The 2025 Youth Business Venture Challenge: Empowering Young Entrepreneurs

By SVYEP Team

Event Overview

On September 28, 2025, more than 120 students, investors, and industry leaders gathered at Stanford University’s Jen-Hsun Huang Engineering Center for the Youth Business Venture Challenge. Co-hosted by SVYEP and Berkeley Summit House, the event brought together over 120 students, investors, and industry leaders for a day of live pitches, judging, and awards.

A Global Showcase of Innovation

The event featured a diverse range of student-built ventures from around the world, showcasing innovative solutions in various fields. From gun-safety technology to AI-powered education platforms, these young entrepreneurs demonstrated exceptional creativity and problem-solving skills.

Organized by Students, for Students

Organized by SVYEP and funded in partnership with Berkeley Summit House, the competition reflected months of planning and logistics organized entirely by SVYEP’s team of high school members. From coordinating judges and sponsors to managing timing, registration, and venue operations, the student team handled every detail leading up to the event’s success.

The vision behind the event was to showcase the professionalism and creative capacity of high school entrepreneurs. With global submissions, active investor involvement, and student-led coordination, the Youth Business Venture highlighted the remarkable capability of young founders when supported with the right platform.

They worked directly with Stanford administration to secure the Jen-Hsun Huang Engineering Center, helped curate the judging panel, coordinated flights and schedules, and partnered with Berkeley Summit House to support prizes and event operations. Their dedication and hard work ensured the event ran smoothly from start to finish.

Submissions came in from around the world, and the top 15 teams were selected to pitch live in front of a judging panel of six industry leaders from companies including Microsoft, PayPal Ventures, and Amazon.

Presentations and Judging

Each of the 15 teams delivered a 10-minute pitch, followed by a Q&A session with the judges. The presentations covered the fundamentals of early-stage venture design, including problem definition, target user identification, market size estimation, and business model outlining.

The competition opened with MarinaMed, a healthcare venture that set the tone for the rest of the day.

Throughout the day, teams took turns presenting their ideas, and during the networking breaks, students and guests stepped outside on the patio to engage with judges and connect with one another.
“Watching students from different schools, countries, and backgrounds connect over their shared ambition was the best part,” said SVYEP CEO and event co-host Bretton Lam.

Judging Panel

• Tiffany Zhong — Youngest Venture Capitalist in the World; CEO of Noplace
  Tiffany Zhong is the youngest VC in the world and the CEO of Noplace, where she focuses on consumer tech and Gen Z product strategy. Her work has made her one of the most influential young voices in next-generation social platforms.
• Robert Parker — Former Microsoft, Amazon, and Samsung Executive; Founder of Bright.AI & Perceptix.AI
  Robert Parker has held senior roles at Microsoft, Amazon, and Samsung. He now leads two AI ventures focused on automation and intelligent systems, bringing decades of technical and leadership experience to the panel.
• John Whaley — CEO of Inception Studio; Former Stanford Lecturer; MIT PhD
  John Whaley is a technologist and entrepreneur with a PhD from MIT. He has taught at Stanford, founded multiple companies, and works extensively across AI and security.
• Alan Du — Partner at PayPal Ventures; AI and Fintech Investor
  Alan Du is a partner at PayPal Ventures, where he leads investments in AI, data infrastructure, and emerging financial technologies.
• Elina Sun — Founder of Berkeley Summit House Ventures; Former Senior Official at the China Securities Regulatory Commission
  Elina Sun combines regulatory and venture experience, having previously served as a senior official at China’s securities authority before founding Berkeley Summit House Ventures.
• Michael Preibisch — Tech Lead at Worldcoin; Former Senior Software Engineer at Sumo Logic
  Michael Preibisch is a systems engineer specializing in large-scale backend development. He currently works on core infrastructure at Worldcoin and previously built cloud systems at Sumo Logic.

The diverse backgrounds and expertise of the judges provided the teams with a broad spectrum of insights and feedback. By bringing together leaders from various fields, including consumer apps, AI infrastructure, cybersecurity, and global payments, the judging panel offered a comprehensive evaluation of the teams’ pitches.

Winners & Awards

The competition consisted of cash prizes totaling over $15,000.

• First Place — SchoolAce
  The first-place award of $5,000 was presented to SchoolAce, presented by Aiden Shankar, for their AI-powered education platform that integrates personalized tutoring, automated grading, and teacher-assistance tools. The platform has already been tested in classroom environments, demonstrating early practical promise.

• Second Place — SafeLock
  The second-place prize of $3,000 was awarded to SafeLock,, for a biometric gun-safety device that combines fingerprint authentication with real-time app monitoring, developed by Vivian Zhang, Hannah Li, Pranav Swaminathan, and Ryan Abraham. This technologically grounded response addresses a major household safety concern.

• Second Place — PawScan
  The third-place distinction, accompanied by a $1,000 award, went to PawScan, pitched by Aarush Channapragada and Aleeza Khan, for their veterinary diagnostic concept that leverages AI and CT imaging to support early cancer detection in pets. This innovation has the potential to expand access to advanced diagnostic capabilities in clinics across the country.

• Innovation Award — BioBin
  The Innovation Award was granted to BioBin, recognized for the originality and technical creativity demonstrated in their pitch.

• Business Strategy Award — MarinaMed
  The Business Strategy Award was presented to MarinaMed, whose pitch was distinguished by its well-developed go-to-market strategy and clear understanding of operational execution.

These winning teams demonstrated outstanding talent and innovation at the Youth Business Venture Challenge. Their pitches showcased well thought out, creative solutions to problems we face today, highlighting their technical skills and passion for entrepreneurship.

Looking Ahead

The Youth Business Venture Challenge demonstrated the potential of young entrepreneurs when given the opportunity to lead. As Isabella Liang noted, “Every part of this was built by students, from outreach to partnerships to stage production. We’re showing that the future of entrepreneurship does not start in boardrooms. It starts with us.”

This year’s success paves the way for SVYEP’s future initiatives that will continue empowering the next generation of entrepreneurs to grow, innovate, and lead with purpose.