October 3, 2022

SWAKE Cosmetics Earns Top Honors at SEC Student Pitch Competition

Vanessa Sachs, center, stands with UGA faculty advisors Bob Pinckney (left) and Jim Flannery after SWAKE took first at the SEC Student Pitch Competition.

By: SEC Staff
SECU (Twitter: @TheSECU)

BATON ROUGE, La. — University of Georgia student entrepreneur Vanessa Sachs, CEO and founder of SWAKE Cosmetics, won first place in the 2022 SEC Student Pitch Competition, hosted by the E. J. Ourso College of Business at Louisiana State University.

SWAKE bridges the gap between beauty and fitness with sweat-resistant cosmetics. The company currently carries foundation and concealer, but is actively looking to broaden the line with products like hair gel.

“I feel like this is a dream,” Sachs said of winning the event. “It feels good to know that your hard work pays off and that someone sees you for that. To come out, perform well and show what I can do with the company and UGA, it is really nice.”

The seventh SEC competition was held October 2-3 and included a welcome reception for the participants and entrepreneurship center directors. On competition day, there were two rounds of pitches from all participating teams plus one additional pitch from the three finalists.

The complete list of winners in the 2022 SEC Student Pitch Competition is below:

• First Place Team: SWAKE Cosmetics, Vanessa Sachs, University of Georgia
• Second Place Team: Tuska Brew Solutions, Brian Henderson, University of Alabama
• Third Place Team: D3D LLC, Alexander Weber, University of Tennessee

Learn more about all the student entrepreneurs and their businesses.

Established in 2015, the SEC Student Pitch Competition provides teams of SEC students at the undergraduate or graduate level a platform to showcase their ideas for ground-breaking products and services to a panel of judges – including SEC alumni – who work primarily in the business sector.

“I’m really excited for Vanessa and what she has accomplished with this company, as she’s just an outstanding presenter with a very solid product,” said Bob Pinckney, director of the Entrepreneurship Program at Georgia. “The competition this year was just fantastic, and I know the judges had a tough time just selecting the top three. It’s fun to get all the students together from other SEC universities to see what they are doing.

“Events like these can be such a confidence builder to see that anything is accomplishable and you can make things happen.”

The SEC Student Pitch Competition was first held in conjunction with the SEC Symposium in 2015 and Texas A&M University took home first place. Other competition winners include the University of Arkansas in 2017 and 2018 and Mississippi State University in 2019. The 2020 competition was conducted virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Auburn University won first place. In April 2022, ESG Impact out of Vanderbilt University earned the top honor.