Calling all high school Entrepreneurs: If you’re a high schooler in the United States with an idea of something you want to build or something you’ve already been working on, apply for the Pitch Fest 2025 competition for a chance to win a startup Scholarship!
Competition Opens: November 1st, 2025
Submissions Due: January 31st, 2026 by 11:59 P.M. PST
Winners Announced: February 28th, 2026
Pitch Fest is a free, virtual competition where high school students across the U.S. present business ideas that make a real impact. Compete for cash prizes, build your startup experience, and join a network of young innovators
✅ Traditional AI: Used for decision making, research, and data analysis.
❌ Generative AI: This includes Images, videos, visual effects, and anything that weren’t manually created by a human.
Verify that all of your deliverables meet the submission criteria as highlighted in the requirements.
One student per team, should submit your innovation via the deliverable submission form. All other students should submit a consent and release form. All forms must be submitted by the competition deadline.
You're all done! Congratulations on your submission. You will hear more about your submission status by February 28th, 2026.
| Category | Excellent (3 Points) | Satisfactory (2 Points) | Needs Improvement (1 Point) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Presentation | The participant is confident, compelling, and well-structured; highly engaged with their presentation. | The participant speaks clearly and is prepared; moderately engaged; stays within the time limit but a lack of energy or polish is noticeable. | The participant's presentation is unclear, disorganized, and/or difficult to follow. |
| Visual Presentation | The participant spoke with confidence, maintained eye contact without needing to review the script, and was dressed in an appropriate manner. | The participant was able to explain their pitch with relevant details, demonstrated consistent eye contact, but needed to refer to the script. | The participant struggled with their speech, lacked eye contact, needed to refer to the script constantly, and/or wasn’t dressed appropriately. |
| Product, Service, or Business Creativity | The concept is innovative, well-defined, and feasible; clearly addresses market needs with strong potential for success and scalability. | The concept is clear and somewhat original; demonstrates basic feasibility and market need but lacks depth or scalability. | The concept is unclear, lacks originality, or has major feasibility issues; little evidence of market need or business potential. |
| Marketing Plan | Marketing plan is comprehensive, creative, and realistic; clearly identifies target audience, strategies, and actionable tactics. | Marketing plan is clear with a defined target audience and strategy; includes basic tactics but may lack detail or creativity. | Marketing plan is vague, unrealistic, or missing key components; little understanding of target audience or strategy. |
| Critical Thinking | The participant clearly identified key challenges, provided reasonable solutions, demonstrated excellent analytical thinking, and decision making with evidence to support their pitch. | The participant identified some challenges, and provided a basic decision making process, but lacks depth and analytical strategy. | The participant failed to identify key challenges, no logical reasoning or lack of evidence to support their pitch. |
| Financial Projections | Financial projections are detailed, realistic, and data-driven; include clear startup costs, revenue forecasts, break-even analysis, and 1–3 year profit/loss projections with logical assumptions and evidence of viability. | Financial projections are present with basic costs, revenue estimates, and simple break-even point; assumptions are reasonable but lack depth, detail, or supporting data. | Financial projections are missing, incomplete, unrealistic, or lack basic elements (e.g., costs, revenue, break-even); assumptions are unclear or unsupported. |
| Infomercial (Optional) | The Infomercial is highly creative, professional, and persuasive; effectively showcases the product’s value and captivates the audience. | The Infomercial is clear and conveys the product’s value; shows moderate creativity and professionalism but may lack impact. | The Infomercial is unclear, poorly executed, or fails to convey the product’s value; lacks creativity or professionalism. |
