The 60 students from Kashmere, Wheatley, and Worthing High Schools that make up the G-Unity Business Lab competed in the inaugural Hustle Tank event on Tuesday, May 25, at University of Houston’s Cullen Performance Hall.
The competition is set up much like the TV show Shark Tank. Throughout the school year, the students created business plans for their companies, collaborated with coaches and mentors, and prepared pitches for the Hustle Tank judges, including rapper and G-Unity Founder, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson.
“What you’re seeing is the cumulative event,” said Patrice Allen, G-Unity Business Lab Senior Manager. “This has been a year’s worth of work where students have learned business acumen, learned about pitches, built out their innovative ideas, and they’re actually pitching it to 50 himself to seek an investment funding.”
In all, 14 teams presented their companies to the judges who then decided which ones will receive seed money. The winners were:
- First place – teen teach
- Second place – Stay X Slay
- Third place – Glover Boys and Dub Citi Production
“I feel like today has been magnificent,” said Allen. “It’s magical. I tell my students, after today life will never be the same.”
The G-Unity Business Lab is a pilot program in HISD that is supported by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson’s G-Unity Foundation and Al Kashani with Horizon United Group.
At Tuesday’s event, HISD Superintendent Millard House II announced the program is expanding to Yates, Madison, and Booker T. Washington High Schools.