Top 5 Startup & Business Challenges for High Schoolers
Looking to Start a Business in High School? Here Are 5 Entrepreneurship Competitions & Challenges You Should Know.
While I usually write about opportunities specifically for college founders and recent alumni, this month, I thought I’d lean into the fact that it’s Summer and address another crowd that’s been trying to build over their Summer vacation: high school founders!
So, for this week’s edition, I wanted to focus specifically on some of the exciting opportunities for high school founders that includes startup competitions, entrepreneurship challenges, accelerators and pitch competitions specifically designed for high school students - some offering mentorship, international networks, $100,000+ in investments and cash prizes and even venture funding opportunities.
I started my own entrepreneurial journey at 13, and having worked with hundreds of Gen Z founders since then, one thing I’ve realized is that the best programs aren’t necessarily the ones with the biggest prize. Instead, it’s the one’s that force you to actually build and take your idea into action!
So if you’re a high school student in the US looking for a startup challenge, business competition or entrepreneurship program, here are five I think are worth knowing about.
1. Expop Startup Challenge - Win up to $50,000 in Investment for High School Seniors
Expop was specifically around something I felt was missing from a lot of traditional high school business competitions. Instead of spending three months writing a hypothetical business plan, Expop focuses on actually creating an interactive experience where students build, launch and scale their ventures as part of the challenge itself.
That is essentially the idea behind Expop.io.
Expop is a 6-month entrepreneurship challenge for students ages 13–19 designed to take you from having little more than an interest in entrepreneurship to actually launching something into the world.
Over the six months, students go through different startup quests covering things like:
Finding a problem worth solving
Customer discovery
Building an MVP
Branding
Marketing
Sales
Finance
Pitching
Alongside the challenge, students get access to workshops, mentorship and a global community of other ambitious high school founders.
The current Fall Challenge runs from October through March, is online and flexible, and includes $7,500 in cash prizes for the top five winners.
But there is another prize I’m particularly excited about.
The $50,000 Software Startup Investment Prize
In collaboration with Honors Fund, Expop also has a special opportunity specifically for high school seniors building software companies.
Eligible founders can compete for a $50,000 investment into their startup as part of the challenge.
Most founders spend months (sometimes years!) trying to get their first investor. The fact that someone can potentially begin that journey while they’re still in high school is exactly the sort of thing I wish existed when I first started. Which is pretty insane when you think about it.
Of course, not everybody joining Expop needs to be building the next billion-dollar software company. We’ve seen student build and launch tutoring companies, apps, food brands, robotics startups, social enterprises, non-profits and more.
Expop is run by Ascendance US, the US spin-out of Ascendance, the youth organization I started when I was 13. Across our programs, we’ve now worked with more than 50,000 students across 26 countries and helped guide 200+ Gen Z-led startups.
2. Diamond Challenge
Run through the University of Delaware’s Horn Entrepreneurship program, Diamond Challenge is one of the major global entrepreneurship competitions specifically built for high school students.
Students develop solutions to problems they care about and compete through either a Business Innovation or Social Innovation track.
Not every student interested in entrepreneurship necessarily wants to build the next billion-dollar SaaS company. You might want to tackle food insecurity in your city, create something around mental health, build a nonprofit, launch a consumer product, or work on something completely different. Diamond gives quite a lot of room for that.
Teams compete for significant awards, and the competition has become one of the more recognizable names in the high school entrepreneurship ecosystem. It’s also team-based, which makes Diamond particularly interesting if you already have a few friends who want to build something together.
3. Blue Ocean Student Entrepreneur Competition
The Blue Ocean Student Entrepreneur Competition is probably one of the easiest competitions on this list to participate in geographically because the competition is virtual and open globally. Students from around the world participate by developing an innovative business idea and submitting a short video pitch.
The competition is inspired by the business book Blue Ocean Strategy, which essentially challenges entrepreneurs to stop fighting everyone else in crowded markets and instead figure out how to create entirely new market opportunities.
Students can compete individually or in teams, and you don’t necessarily need an already-operating startup to participate. They also provide resources to help students understand the Blue Ocean methodology and structure their pitches.
That makes this a particularly good first competition if you’ve never pitched before.
4. DECA Entrepreneurship Events
For high school students interested in business, entrepreneurship, marketing or finance, DECA runs competitive events ranging from quick business case studies to much more involved startup plans and simulations.
There are several entrepreneurship-specific options. For example, the Start-Up Business Plan competition asks students to develop and present an actual proposal for starting a company.
There are also entrepreneurship role-plays, innovation plans, business plans, growth plans and virtual challenges. The main caveat is that DECA participation generally revolves around your school’s DECA chapter and its competitive structure, so access can depend on your school.
It’s best for students who love competition, business cases and structured events - especially if your school already has an active DECA chapter.
5. NFTE Youth Entrepreneurship Showcase
Finally, there is the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, or NFTE. NFTE has been running entrepreneurship education programs for young people for decades and has built a substantial ecosystem around student founders.
Their entrepreneurship competition and showcase opportunities allow young people to develop businesses, pitch their ideas and connect with other students interested in entrepreneurship.
What makes NFTE particularly interesting is that students aren’t simply solving hypothetical business cases, a lot of participants are building actual ventures. This is especially an awesome opportunity for students already plugged into NFTE programming who want to take a real venture through a larger entrepreneurship competition and showcase ecosystem.
Which High School Entrepreneurship Competition Should You Choose?
It depends entirely on what you’re trying to get out of it.
If you want to actually start your first company, I’d look at Expop.
If you’re a high school senior already trying to build a serious software startup, Expop’s $50,000 Honors Fund investment opportunity makes that route particularly interesting.
If you already have a strong idea and want to turn it into a competitive business or social-impact pitch, look at Diamond Challenge.
If you want an accessible virtual competition that teaches you how to think differently about innovation, try Blue Ocean.
If you’re extremely competitive and love structured business challenges, DECA is probably your world.
And if your school or community already participates in NFTE, take advantage of the ecosystem they’ve built around young entrepreneurs.
You also don’t necessarily have to pick one, in fact, if you have an idea or interest that you feel deeply about persuing, you may want to apply with the same idea to several of these opportunities.
The Most Important Thing: Actually Build Something
I think entrepreneurship education becomes infinitely more useful the moment you stop treating entrepreneurship like a school subject. Nothing quite compares to the first time something you built completely fails and you’re forced to figure out why.
So whichever high school startup challenge or business competition you choose, don’t optimize exclusively for the certificate: use it as an excuse to build!
Other Resources & Support
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