Entrepreneurship is the single best way to broadly increase opportunity and abundance, and perhaps no program is more important in developing future entrepreneurs across Indiana than STARTedUP Foundation’s Innovate WithIN, billed as the most elite high school student presentation competition in the country.
First, everything is downstream of entrepreneurship in terms of public dynamism. US Department of Labor data clearly shows that nearly all net new jobs come from businesses that are less than five years old. Furthermore, the companies that employ the majority of Americans weren’t always huge; they were once start-ups. Governments and nonprofits need taxes and charitable donations, but without those businesses and employees, their coffers are empty. Without the growth that entrepreneurship brings, society is simply a static or shrinking management of a resource pie.
The reason entrepreneurship is so important is because new problems are always emerging. A key principle of entrepreneurship is seeing new problems as opportunities. STARTedUP was founded on this principle. Since its founding in 2018, Innovate WithIN, which was created in partnership with the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, has engaged nearly 10,000 high school students.
These student entrepreneurs are mentored by some of Indiana’s top teachers, many of whom participate in the Innovation Educator Fellowship.
Innovate WithIN pairs innovative teachers and motivated students with top-class, original curriculum and pits ideas against each other through local, regional and state competitions.
As a byproduct, thousands of business ideas were generated and an estimated 60 businesses were launched by these teen founders. Between the prize money and additional venture capital, more than $650,000 was pumped into these companies.
The 2024 competition was the largest ever, with 2,890 applications. Starting last fall, competitions were narrowed down to six regions across the state, and 10 finalist teams were selected. The first place team won $25,000 (plus $10,000 in 529 college funds per team member), second place won $5,000, and third place won $2,500.
The finals will be judged live, but teams will present via video and anyone can influence the winner through the People’s Choice Award, voted for by the public on the STARTedUP site.
All finalists will receive a trip to Washington, DC, where they will meet with several entrepreneurs and CEOs and have a special meeting with Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development Alejandra Castillo. The trip will allow students to continue building their networks, practice their presentations, and see what insights they can bring back from that entrepreneurial ecosystem to our own.
“This program is critical to the future of Indiana. The state competition highlights the best teams, but the true power of this competition is in empowering thousands of students to make a mindset shift from seeing problems as obstacles to seeing them as opportunities for innovation, collaboration and entrepreneurship. This shift will develop a generation of problem solvers that are essential to Indiana’s continued progress,” said Founder Don Wetrick.
The program’s success has garnered fans and supporters from universities across the state to community foundations, and it has even caught the eye of lucky fans and collaborators such as Seth Godin, Richard Branson and 50 Cent.
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Schutt is co-founder of Homesense Heating & Cooling and Refinery46 and a Civic Renewal Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Send comments to ibjedit@ibj.com.
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