{"id":56363,"date":"2019-02-26T13:37:59","date_gmt":"2019-02-26T18:37:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=56363"},"modified":"2019-02-26T13:37:59","modified_gmt":"2019-02-26T18:37:59","slug":"monster-pitch-finalist-brand-me-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2019\/02\/monster-pitch-finalist-brand-me-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Monster Pitch finalist: Brand Me Down"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the second in a series of four stories featuring the finalists of Monster Pitch, the annual student business competition hosted by the Goodman School of Business student club Brock Innovation Group. This year\u2019s competition will be held in the Goodman atrium on Friday, March 1.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Ahmad and Hamza Pasha want to revolutionize the second-hand shopping experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

The twin brothers from Mississauga are in their second year of studies at the Goodman School of Business and are in the process of building their company, Brand Me Down. The app they are developing allows people to shop second-hand from the convenience of their smartphone.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBrand Me Down takes the concept of thrift and second-hand shopping and makes the process completely online,\u201d Hamza said. \u201cThe reason we want to do this is to change the way consumers think about shopping, especially within the fashion industry.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Pashas moved to Canada from Pakistan as young children and growing up, name brand clothing wasn\u2019t always an option for them.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe know what it\u2019s like to not be able to get the kind of clothing you want at a price that you can afford,\u201d Ahmad said. \u201cWe wanted to make it better and provide equal opportunities for people who might not be able to purchase clothing that\u2019s in and stylish.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The app will focus on selling branded men\u2019s and women\u2019s clothing, and each customer\u2019s shopping experience will be customized based on their preferences.<\/span><\/p>\n

While their sales model differs from traditional thrift shops, their plan is to source their products the same way. Brand Me Down plans to partner with a charity donation service and purchase the donations from them. Any clothing that isn\u2019t selected to be sold by the app will be donated to people in need.<\/span><\/p>\n

The pair initially developed the idea for Brand Me Down at the November kick-off weekend for Goodman Group Venture Development (formerly BioLinc). Since then, they\u2019ve been building on the idea and fine-tuning their pitch. They placed third at DECA U\u2019s SEED competition in January and also pitched at the Aspire Challenge in Toronto.<\/span><\/p>\n

After each competition, they\u2019ve used judge feedback to continue to refine their business idea and presentation. As Monster Pitch approaches, the brothers hope their presentation style will help them stand out.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we pitch, we want to make people smile,\u201d said Ahmad. \u201cWe want to make them laugh while still getting our business across; it just makes it more enjoyable for everyone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The<\/span> sold-out event<\/span><\/a> is hosted by Brock Innovation Group in partnership with the Goodman School of Business and Goodman Group Venture Development and is sponsored by Spark Power Corp.<\/span><\/p>\n

This year\u2019s judging panel includes: Bruce Croxon, co-host BNN\u2019s The Disruptors and CEO of Round 13; Allie Hughes, CEO and Founder of marketing agency H&C Inc.; Deborah Rosati, Corporate Director and Founder and CEO, Women Get On Board; and Jason Sparaga, co-founder and co-CEO of Spark Power Corp. and founder of Spara Capital Partners.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ahmad and Hamza Pasha want to revolutionize the second-hand shopping experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":56364,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39,1,4],"tags":[7600,5115,7594,594,1638,7595],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56363"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56363"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56365,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56363\/revisions\/56365"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}