Young entrepreneurs walk away with big prizes and a chance to start a business of their own

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Posted December 24, 2021 | By Marian Rizzo
Special to the Gazette

Marion County is raising up another batch of business entrepreneurs, many of them high school students who participated in the eighth annual Marion County Youth Business Plan Competition, held in December at the Raney’s Inc. auditorium in Ocala.

The event was modeled after the “Shark Tank” reality series, which is now in its 13th season on ABC television. Participants of the TV show present their ideas before a panel of investors (“sharks”) who then decide if they want to invest in their products.

Similarly, the Ocala competition allows students to show their designs before a panel of judges and vie for prizes totaling $15,000.

This year’s first-place winner was Emilio Armas, 18. A senior at Vanguard High School, Emilio walked away with $8,000 for his creations in audio technology.

The second-place award of $4,000 went to the Busy Bees, 11th grade Vanguard students, Mackenzie Ragle, Violet Marchese, and Adyla Kerley. They presented a mobile app which combines event planning with emergency location capabilities.

Third-place award, $3,000, went to Scan Surgeon, a West Port High School team of 11th and 12th grade students, Victoria Goodrich, Jezebiel Gonzalez, Avneesh Saravanapavan, and Vivek Sandrapaty. They presented a subscription-based virtual reality app for training medical students.

This was the eighth year for the Marion County “Shark Tank” style event, which was created by Ryan Lilly, vice president of Business Creation at the Ocala Metro Chamber & Economic Partnership.

“The students competed in a round that is very similar to the television show,” Lilly said. “The main purpose of the contest is to introduce our youth to entrepreneurship and to explore that as a possible future for themselves instead of pursuing a career working for someone else. Not every student will choose to do that, but by going into the schools and talking to the students, we are able to encourage that entrepreneurship. It’s one of the most exciting things we get to do every year.”

For Emilio Armas, it was an opportunity to shine a spotlight on his startup company, Mylomusic Designs, and his latest creation, Octane, a computer-driven audio mixer.

Emilio first showed an interest in electronics when he was 8 years old. He created the Mylomusic brand when he was in the ninth grade and also began developing products with feedback from friends he met on an online forum in music technology.

His website (mylomusic.net) shows some of the products he currently has for sale. He said the $8,000 will come in handy for his business.

“I’m looking at reinvesting a large majority of it in my company and putting the rest of it in investments—stocks in general,” Emilio said. “Most importantly, much of the money is going into my company and into new product development and to pay for the production cost for my first product run. I’m looking to launch in the spring once I have the software perfected.”

Both the first-place and second-place winners represented Vanguard High School. Vanguard’s IB business and physics teacher, Dr. Gregory Cruz, said several other Vanguard students have won in past years.

“It shows the caliber of students we have,” Cruz said. “All of them are truly amazing. I just love to see the kids grow. They’re doing activities they never did before, and they’re excited to be looking at careers in business.”

It was Cruz who urged Emilio to enter the competition.

“Emilio is truly an incredible student,” Cruz said. “Like I told his dad, he’s like Einstein, Edison, and Elon Musk all wrapped up into one. He is truly a genius. I’ve taught him for a long time. If I had something broken, I’d ask him to fix it—anything electronic, he can fix it.”

Cruz also had good things to say about the Busy Bees.

“They just worked together extremely well to get the job done,” he said. “They were a great team. One of the students had an interest in graphic arts and put together all the work for the presentation.

“The biggest challenge, I think, in anything, is coming up with an idea,” Cruz added. “Right now, technology is changing so rapidly it’s a very big challenge to come up with an idea. Once they get an idea, they can start working on it.”

Joel Raney knows what it’s like to start a business from scratch. The CEO of Raney’s Inc., a retailer of parts and accessories for semi trucks, Raney started his business in 2010 when he was 22 years old. Today, it’s a multi-million-dollar company, he said.

Since 2016, Raney has participated in the competition as a sponsor and a judge. This year, Campus USA Credit Union and eResources LLC also were sponsors and joined a panel of six judges.

Categories of judging included presentation, public speaking, contents of slides, and ability to answer questions, Raney said.

“The biggest challenge is, most of them don’t have any real-world experience,” he said. “But they do a really good job researching and they come up with really creative answers. They have bright futures. They’re very innovative, creative, and they’re motivated. The fact that they’re in high school and able to put these presentations together and go before a crowd shows a lot.”

A graduate of Vanguard High School, Raney often goes back to his alma mater to speak to business students about becoming entrepreneurs.

“I tell them my story and basically encourage them,” he said. “I tell them they’ve got to start somewhere, to believe in themselves and what they’re trying to do. A big part of entrepreneurship is to be willing to take a risk. I show them that it can definitely happen right here in Ocala, Florida.”