Transcripts

"Teen Entrepreneurs"-Popsy Cakes

JEFF YASTINE: While we've all heard entrepreneurial success stories like Apple's Steve Jobs and Sam Walton of Wal-Mart, you may not have heard of 19-year old Jessica Cervantes, but you will. She's part of the new documentary "Ten-Nine-Eight Shoot for the Moon." It focuses on a high school business plan competition that had students competing for seed money. The film follows some of the 24,000 teens through the competition, as they pitch their business plans to investment professionals. Jessica developed a new food product: popsy cakes. And this is Jessica Cervantes today. Her popsycakes, think cupcake on a stick are now in the research and development phase at this commercial kitchen. She and her advisors are still tinkering with the formula, presentation and packaging. But she has become a veteran at promoting her product, compared to her early efforts shown in the film.

JESSICA CERVANTES, INVENTOR "POPSY CAKES": I'm not a business major. So I didn't know what I was doing. Sometimes my numbers wouldn't add up. I didn't know my materials costs. I didn't know what that was. So it definitely took awhile for this to go smoothly. And there are still some obstacles along the way and we're just trying to deal with them.

YASTINE: The kids in the documentary know plenty about obstacles, with many facing challenges in their personal and family lives, says Alice Horn of the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship. The group, called Nifty for short, organized the business plan competition for high schools students in 21 states.

ALICE HORN, EXECUTIVE DIR., NFTE SOUTH FLORIDA: They take that business opportunity and they connect it to the business plan. Then they are able to also connect that business plan to academics, to math, to research, to writing and then as an outcome of that, they become more connected with their academics and with their futures.

YASTINE: In the documentary, Macalee Harlis came up with a protective visor, the kind running backs wear in football, which darkens or lightens in response to conditions on the field. Harlis is now a chemistry major in college.

MACALEE HARLIS, INVENTOR "MAC SHIELDS": I was inspired. And I really wanted to do it. And I knew it was something that would be in demand on the football field because I was a football player at the time. So I was throwing these ideas at my fellow players and they were like, yeah, that'd be good.

YASTINE: And remember Jessica Cervantes? Her business plan for Popsy cakes won it all. She's using her winnings to launch her business and get an education.