school students can explore careers and develop a plan to pursue their goals. The center aims to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurship is a common goal for younger people.
More than half, or 54%, of Gen Z adults say that they think they'd be happier owning their own business than working a normal day job, according to CNBC and SurveyMonkey's new Workforce Survey. The survey polled 5,993 U.S. Adults in the workforce in early April — including 770 Gen Z respondents age 27 and younger.
Here's a look at more stories on how to manage, grow and protect your money for the years ahead.
"There's a recipe for finding your path to purpose," said Robin Wise, the president and CEO of Junior Achievement Rocky Mountain. "It's seeing people do things that you might want to do. It's knowing yourself."
In partnership with Junior Achievement, CNBC brought together business leaders in the Denver area to speak with students about their journey in founding a company. Here are five key pieces of advice that they shared:
'Embrace what makes you different'Darian Simon co-founded the clothing company Be a Good Person in 2015 to inspire positivity. He advises young people to "embrace what makes you different."
Simon was diagnosed with autism and ADHD, or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, at age 28. Now 30, he said he rejects the "disorder" part of the diagnosis and embraces it as his superpower.
"My greatest strengths are my neurodivergence because I have less inhibitive space in my brain, therefore I can ideate better," he said. "Therefore the box doesn't really exist in the same ways."
Value adaptabilityRobin Thurston sold his digital fitness technology start-up to Under Armour for $150 million in 2013. He recently founded Outside Interactive, a network of media brands in endurance sports, the outdoors and healthy living.
He compares starting a business to going on a difficult hike and advises keeping that analogy in mind as you embark on the journey — you'll need to embrace the unknown, recognize that things are unlikely to go according to plan and work through inevitable difficulties, he said.
"That's what great entrepreneurs do," Thurston said. "They're resilient, and they work their way through those challenges."
Recognize challenges 'as opportunities'Camila Uzcategui co-founded Vitro3D, a company that uses 3D printing-like technology in advanced manufacturing spaces, in 2020. She said her background in physics and interest in experimenting with technology taught her the value of failure.
"In all of those challenges, I like to see them as opportunities to either pivot into a potentially new direction or pivot into a better way of understanding something," Uzcategui said.
Expect excellence from your teamMowa Haile founded Sky Blue Builders, a construction company, during the Great Recession in 2009. He said it's important to surround yourself with people who share your passion — and always expect excellence from them.
"When you're an entrepreneur and you have a team, you're there to coach them and lead them and encourage them," he said.
Surround yourself with the right peopleLara Merriken founded Larabar, a company that makes vegan, gluten-free, plant-based bars, in 2000 after a career in social work.
"A lot of people were literally naysayers," she recalled. "They were just like, why would you do this? Why would you get into a category that's oversaturated?"
She said that identifying and working with trusted confidants who were supportive and encouraging were critical to the company's success. She sold Larabar to General Mills in 2008 for about $55 million.
Another recipe for success is to learn from other entrepreneurs' stories, Merriken said. "While we have our companies, we still need inspiration every day."
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