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Benedict Tieniber

Dr. Benedict Tieniber, more commonly known as Dr. T, is completing his third year of teaching Virtual Enterprise (VE), which former English teacher Thomas Santacapita started teaching in 2011 until he retired in June of 2017, as Dr. Tieniber explained. Every year, the class creates a virtual business, and there are board positions assigned such as CEO, COO, etc. Dr. Tieniber elaborated, “Once you join VE, the students will come up with cover letters and resumes for the roles they want to apply for. Then, we will come up with several business ideas and narrow them over time.” His classes have had a long track of success, and this year is no different. 

The company this year’s class has created is called Checkmate. It is “a financial assistance app that provides users with an easy and convenient way to keep their finances in check,” stated Jane Hoeflinger, VE’s first female CEO. She continued, “Checkmate tracks users’ subscriptions, personal finances, and their stocks, as well as helps them manage their savings. We then alert users that they are gaining and losing money to help them make better money managing moves.” Carl Zou, the business’s marketing associate, stated, “The initial product idea was to create a subscription manager that tracked spendings on subscriptions, but we then made it to be more general as a financial advisor that tracked your finances as a whole.” The class takes its business idea and goes to a series of events to pitch its idea and hear other classes’ pitches. One of the first events students attended was the Long Island Virtual Enterprise Business and Entrepreneurship Leadership Conference at LIU Post. There, “Co-CCO Ethan Marcus represented Checkmate and gave his elevator pitch. The conference hosted 2000 students from over 150 firms[…] [there they] made strategic networking moves and have since completed a significant amount of sales from companies [they have] met at that competition,” explained Hoeflinger. In addition to the in-person pitch VE made, they also did an online pitch, which was recorded by Co-CMO Jolie Gutstein and Co-CCO Alex Sylvia. With that pitch, Checkmate placed in the top 25% nationally. 

The next submission was a business plan, which totaled 24 pages and was a massive group effort. Jane Hoeflinger recalled that “As CEO, that was one of the most demanding parts of VE, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. Between delegating tasks, editing everyone’s work and writing, and contributing a significant amount of text myself to the plan, I was pretty busy to say the least, but I learned so much from the experience and it was my absolute pleasure and privilege to do so.” 

After that submission, the class attended the annual Long Island Regional Conference and Exhibition where Hoeflinger, Co-CFO Gaby Campos-Peyrou, CTO Leonardo Sola, Co-CCO Ethan Marcus, COO Kyle Serro, and Bank Manager Josh Blankstein presented the oral portion of the national business plan. “This was definitely one of my highlights of the year,” commented Hoeflinger, “and it definitely took a lot of preparation.” The six presenters rehearsed for over a week to anyone willing to listen in order to perfect their lines and their overall presentation. “I was beyond proud of my entire team because we all came together and quite honestly nailed that presentation. It was very rewarding to see all of our hard work pay off. The trade show also provided us with an opportunity to network and showcase our company to other Long Island firms. We pitched Checkmate to fellow students and judges in the LIU gymnasium, ultimately racking in VE $241,000 in sales. Our proficiency in making sales that day aided in our eventual top-150 ranking,” Hoeflinger proclaimed with pride. 

During international trade month, Checkmate was a top trader in purchasing internationally; in fact, it made 125 sales to companies outside of the US and led the country in international sales. “We actually completed the most international sales in all of VE international and received a lot of recognition for this. VE [International] even highlighted us in its monthly briefing and asked us to give other companies tips for international trading. We included tips on how to be personable and professional, how to network, how to work outside of class, and more. This high ranking was instrumental in us going from being a top-200 performer to a top-150 performer,” added Hoeflinger. On Feb. 27, the team was named in the top-150 VE firms out of 430 schools nationwide. “The most beneficial part of VE,” Carl Zou commented, “was the way the class was structured. Instead of a typical classroom setting, we were organized more like a business with different departments working side by side,” in addition to the “authentic, collaborative, immersive business and entrepreneurial experiences” the class provides students, as Dr. Tieniber mentioned.