Start Small, Go Big Innovative Startup Mentor Lunch Hosted by Daily Candy

Last week the Daily Candy hosted their third annual Start Small, Go Big innovative start up competition with a mentor lunch held at David Burke’s Kitchen at the James Hotel. Thousands of start ups are submitted, but only six are chosen in the categories of home, health and beauty, fashion, food and drink, digital and technology, and most inventive.

This is an amazing opportunity for the winners to sit down in a casual setting to speak with the big wigs in their industry and to pick their brains. The goal is to build a mentor-mentee relationship that helps jump start their success.

Winners were also treated to presentations and meetings with notable and successful entrepreneurs. This year, the roster included Rebecca Minkoff (Rebecca Minkoff), Lev Glazman (Fresh), Chris Burch (C. Wonder), Ted Gibson (ted gibson beauty), and Sophie LaMontagne and Katherine Kallinis (Georgetown Cupcakes), to name a few.

During lunch I was seated at the beauty table with the health and beauty winners, Soap Cartel. I intently listened on as mentors (and ahem some of my favorite beauty brand owners/starters), Deborah Lippmann, Josie Maran, Tata Harper, and Jackie Silver (of Aging Backwards) spoke of their personal keys to success.

Here were some of the takeaway points I found inspiring:

  • The universal qualities to be successful are passion, commitment, and hard work. You could talk to hundreds of people who tried one technique or another. Some things work better for others and some techniques could lead to the success of one person and the failure of another. But these three qualities seem to be the common denominators to people who succeed.
  • From a sales standpoint, don’t sell to “Amy”, sell to who Amy wants to be so as to cater to the consumer deep down.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at David Burke’s Kitchen (not to mention the delicious food!), and I wish the

Best of luck to all of the winners of this year’s innovative start up competition!