“SageTank,” the annual competition hosted by the Pomona Venture Club, will be held on May 3, offering prizes of up to $5,000. The online application form is due Sunday.
The competition is open to 7C students and alumni. According to SageTank’s website, teams must develop a startup idea or product and present their pitch to a panel of experienced judges.
These judges, chosen by the competition’s organizers, then select three winners to be awarded cash prizes and interviews with Venture Capital firms to launch their startups.
“We all have a lot of ideas growing up, and SageTank is a really great platform to potentially see our inventions come true,” Olivia Ma PO ’28, a member of the Pomona Ventures marketing team, said.
SageTank is a 5C take on the ABC TV show Shark Tank, giving Claremont students a similar yet more local opportunity to launch their entrepreneurial aspirations.
Jayhyun Suh PO ’26, vice president of Pomona Ventures, said the club aims to cultivate entrepreneurship within the 5Cs. He said that SageTank provides students with a means to strengthen skills in entrepreneurial pitching with the help of mentors.
“As beautiful and as great as the 5Cs are, they don’t have a really strong emphasis or focus on entrepreneurship,” Suh said. “Especially for undergraduate students, it is a really good gateway into being an entrepreneur and startup founder.”
Similarly, Ma said that SageTank is a useful platform to amplify students with good ideas, initiatives and teammates.
Before competition begins, Pomona Venture’s leadership team will conduct 30-minute interviews with the selected applicants, during which they will ask questions about the pitched business model and about how SageTank will help applicants’ professional journeys. Then, Pomona Ventures will provide resources and mentorship to enhance applicants’ pitches and presentations before the competition day on May 3.
Suh said the presentation preparation process in itself is a great learning experience.
“I know it sounds pretty simple, but it’s actually a lot to organize and structure months of hard work into five minutes,” Suh said. “So that opportunity is really valuable, not just for the competition, but for the students at jobs and beyond that.”
According to Pomona’s twice-weekly “Chirps!” announcements, competing in the “5C’s biggest startup” pitching competition provides the opportunity to win interviews with venture capital firms, cash prizes and opportunities to attend venture capital-related conferences.
The announcement stated that applications will be on a rolling basis and that teams will be paired with mentors as soon as they are accepted, “so it’s beneficial to apply early!”
Additionally, the SageTank website states that the top three teams are guaranteed a one-on-one session with a venture capital firm that could invest up to $40,000 into the product or idea pitched.
Suh explained that, while Pomona Ventures awards a cash prize to winners, the goal of SageTank entrepreneurship is to identify and address material issues in the world. He said that the club encourages participants to approach their work with this mindset.
Last year, a group of Harvey Mudd students won the Sage Tank competition. They developed a drone technology called “SafeLand Ukraine” for farmers that detects landmines in Ukrainian fields. The drones accomplish this by detecting the landmines’ magnetic field without the risk of dangerous manual inspection.
In reference to SafeLand Ukraine, Suh said the projects that succeed are projects that are rooted in solving real-world problems.
According to the initiative’s website, “Whether you just have an idea or a fully functioning organization, SageTank welcomes all to compete for cash prizes and network with mentors.”
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