Peanut Butter was recently honored as one of 10 startups to present to members of the Young Presidents’ Organization at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in downtown Chicago. The night was jam-packed from start to finish: the event started off at 6:30 p.m. with an interview of the CEO of Answers.com, David Karandish, and was followed by over an hour of pitching by the Peanut Butter team to the YPO members. After all the YPO member votes were tallied, Peanut Butter took home first place.
What is YPO?
“YPO (Young Presidents’ Organization) is the world’s premier peer network of chief executives and business leaders.” – YPO.com
In order to be a YPO member, an applicant has to be under 45 years old and the founder/managing director of a company with an enterprise value of $15 million or more. At age 50, members transition into the World Presidents’ Organization.
Innovation Week Presentations
After the introductory interview, at 7:15 p.m. Peanut Butter and our other challengers kicked it into high gear in order to present to the over 100 Young Presidents that would be touring the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum and speaking to the various startups placed throughout. The winners were determined from the Young Presidents’ votes. For the next hour and a half, the Peanut Butter team pitched and presented the Peanut Butter student loan repayment product to business owners in industries that included technology companies, wholesale, business process outsourcing and everything in between.
Some of the Questions We Heard
What is Peanut Butter student loan repayment?
Peanut Butter student loan repayment helps employers attract and retain talent by paying down employee student loans.
Why should my company offer student loan repayment as a benefit?
With the participation in waining for the age cohort of 20-30 years old, and recent college graduates staying on their parents’ healthcare plans until they’re 26 years old, it’s time to offer young employees benefit relevant to their needs.
Over 70 percent of the class of 2015 graduated with $30k or more in student loans. As an employer, offering student loan repayment is an opportunity to connect with employees by helping them accomplish a meaningful financial goal.
Here are the names and members of the 10 startups that presented:
David Aronson and Tyler Stock from Peanut Butter
Bill Burnett and Tim Swindle from PointDrive
Phil Leslie and Cory Gardner from RIVS
Chris Rentner and Nick McMillan from Akouba
Pere Marc Rigo from Package Zen
Todd Price and Patrick Schweihs from Page Vault
Judy MacLeod and Cindy Paulauskus from Rivet Radio
Shashaanka Ashili from smartdrivinc
Dan Olson from UpCity
Pooya Ghiaseddin and Richard Giudice from Vennli
A special thank you to Maddock Douglas (maddockdouglas.com) for inviting us and putting on the event.