Sponsors
E*TRADE
The E*TRADE Financial family of companies provides financial services including online brokerage and related banking products and services to retail investors. Specific business segments include Trading and Investing, and Balance Sheet Management. Securities products and services are offered by E*TRADE Securities LLC (Member FINRA/SIPC). Bank products and services are offered by E*TRADE Bank, a Federal savings bank, Member FDIC, or its subsidiaries. E*TRADE Bank is proud to be the founding presenting sponsor of the NFTE Elevator Pitch Challenge.
MasterCard Worldwide
As a leading global payments company, MasterCard Worldwide prides itself on being at the heart of commerce, helping to make life easier and more efficient for everyone, everywhere. MasterCard serves as a franchisor, processor and advisor to the payments industry, and makes commerce happen by providing a critical economic link among financial institutions, governments, businesses, merchants, and cardholders worldwide. In 2010, $2.7 trillion in gross dollar volume was generated on its products by consumers around the world. Powered by the MasterCard Worldwide Network &madsh; the fastest payment processing network in the world — MasterCard processes over 23 billion transactions each year and has the capacity to handle 160 million transactions per hour, with an average network response time of 130 milliseconds and with 99.99 percent reliability.
MasterCard advances global commerce through its family of brands, including MasterCard®, Maestro®, and Cirrus®; its suite of core products such as credit, debit, and prepaid; and its innovative platforms and functionalities, such as MasterCard PayPass™ and MasterCard inControl®. MasterCard serves consumers, governments, and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. For more information, please visit us at www.mastercard.com. Follow us on Twitter: @mastercardnews.
Southwest
Southwest Airlines, the Official Domestic Airline of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, is pleased to present the three winners of the NFTE National Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge, presented by MasterCard Worldwide in association with Kathryn W. Davis and the winner of the Online Elevator Pitch Challenge with two round-trip tickets on Southwest Airlines to enhance his or her business through travel. Stop searching for low fares and start traveling! Go to southwest.com – the only place to find all of Southwest Airlines’ low fares to the places you love!
WATCH & VOTE
What is an elevator pitch?
An "elevator pitch" is a carefully crafted message designed to explain a business to a potential investor. The catch — it must be given in the time that it takes to ride up an elevator.
Elevator Pitch Challenge
The Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship gives high school and middle school students the opportunity to take a sixty second idea, and turn it into an actual business. Each nominee here is either the owner or co-owner of his or her business.