thinkBIG! Challenge 25-26 » Veale Entrepreneurs

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.

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How it Works

Step 1: Executive Summary Submission

Teams (1 to 4 members) will submit an Executive Summary that explores and develops business ventures in one or two tracks: Innovation or Small Business.

The Executive Summary should be no more than 5 pages in length and must describe the concept and outline the problem, the solution, customers, the competition, assets needed, challenges, and financial feasibility.

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:

Small Business Executive Summary Guidelines

Small Business Scoring Rubric

Small Business Example

Innovation Executive Summary Guidelines

Innovation Scoring Rubric

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

The six teams chosen to pitch the thinkBIG! Summit will receive Executive Coaching from a professional entrepreneur!

Step 3: Live Pitch at thinkBIG! Summit - Spring 2026

The final 6 teams will present live in front of judges and attendees at the thinkBIG! Summit on March 4, 2025. Three teams from each track will compete for the cash prizes.

Please view all rules, eligibility, terms, and conditions for the 2024-2025 thinkBIG! Challenge and Summit here:

Rules, Eligibility, Terms and Conditions

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:

Networking, Entrepreneurial Mindset, Design thinking, Validation, Sales and Operations, Online Marketing, Finance and Accounting, Effective Communication, Collaboration, Public Speaking

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