Providence Teen Wins Global Business Competition

Raneem Al Suwaidani, a senior at the Met High School in Providence, recently took top prize in a global competition for her Lilypad rentable food truck business model. Photo by Kristy Alexis Photography.

When Raneem Al Suwaidani and her family fled Syria for the United States in 2016, they dreamt of opening a restaurant as a way of sharing their culture and earning a living.

They quickly discovered a restaurant was out of their budget. They pivoted to a food truck-based business instead, but with the average food truck costing around $150,000, that, too, was outside of their means.

Raneem looked into renting a food truck but found there were no local options.

“I thought to myself, ‘Why don’t I do that and help other BIPOC entrepreneurs at the same time?’” she says.

Her brainchild, Lilypad, a food truck rental company, just won first prize in both the World Youth Entrepreneurship and the National Youth Entrepreneurship challenges. For her efforts, the Providence resident — a senior at the Met High School — received monetary prizes, business advice from “Shark Tank” and FUBU founder Daymond John and a citation from Governor Dan McKee.

The business model would allow BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) chefs and food entrepreneurs to showcase their culinary creations, gain experience and hear feedback from customers in a low-cost, risk-free environment. The income generated, Raneem says, could go toward a future food truck or restaurant purchase.

“Only 2 percent of restaurant owners in Rhode Island are BIPOC,” Raneem says. “That’s one of the big reasons I wanted to do this.”

Raneem received a citation from Governor Dan McKee for her accomplishments. Photo courtesy of Raneem Al Suwaidani.

The road to business ownership first began in her junior year, when she enrolled in her school’s entrepreneurship program and created a business plan for Lilypad. The program’s curriculum is supported by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, a nonprofit that offers entrepreneurship classes and challenges around the world.

“Before this, I really didn’t know about entrepreneurship,” Raneem says. “My parents always told me to become a doctor or a lawyer. So I wanted to become a dentist.”

But then she won third place in her school’s NFTE competition and took second place in a regional contest. She traveled to New York City for the nationals, where she took first place against fifty students from across the country. She then moved on to the world competition, competing against students from eleven other countries.

She won first place.

The experience itself meant more to her than any financial prize — although she’s saving her earnings in hopes of buying a food truck someday. She loved traveling to the Big Apple with her mother and sister, but also picked up a boost in self-confidence and made connections with people from across the globe.

“I’m a shy person. I don’t really like talking in front of big crowds,” Raneem says. “This opportunity has really made me more open-minded and outgoing. I also learned a lot about myself; I developed communication skills, pitching skills, networking skills, and I was able to talk to a lot of people and make connections.”

Raneem hopes to one day run Lilypad with her family; maybe after high school, she muses, or during college. She’s waiting to hear back from her top dream schools — the University of Rhode Island and Babson College.

Juggling schoolwork, competitions and college admissions has been demanding at times, but it’s a challenge that Raneem has embraced, considering the situation in her war-torn homeland.

“I came from Syria, a country that doesn’t really have many opportunities because of what’s going on,” she says. “It can be challenging, but I’m a pretty responsible person for my age. And I like to be busy.”

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