Northern Kentucky University students Andre Gonzalez and Cole Martin took home first prize in the developed business category of the recent Business Elevator Pitch Competition organized by NKU’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE). Their start-up, Sonder Media, was founded in late 2022 alongside Gonzalez’s girlfriend and current NKU senior Taylor Abbott, providing full-service wedding media production with a friend-first approach to business.
More than 60 students participated in the competition, which challenged contestants to convince a panel of professors helmed by CIE director Zac Strobl to invest in their start-up in under two minutes. The event was separated into two categories, developed businesses and business ideas, each split up into two rounds.
“I think what made our first pitch effective was our attention-grabber,” Gonzalez says. “We did a good job of opening up by painting a picture of a problem we had and then flowing into our solution. Then we could back it up with our team, our skill set, our background and then touch on our products and services.”
Martin adds that their pitches emphasized Sonder’s flexibility, offering three production packages with a wide range of prices and services, as well as the closeness of the business’ three founders.
“There have been multiple times where I’ve come to a professor with a concern or a question, and every single time they've been able to help more than I even thought I needed."
“We’re best friends, and we kind of came up with this together,” he says. “We've been very entrepreneurially minded for quite a while now. Andre has been with Taylor for five years, so we’re all pretty close-knit. It’s more than just our experience and passion. It’s who we’re able to be together and making the couples we work with comfortable. We really want to make new friends with the couples that we meet.”
Before officially forming Sonder Media—named after a term from John Koenig’s “The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows” that describes the feeling of realizing everyone surrounding you on the street has a life as complex as one’s own—each member of the company had already amassed considerable experience in their field. Gonzalez runs the social media for Alexandria, Kentucky’s T.A.C. Fitness, and was already doing solo wedding gigs and sports videos at the time.
Martin also had some experience with wedding videography, as well as an internship with Cincinnati Bell, now Altafiber, during which he helped film and edit promotional videos for their Connect Cincinnati brand, creating free promotion for local businesses. Abbott focuses on portrait photography, organizing shoots for couples with a storytelling style.
“She’s been doing photography since she was a young girl,” says Gonzalez. “There are pictures of her as a baby where she’s holding a camera.”
The trio plans to put the pitch competition’s $2,000 prize toward investing in more professional lighting and headsets to better communicate during events.
Sonder also participated in the final round of the KY Pitch Competition in Louisville, Kentucky, on Sunday, April 2. The event is Kentucky’s largest intercollegiate pitch contest, offering up to $15,000 to winning groups. Last year, start-ups representing NKU took first and second prize overall. This year, thanks to their pitch highlight video, Sonder earned the Startup Storyteller Award, netting them $1,000 in winnings.
An entrepreneurship major, Gonzalez says that the CIE has played an indispensable role in developing his business skills.
“Jeff Varrone, Zac Strobl and David Schneider, the center’s core professors, have all helped me individually since I was a freshman,” he says. “I remember being able to sit down with Jeff and talk about this outlandish idea that I had, but at the time, it mattered to me. He really took the time to work with me on an individual level on it. There have been multiple times where I’ve come to a professor with a concern or a question, and every single time they've been able to help more than I even thought I needed.”
