Stanford Team is 2025 e-Fest Grand Champion

MINNEAPOLIS – e-Fest 2025 came to an exciting conclusion on Saturday, April 26, with an incredible Championship Round judged by top business and entrepreneurship professionals: Ryan Kruizenga from Arthur Ventures, Hany Nada from Acme Capital, Mahendra Nath of Nath Companies, Lisa Shannon from Allina Health, and Vik Uppal from Mavik (learn more about the judges here). These esteemed judges faced the tough task of determining which student business venture would take home the Championship title and the $50,000 Grand Prize!

The competition began back in January, when students from across North America submitted their business ventures for the online round. A talented nationwide community of entrepreneurs, business leaders, and faculty reviewed nearly 200 submissions from over 100 colleges and universities to select the 25 finalist teams advancing to the live competition at the Schulze School of Entrepreneurship at University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis.

Finalist teams arrived in Minneapolis on Thursday, April 24, to compete in three days of business competitions, workshops, and events designed to inspire and energize these rising entrepreneurs. After an inspiring keynote from Dick Schulze, Founder of Best Buy and the Schulze Family Foundation, students kicked off the event with the always lively Pitch Slam!—the first of three competitions held throughout the weekend. In total, $220,000 in cash prizes were awarded to student entrepreneurs during e-Fest 2025.

e-Fest and the Schulze Entrepreneurship Challenge are all about fueling the entrepreneurial spirit of the next generation of leaders—encouraging students to explore new opportunities, unlock their potential, and apply the skills and knowledge they have gained to create meaningful impact in the world.

After three action-packed days, the Championship Round placed our final five teams—and our distinguished panel of judges—in the spotlight. Following intense deliberations, the winners were announced during an exciting Awards Ceremony.

To learn more about e-Fest or to catch highlights from the 2025 event, visit e-Fest®.

Congratulations to all our finalists and champions for their outstanding work, creativity, and dedication!

And now, without further ado, the results of e-Fest 2025!

Schulze Entrepreneurship Challenge

Grand Champion | $50,000:

Touchstone from Stanford University: Emily Tran and Evelyn Tran (shown above with University of St. Thomas President Rob Vischer and Danielle Alits Campeau, Associate Dean of the Schulze School.

TouchStone is an API-first platform for e-commerce retailers that integrates into customer support ticketing software to detect refunds fraud and returns fraud during live customer support chats and calls.

Advisor: Mike Niaki and Tim Tran

Runner Up | $30,000:

BRCĒ from Michigan State University: Niranjan Anantharaman, Madhav Aggarwal, Tanvi Gadamsetti, and Michael Roggenbaum

BRCĒ is a high-impact proprietary material-tech startup, developing an ecosystem of performance & safety gear to support athletes, tactical & industrial use-cases, built with composites that are stronger than steel, fire-resistant & remarkedly lightweight with data-backed product designs providing performance advantage. Through strategic collaborations with Under Armour, DEWALT & Enda Athletic, & mentorship from Nike veterans & Techstars, BRCĒ is revolutionizing athletic gear with global impact.

Advisor: Lori Fischer

Third Place | $20,000:

PlayVision from Calvin University: Marc Zoghby and Anish Gupta

At PlayVision, we leverage AI and computer vision to produce advanced analytics for sports teams, saving time and providing teams with a competitive edge.

Advisor: Joo Ae Chu & Keith McAleer

Fourth Place | $15,000:

BiliRoo from: Calvin University: Daniel John & Nathan Dapprich

BiliRoo is a patent-pending, non-electric, low-cost medical device designed to treat neonatal jaundice in low-resource settings.

Advisor: Zachariah Booker

Fifth Place | $10,000

SentrySight LLC from California State University, Sacramento: Enrique De La Torre Jr., Gavin Garcia Camargo, Ritchie Martinez, & Huy Dao

SentrySight, a proactive AI surveillance solution that transforms uncertainty into peace of mind.

Advisor: Cameron Law

Special Recognition Awards

The Potential for Impact Award | $5,000 honors ventures creating meaningful change through global reach or social impact. Teams will be judged on their potential to compete internationally and address critical social challenges. The Ready for Market Award | $5,000 showcases teams’ ability to connect with a wider audience by crafting a compelling 45-second video that highlights their venture, the problem they’re solving, and how they’re reaching their market.

The same team won both awards:

LetAllGirls from Babson College: Lucia Saab Arango & Mateo Acosta-Rubio

LetAllGirls is transforming education in underdeveloped regions with AI-powered learning devices that deliver high-quality, locally tailored education- without relying on internet or existing infrastructure. With edge-computing and machine learning, LetAllGirls helps teachers create dynamic lesson plans and enables students to learn independently- all at a price sustainable for governments, NGOs, and school networks, making quality education accessible anywhere.

Advisor: Lisa Thomas

Other Finalists Honored

Along with the top five teams and the special recognition awards, e-Fest recognized other finalist teams for their achievements. These included:

Second Place Teams ($4,000 each)

EmPatch from University of Southern California: Eshayna Madan and Karina Patel. Advisor: Amiah Sheppard.
QTex AI from Boise State University: Caleb Pollock and Oliver MadDonald. Advisor: Rick Ritter.
Sync Labs from University of Pennsylvania: Melanie Herbert, Jacob Hutchison and Adam Shalabi. Advisor: Siddarth Deliwala.
Technotonin from Worcester Polytechnic Institute: Arav Tyagi and Ivan Zou. Advisor: Allen Gutierrez.
LetAllGirls from Babson College: Lucia Saab Arango and Mateo Acosta-Rubio. Advisor: Lisa Thomas.

Third Place Teams ($3,000 each)

LockGuard from Rutgers University: Anjo Therattil, Isaac Howe, and Aaron Wong. Advisor: Lori Dars.
Granite State Systems from University of New Hampshire: Shea Garland, Rowan Baptista, and Brett Schulz. Advisor: Jason Plant.
Morph Labs from Florida State University: Pranai Reddy, Soham Mehra, and Nikola Cadavid. Advisor: Shayne McConomy.
Lens AI from University of California, Irvine: Anushka Rawat, Soviet Nayak, and Manush Murali. Advisor: Ryan Roland.
Pathway Oncology from Harvard University: Sean Dunn and Eshan Vishwakarma. Advisor: Leslie Coles.

Fourth Place Teams ($2,000 each)

Aldental from Florida Atlantic university: Makai Pindell and Charles Russo. Advisor: Kevin Cox.
Metopi from University of Virginia: Evan Burita and Miles Lanham. Advisor: Blair Okita.
Recrura from University of Wisconsin - Whitewater: John Mertz, Sadiq Wanyaka, Annabella Biever, and Chad Tjugum. Advisor: Frank Lanko.
DisposeOil from SUNY New Paltz: Marissa Karcher and Alexander Knobloch. Advisor: George C. Napolitano.
SparkFluence from Rice University: Dismay Ravikumar and Adhere Tippur. Advisor: Kyle Judah.

Fifth Place Teams ($1,000 each)

Splash Smartech from California State University, Sacramento: Jeremy Randall and Gabriel Sigala. Advisor: Cameron Law.
SurfStick LLC from East Carolina University: William Jones and Garrison Miller. Advisor: Sharon Moore.
HELWA from Rhodes College: Sandy Mansour and Kai Virani. Advisor: Eric Matthews.
My Salon Suite from Talladega College: Faith Traylor and Luis Cardona Almestica. Advisor: Gary London.
ELTUH from Farmingdale State College: Gustavo Velasquezfernandez, Asad Khan, and Travell White. Advisor: Jing Betty Feng.

Pitch Slam!

The Finalist Teams arrived at The University of St. Thomas on Thursday April 24 and kicked off the weekend with the Pitch Slam! No slides, no props, no videos -- just a microphone and 90 seconds to pitch their business ventures. Dick Schulze was in attendance and able to hear the business pitches and help decide the winners.

1st Place - $10,000: BiliRoo from: Calvin University: Daniel John & Nathan Dapprich. Advisor: Zachariah Booker

2nd Place - $5,000: EmPatch from University of Southern California: Eshayna Madan & Karina Patel. Advisor: Amiah Sheppard

3rd Place - $2,500: Touchstone from Stanford University: Emily Tran and Evelyn Tran. Advisors: Mike Niaki and Tim Tran

Innovation Challenge

On Friday of e-Fest, the student innovators were divided into teams that allowed them to network and strategize with students from other schools. The teams were given the challenge to come up with a business idea that would re-invent tourism and make it more sustainable.

First Place Team ($2,500 each) -- Oliver MacDonald, Boise State University; Luis Cardona Almestica, Talladega College; Annabella Biever, UW-Whiteswater; Evelyn Tran, Stanford University.

Second Place Team ($1,250 each) -- Madhav Aggarwal, Michigan State University; Sandy Mansour, Rhodes College; Eshan Vishwakarma, Harvard University; Isaac Howe, Rutgers University.

Third Place Team ($625 each) -- Rowan Baptista, University of New Hampshire; Asad Khan, Farmingdale State College; Caleb Pollock, Boise State University; Gabriel Sigala, California State University - Sacramento.

Congratulations to all the finalist teams! What an incredible weekend it has been at e-Fest. As we bid farewell to this year's event, we're leaving with hearts brimming with creativity, innovation, and inspiration. e-Fest isn't just a competition; it's an opportunity for students and faculty to delve deeper into the world of entrepreneurship, forge connections with industry experts, and network with fellow entrepreneurs from across the nation.

A heartfelt thank you to Dick Schulze and The Schulze Family Foundation, The University of St. Thomas-Schulze School of Entrepreneurship, EIX, our esteemed judges, presenters, advisors, the dedicated e-Fest Team, and, of course, our phenomenal finalist teams for making e-Fest 2025 an unforgettable experience!

Mark your calendars: e-Fest 2026 awaits!