Unloc and Verizon launch The Young Entrepreneurs Challenge 2025 across Europe
. Unloc and Verizon Business have launched The Young Entrepreneurs Challenge for 2025, an annual event that seeks to identify the best young talent across
Recently we had the opportunity to work with Portsmouth Grammar School to deliver one of our Unloc Enterprise Days with their Year 7 pupils. Our Enterprise Day events typically involve organising large groups of students to partake in an ‘enterprise challenge’ in small teams. These challenges involve young students thinking of ways to start their own enterprise.
We never fail to be amazed at the ingenuity and creativity young people have on these programmes. With fantastic ideas ranging from setting up a chocolate business, to designing a custom shoe company making bespoke footwear!
The students complete the challenge by creating a visual business plan explaining how their business will be viable. They have to examine key aspects of how their company would function, such as branding, marketing, costs and revenues.
This is typically done in groups of 5-7, with key roles assigned to each member of the team. It’s fantastic to watch as we witness the young people take on a challenge they’ve never dealt with before, then embrace that role as they begin to understand how it works in the context of a business setting.
It really does open the eyes and minds of young people who may never have heard of/or experienced that kind of role or job before. The day culminates with the students pitching their business idea to a panel of judges, with the winning team receiving lovely Unloc prizes!
The goal of our Unloc Enterprise Days are to inspire young people to fulfil their potential, expanding their mindsets whilst improving their soft skills such as public speaking, creativity, leadership and teamwork. Not only is it a day of new ideas and challenges, but of much fun, laughter and excitement!
The Enterprise Challenge that the Portsmouth Grammar School students were set was to start their very own custom sock company. From the outset, the students, all from Year 7, were incredibly engaged.
We first watched a short clip of young entrepreneur Brennan Agranoff, the 17 year old who started his own 7 figure custom sock business. Brennan started manufacturing socks when he was just 13 years old, starting his own company called HoopSwagg. After his business really took off Brennan set up HoopSwagg Causes, a charity program to help people in need. Within two years of starting HoopSwagg was a major competitor in the industry, and he now owns a second business also called PetParty.
It was really incredible to see the Year 7 students get so inspired by his success. Often young people are taught about or made aware of these fantastic success stories, and it is examples like these that can have a lasting impact on such talented young people.
The students (in groups of 6) then had the challenge of sorting themselves into team roles, ranging from the CEO, CFO, CMO and so forth. They then had to come up with a brand name, logo design and pattern designs for their socks. Our Unloc staff were absolutely blown away with the depth of creativity and imagination of the students. From thermal socks , to sustainable eco-friendly socks , the students had an array of original creative concepts.
Moving on, the challenge progressed with the pupils being required to create a business plan. Here, they managed to impress us even more with the quality of their business propositions, ranging from subscription models as a means to create revenue, sponsorships to generate investment, social media influencer campaigns and organic outreach to acquire customers.
It was clear that the room was filled with gifted students who had a precocious talent for business coupled with a genuine work ethic.
Finally, the day ended with the students pitching their sock ideas to our judges and their peers. Just when you thought energy levels would drop off – the students truly shone, with copious amounts of energetic, confident, clear and concise pitches by the groups as they unleashed their ideas to the room.
Moments like these are what we at Unloc dream of. We feel so honoured to know we have opened their eyes and minds to the possibilities ahead of them, and to play a part in inspiring society’s future young leaders to make an impact in the world.
Here are some comments from the Year 7 pupils on the day:
“I really enjoyed this lesson today! I have learned so many new things and features for what I could use in my interior design business which I am planning to do. Once again, thank you for coming over and I hope you enjoy your day!”
“We enjoyed it very much and found it inspirational. Thank you for this experience/opportunity.”
“I loved the way we were able to collaborate and work together as a team“
Deputy Head (Innovation) for Portsmouth Grammar School, Luke Rees commented:
“The energy and enthusiasm from our pupils was a true delight to see and the expert coaches from Unloc scaffolded activities and discussions expertly to ensure that all learning opportunities were maximised.”
“This Year 7 day was the start of a leadership journey that these pupils will go on throughout their time at PGS and each session will build on what they have already learned. We are delighted to be working in partnership with Unloc and most importantly our pupils thoroughly enjoyed the day!”
Our Enterprise Day at Portsmouth Grammar School was a fantastic success and enjoyed by both students and our Unloc team immensely. Thank you so much to all the young people who took part, we can’t wait to follow your success!
To learn more about Portsmouth Grammar School click here!
To learn more about HoopSwagg click here!