Written by Katarina Komoroski
“Don’t limit yourself or what you’re capable of doing based on uncertainty or fear.”
An Unexpected Assignment
Sophomore Izzy Paul never intended to participate in the Elevator Pitch Competition until her Physics 101 professor, Dr. Brower, made it a class requirement. At first, she was at a loss. As a History Major, Paul was mostly concerned with the past, not the future. She tried to brainstorm ideas based on her interests, but all the reading she needed to complete for her classes left little time to fully explore her thoughts. Ironically, it was this very problem that sparked an idea that would eventually lead her to become a finalist in the competition.
Inspiration Strikes
Paul sought the help of Alex Christman, a junior Communication Arts major who had been a finalist in a previous Elevator Pitch Competition. His idea was to create a better strap to help carry the heavy drums used by the marching band. Paul instantly thought about her heavy backpack and wondered how she could make it easier to carry.
“As a history major, I’m always lugging around insanely heavy books, and I know many other humanities majors with the same problem,” Paul explains. “After 10 minutes of that being on your back, it gets quite uncomfortable.” After doing some research, she decided to combine the aesthetic of a regular school backpack with the functionality of a hiking backpack in a brand-new carrier called AxisPack. “My invention’s idea is to create a backpack that won’t cause back pain,” Paul says.
From Prep to Perfection
After many hours of crafting her pitch, she was ready to submit it to the first round of the Elevator Pitch Competition. Turns out, all of Paul’s hard work paid off. Once she discovered that she was a finalist in the competition, she did everything she could to fine-tune her pitch. After perfecting and memorizing her script, she practiced in Sticht Lecture Hall, to get in the proper mindset.
Paul invited her friends to come to Sticht Lecture Hall to act as distractions. “They danced down the aisles, stood up on stage next to me and pretended to give their own pitch, ran crying out of the room, and many other shenanigans,” Paul recalls. “If I was prepared for an impossible scenario, I would be prepared for any random distraction that might happen during the competition itself.”
As odd as this preparation might seem to some, it served Paul well. At the end of the night, she was awarded 3rd place in the Commercial Enterprise section, earning $600. She was also awarded the Hudson Financial Advisors Prize, earning her an additional $1,000.
The Next Steps
But Izzy Paul isn’t stopping there; she wants to make AxisPack a reality. She’s joined VentureLab, an E+I program designed to help explore, plan, and develop their idea feasibility with mentorship and expense reimbursement. Paul teamed up with suitemate Maia Dakters, an Engineering Major, to help with the product prototypes. “It is such a blessing,” Paul notes. “Grove City College has so many opportunities for students of all different majors and interests to be given the opportunity to come up with new ideas that they could actually create.”
Paul plans to develop AxisPack and compete in the Wolverine Venture Battle next year. She hopes to not only get her product on the shelf but also inspire others to submit an idea to the Elevator Pitch Competition because. students have “nothing to lose and everything to gain.”
To watch Izzy Paul and the rest of the competition, check out the 2025 Elevator Pitch Competition on the Center for E+I website: https://gccentrepreneurship.com/elevator-pitch-competition-finals-2025/