thinkBIG! Challenge
An online business plan competition open to all high school students in Northeast Ohio, offering $9,000 in prizes. Finalists are invited to attend Executive Coaching and receive guidance from entrepreneurial professionals in the Cleveland business community. The final 6 teams will compete live at the thinkBIG! Summit in Spring 2026.
Finalists of the thinkBIG! Challenge will be invited to attend the in-person Executive Coaching Day.
Deadline for Executive Summary online submissions will be announced in Fall semester 2025. For the latest information on this event, sign up for our newsletter.

How it Works
Step 1: Executive Summary Submission
Deadline for Executive Summary Submission:
To be announced.
Finalists Proceeding to Live Pitch Competition Announcement: To be announced.
Please download required challenge documents for both tracks here:
AI is not a substitute for human creativity and innovation. The use of AI tools should supplement a person’s work, not replace it. It should be noted that the material generated by these programs may be inaccurate, incomplete, or otherwise problematic. You may not submit any work generated by an AI program as your own. To promote transparency, accountability, and critical thinking, participants are required to describe how they incorporate AI into their process of creating their Executive Summary.

Step 2: Executive Coaching Session - Spring 2026
Step 3: Live Pitch at thinkBIG! Summit - Spring 2026
Please view all rules, eligibility, terms, and conditions for the 2024-2025 thinkBIG! Challenge and Summit here:
Prizes
Offering $9,000 in prizes!
First Place for each track will receive $3,000 per team.
Second Place for each track will receive $1,000 per team.
Third Place for each track will each receive $500 per team.
The Grand Prize Team will be presented with our Traveling Veale Innovation Trophy to display at their school for the 2025-2026 school year!

Areas of Focus:
2025 thinkBIG! Challenge Winners
Innovation Track
First Place
NextLabels – University School
Travis Skinner & Andrew Zbarzh
Second Place
Porch Pirate – Olmsted Falls High School
Tristan Sammon, Nick Goldman & Trent O’Neill
Third Place
CollabSync – Laurel School
Hailey Kochis
Small Business Track
First Place
Jam By Josh – Solon High School
Joshua Friedlander
Second Place
Growing Hope – Hathaway Brown School
Lilly Moran, Brianna Seale, Hanna Goje & Daly Harbold
Third Place
Adventure Stark – GlenOak High School
Yousif Abdalratha, Kyla Cronberg, Camryn Martin & Dale Dalton
Innovation Track
Honorable Mentions
Hair Pros – Cuyahoga Falls High School
Alyssa Cook & Sydney Laston
Pepperoni Machine – Cuyahoga Falls High School
Noah Boehm
Union Match – Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy
Caroline Dombroski, Caleb Callahan, Anna Hanko & Gavin O’Keefe
Backpack Cushion – GlenOak High School
Braden Rosche
CampusCarts – Laurel School
Tatum Zollar
Solena Apparel – Laurel School
Laina DiGeronimo & Asale Jones
BeyondGrid – Olmsted Falls High School
Brandon Poore
Sustaina-Ball – Olmsted Falls High School
Alex Keller
Cognitive Connections – Solon High School
Nandita Srikumar
Re-co – University School
Adonis Wazni
Small Business Track
Honorable Mentions
Project PAUL – Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy
Ellerie McGough & Eli Jabbour
Blanket Blessings – GlenOak High School
Chloe Layne, Ethan Krum, Lisbon James, Madeleine Harris, Kenneth Baker, Jake Charles, Ryan Nice & Ghalaries Alkaied
Cleveland Beauty – Hathaway Brown
Victoria Schott, Nyah Farah & Lilly Moran
HerWealth (HW) – Hathaway Brown
Juliet Gardner & Sydney Gillmore
SereniStop – Hathaway Brown
Areesha Nouman, Aanya Lakireddy & Siya Lakireddy
VolunteerVerse – Hathaway Brown
Shrividya Regadamilli & Elizabeth Chen
BambTech – Olmsted Falls High School
Kellen Kilbane, Finnegan Salupo, Michael Shiels & Lilie Jones
SafeCloud – Olmsted Falls High School
Dominic Shockey & Owen Timura
Surge-Safe-Solutions – Olmsted Falls High School
Rawan Tayel, Joey Haas & Ayden Fechter
GreenLeaf – Polaris Career Center
Hannah Ganss, Emily Karsheh, Rose Lane & Courtney Knapik