BestPrep’s Communications and Events Intern, Gina Miller, spoke with Apple Valley Eastview High sophomore, Anirvin Iyer, who participated in BestPrep’s summer business camp, Minnesota Business Venture (MBV). Despite MBV being held virtually this year, Iyer enjoyed his experience at MBV and would recommend this program to all students, even those not interested in business. Read the full conversation with Iyer below.
Q: Why did you want to attend MBV?
A: I really have a passion for money-related things, I plan to major in business, probably finance. I felt like MBV really connected to my interests for the future. And above that, I just felt like it was something to do in the summer. Because I was away from school, I wanted to get some engagement.
Q: What is your biggest takeaway from MBV? What did you learn and gain from your experience?
A: Before MBV I felt like I knew a good amount already, but during camp it really gave me the feel of what actually happens in a business. Like how it is structured and what each operating officer does and what each role is. It gave me hands-on experience, which I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.
Q: What product did your MBV company innovate, and how did your group come up with this idea?
A: We occasionally hear heart-breaking stories on the internet where a child passes away because of hot temperatures in a car. So our invention was a temperature detection device that was meant to mitigate those incidents. So basically it detects the temperature [in the car] and alerts your phone.
Anirvin’s MBV company’s product, a car temperature detecting device called TempGearX.
There were seven people in my group. When we were brainstorming our idea, we basically just threw random ideas around, and it was pretty funny what some people had to say. We ended up settling on something that was actually useful. We actually ended up naming the company TempGearX because it had some relevance to what we were creating. We made a logo and everything.
Q: What did you think of attending MBV virtually? How did that impact your experience?
A: I didn’t have any issues with it; it was pretty easy to navigate. We still did the work and discussed all of our things in the groups. I didn’t really feel like it affected anything, I still enjoyed it. It was pretty easy to connect [with others virtually].
Q: How did your distance learning experience in school prepare you for virtual MBV? And vice versa – how did virtual MBV prepare you for school?
A: I had been doing distance learning before MBV, so that really geared me to work better online with groups of people. It has made me more productive. I feel like I probably would’ve done just as well in person at MBV because the online aspect doesn’t change things that much for me.
Because of MBV, I gained more experience in preparation for the school year. I learned how to communicate with a group, which is pretty important for high school because you work in groups. It’s just really important for interacting.
Q: Who/what were your most impactful relationships?
A: I would say that my most impactful relationship was with my CEO, who was the student leader of our company. And probably a couple of other people from my finance group, because I was in the finance sector of our business.
On Zoom, Iyer works with his group members to invent a new product at MBV 2021
Q: What do you wish people knew about MBV? Would you recommend other students attend? Why?
A: I would tell them it’s not very intimidating, it’s very easy to flow through things. So if someone is scared that they’ll be excluded or they don’t know anything about business, it’s really easy to hatch onto things and it’s really just a fun experience. I’m sure in-person it’ll be even easier to catch on to things, you don’t have to know much about business at all to get started.
I would recommend it for sure. Even if you don’t want to do business in the future, it’s still a great experience overall, [especially] if you like a hands-on experience with a group. It’s just really fun, honestly. I enjoyed it a lot. I’m pretty sure most people would enjoy it, because it’s a group experience and there’s a lot of fun activities. I would recommend MBV to anyone who just wants to get an extra experience with other people.
Save the date! Minnesota Business Venture 2022 will be held in-person July 11-15 at the University of St. Thomas and July 25-29 at St. John’s University. Learn more here.