10 Business Competitions for High School Students
10 Business Competitions for High School Students
This blog includes business competitions for high school students, including free and online business competitions.
If you’re a high school student interested in pursuing a career in business, entrepreneurship, or economics, consider signing up for a business competition!
Why should I participate in a business competition as a high school student?
Competitions offer different benefits when compared to other pre-college summer programs. While summer programs focus on enhancing knowledge and gaining skills, competitions allow you to put those skills into practice and build a strong network with peers and mentors alike.
If you’re looking for a competition in entrepreneurship, that usually means you get a first-hand experience of what it’s like to build a business.
Participating could teach you valuable skills, such as developing proficiency in business strategy tools and frameworks, presenting your ideas, and even creating a stock portfolio using virtual money!
Winning a competition can also be a solid addition to your profile and boost your college applications after high school.
To help you find the right competition, we have curated a list of 10 great business competitions for high school students — all of which are entirely free to participate in!
Blue Ocean Student Entrepreneur Competition
Location: Online
Competition dates:: Full timeline on the website; registration opens in January, and submissions close on February 16
Eligibility: High school students between the ages of 14-18 can apply
Prizes: Upto $1000 in cash prizes
To participate, you must develop a business idea that solves a real-world problem and create a video pitch of 3-5 minutes explaining your idea. In the process, you will attend a short course on business strategy and learn how to incorporate tools into your pitch — such as the Three Tiers of Noncustomers, the As-Is Strategy Canvas, and the Eliminate-Reduce–Raise-Create (ERRC) Grid.
Your business idea will then be judged on its market potential, value innovation, commercial viability, technical feasibility, and presentation quality. It is the world's largest virtual high school entrepreneurship competition and accepts thousands of participants from across the globe, making it a valuable addition to your portfolio! You can go through the past winning pitches here.
The Diamond Challenge
Location: Virtual,
Competition dates:: Complete timeline here; registration opens on September 18 and closes on January 16 of the following year
Eligibility: High school students aged 14-18 can apply
Prizes: $12,000 for the 1st place, $8,000 for the 2nd, and $4,500 for the 3rd
The Diamond Challenge is a popular business competition for high school students. You can either participate in the Business Innovation track, which focuses on solving a customer problem, or in the Social Innovation track, which highlights a social issue. You will work in groups of 2-4 students with one adult supervisor. The competition includes a submission round, a pitch round (you can choose between the virtual and in-person format), and a final summit at the University of Delaware.
In the process, you will develop a written narrative, a video pitch, and a final pitch deck. A Q&A session will also follow the 5-minute pitch at the summit. Previous winning pitches include a portable machine that scans for peanuts in food and a sustainable water filter for developing countries. You can look at other winning projects from the 2024 edition here!
Wharton Global High School Investment Competition
Location: Initial rounds take place online. The Global Finale takes place at Wharton Business School
Competition dates:: Registration opens on June 1, and closes on September 13
Eligibility: High school students around the world can apply
Prizes: The global champion team will get a complimentary spot in one of Wharton’s online summer programs. More details here.
The Wharton Global High School Investment Competition is an experiential investment challenge for high school students. Participating teams are given the case study of a potential client and tasked with using the Wharton Investment Simulator (an online stock market simulator) to build a portfolio using $100,000 in virtual cash. You will participate in groups of 4-7 students with one advisor, who must be a teacher/educator at your high school.
Over 10 weeks, you will develop an investment strategy, analyze industries and companies, and buy and sell stocks. Fifty teams make it to the semi-finals, from which ten teams move on to the Global Finale at Wharton. A highlight of the competition is that you will be judged on your investment strategies rather than how much money you make.
Harvard Crimson Business Competition
Location: Online. The Championship round takes place at Harvard University
Competition dates: Prelim round deadline on February 24, and the championship round ends in July
Eligibility: Students in grades 6-12 can apply
Prizes: You will receive certificates of participation/winning
The Harvard Crimson is Harvard University’s official student newspaper, run by Harvard students themselves. It also hosts several educational programs, including the Harvard Crimson Business Competition, a start-up-style contest. The competition includes a virtual preliminary round and an in-person championship round. You must submit a developed business idea that addresses one of the following issues — sustainable development, education equality, economic development, sustainable transportation, food security, or cybersecurity.
In the preliminary round, you will submit a 14-18 page PowerPoint presentation that details your business plan. You can compete solo or with a team! Fifty global qualifying teams will then make it to the championship round, where you can attend business workshops, network with mentors, analyze real cases, go on field trips, and refine your business plan before presenting it to a panel of judges.
Citizen Entrepreneurship Competition
Location: Online
Competition dates:: Registration opens on June 1, with a submission deadline on July 31
Eligibility: Anyone over the age of 13
Prizes: An official certificate from Stiftung Entrepreneurship
Your business pitch can either be an idea (an innovative solution in the conception/planning phase) or a project (a solution that will be carried out by an existing business/institution), but it must address one of the 17 SDGs.
The competition involves three phases, during which you will complete two online courses (“Brains versus Capital” & “Sustainable Entrepreneurship”) and develop your pitch further using an Entrepreneurial Design Canvas. A panel of experts will judge the pitches during the final phase based on criteria like feasibility, innovation, leadership, social impact, and sustainability. Since this competition is open to all, you should remember that you might be competing with college students or older professionals.
Ithaca College High School Investment Competition
Location: Online
Competition dates: The registration deadline is November 10, and the competition concludes in March
Eligibility: All students in grades 9-12
Prizes: $3,000 for the 1st place, $2,000 for the 2nd, and $1,000 for the 3rd (the money will be split between the
Ithaca College High School Investment Competition is a business competition for high school students interested in learning more about the stock market. In groups of 3-6 students (with one adult advisor), you will invest $1,000,000 of virtual money and conduct a maximum of 500 trades. You can build your portfolio by trading stocks, ETFs, bonds, mutual funds, commodities, etc. The teams with the best-performing portfolio will win cash prizes and a fee waiver if you are a senior and apply to Ithaca College.
Pirates Pitch Competition for High School Students
Location: Seton Hall University, New Jersey
Competition dates: Registration opens on August 26, the final event takes place in November
Eligibility: High school sophomores, juniors, and seniors with a GPA of at least 3.0 can apply
Prizes: $2,500 cash and $10,000 scholarship to SHU for the 1st place, $4,000 scholarship for all finalists, $300 for the Audience Choice Award winner
Seton Hall University’s Pirate Pitch Competition allows high school students to pitch an original or existing business idea. This is one of the few competitions you must enter as a solo participant. The first stage includes submitting your pitch as a 350-word write-up or 3-minute video. If you’re selected as a finalist, you can pitch your idea in person to a panel of alumni entrepreneurs, corporate leaders, and business faculty. Past winning pitches include an online platform for students to find part-time jobs and internships and an AI-driven physical therapy solution that provides feedback to patients in real-time.
Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship Competition
Location: Online. The SAGE World Cup takes place in person in a different country each year.
Competition dates: Registration opens on May 1, and closes on May 12.
Eligibility: All students between the ages of 13-19
Prizes: Upto $1000 in cash prizes for winning teams
As a participant, you will work in teams of at least three students and one supervisor and submit a written report of up to 4 pages and a recorded presentation of up to 13 minutes, both of which should highlight your business’s key operations, impact, and achievement.
Your work will be judged on the basis of the following criteria: innovation, social impact, business operations, sustainability, and presentation. If you are one of the country’s top two teams, you can move on to the SAGE World Cup, which takes place in a different country each year (the 2024 session took place in Japan). You will spend 4-5 days at the World Cup competing with international participants, which is also a good opportunity to network with peers and professionals. However, the website is not clear on travel costs so there is a chance you will need to spend that yourself.
Big Idea Competition
Location: Online. The final competition can be attended virtually or in person at Northern State University
Competition dates: Registration opens in September, and submissions are due on October 31. The final competition is held on December 9
Eligibility: All high school students
Prizes: $1000 for 1st place, $500 for 2nd, and $250 for 3rd (with additional scholarships)
You can participate in the competition as an individual or a team of up to 3 students. In the first round, you must submit a written report of your idea that includes details about the concept, product/service, market opportunity, competition, and management. Additionally, you must submit a 30 to 60-second video that works as an elevator pitch.
If you get shortlisted as one of the eight finalists, you will attend the final competition and deliver a 6-minute presentation of your business to a panel of judges. There are a few special award categories available specifically for South Dakota students. You can go through the previous winners of the competition here.
Northern Illinois University’s High School Ethics Case Competition
Location: Northern Illinois University
Competition dates:: The competition is a day event that generally takes place in April
Eligibility: High school juniors and seniors can participate
Prizes: Unspecified on the competition website
Northern Illinois University’s College of Business offers high school students a slightly offbeat business competition. Rather than focusing on a business idea, this is an ethics competition presenting participants with a business case study featuring an ethical dilemma. You and your team must research the problem and develop a solution after considering the ethical, economic, and legal factors involved. You will then present this solution to a panel of judges and participate in a Q&A session.
Interested in building on a business idea for the competitions above? Consider applying to The Young Founders Lab - an elite incubator for high school students!
The Young Founders Lab is a real-world start-up boot camp founded and run by Harvard entrepreneurs. In this program, you will work towards building a revenue-generating start-up that addresses a real-world problem. You will also have the opportunity to be mentored by established entrepreneurs and professionals from Google, Microsoft, and X.
You can access the application link here!