SAAS’s Third Annual Business Competition Inspires Social Entrepreneurship

By: Sarah-Mae McCullough, Editorial Content Manager

Thirty-five high schoolers huddled in small groups in Seattle Academy’s cafeteria, speaking excitedly or typing furiously as they finished the business pitch presentations they’d created in just three and a half hours. Soon, the fruits of their labor would be shared. Each group in “The Elevator: Ready to Launch,” SAAS’s annual, day-long business competition, pitches their business plan to panels of real, local entrepreneurs before a winner is crowned. 

But the energy-filled work time beforehand is SAAS Innovations teacher Sydney Parno’s favorite part of the competition. “Students are SO engaged,” she says. 

Focused and passionate students, sharp judges and supportive mentors, and a real-world pitching experience are key features of “Ready to Launch,” which brings together high school innovators from around Seattle.

Sydney, along with previous SAAS staff Mariah Smith-Gentry and Lysie Taylor, started the competition three years ago, to fill a gap in the Seattle educational landscape — high schoolers had few opportunities to participate in business competitions. This year, 35 students from eleven different high schools flocked to the SAAS campus on a spring Saturday to compete, supported by 26 mentors and judges. 

Four groups of high schoolers were thrilled to take home ribbons or trophies after placing in the final round. But some of the best takeaways described by students and judges are less tangible, from discovering new interests to forging valuable connections. 

On competition day, students filed into SAAS at 9:30 a.m. for a keynote address and workshop on the "Triple Bottom Line"  (people, planet, and profit) from Sydney. Then, they were assigned into interschool groups of three or four, and were informed of this year’s prompt: social entrepreneurship. Each group had just under four hours to generate – from scratch – a business idea that would positively impact their community and prepare a pitch presentation covering the problem they want to solve, their solution, a market analysis, a launch strategy, the financials of their business model, and more. 

“Everyone’s energy was so awesome,” says SAAS 9th grader Cedar Loehr, describing the hustle and bustle of the competition’s work time. “It being a little rushed made people focus. We locked in.”

Each team had the chance to rehearse their pitches and present them to the judges during round one, before four teams advanced to a final round. This year’s winning team pitched “Little Leaf Pot,” an automated plant-growing pot that teaches kids to care for plants. Cedar, along with Kaavya Manam (SAAS 10th grader) and Ousman Dibba (O'Dea High School 12th grader) earned the first place trophy. 

“Winning was a shock to me, because I had never been involved in a business competition before,” Kaavya says. It “gave me confidence to try new things.” 

Regardless of who took home a trophy or ribbon, students and adults alike described many positive takeaways from the competition – from forming new relationships to solidifying their interest in entrepreneurship. 

The competition lets young innovators connect with others who share their drive. Because it’s an interschool competition, “they're able to meet students from all around the city who have the same passion that they do,” Sydney says. She’s seen students make lasting friendships and meet peers who “could be potential co-founders in the future, during or after college, or even during high school.” 

In addition to peers, students meet dozens of local entrepreneurs and investors. This year’s judges included Harley Sitner, owner of the Seattle company Peace Vans, investor Sarah Imbach, who helped build and scale PayPal and LinkedIn, and many other accomplished innovators. 

Dylan Mirsky, a SAAS 10th grader who’s taken two business classes at SAAS so far (Building a Business and Entrepreneurial Leadership) and is currently doing an entrepreneurship internship through the University of Pennsylvania while also running his own car detailing business, says he appreciated how many judges and mentors were present. He later reached out to three of them to learn more about their business journeys. 

“They’ve given me more insight,” he says. “The most important thing in business is just making connections and using them.”

While Dylan has been pursuing entrepreneurship for a while, some students went home with a newfound or solidified passion – including Cedar, a member of the winning team, who says the competition “made me want to be an entrepreneur a lot more.”

“Everyone there was so encouraging, and they really gave feedback in a constructive manner – the students, the faculty, the coaches,” she says. “It was so supportive and amazing.”

Whether or not “Ready to Launch” alumni pursue an entrepreneurial career, the skills they pick up will serve them well, mentors and judges say. 

Take pitching, a critical skill developed during the competition. “You're forced to distill your ideas down to something that really highlights the important elements of what it is you're doing and what your strategy is,” says Chris Wood, a competition judge and CEO of the medical technology company RevealDx. “That process is super important for entrepreneurs.”

Plus, “learning to think fast, use data for decision making, and prioritize effectively are all great skills that will benefit any student in the future,” says Shalini Nilakantan, a mentor at the competition who founded an e-commerce retail business. 

Three and a half hours is not much time to develop a business plan, and judges were impressed by the range of creative, well-thought-out ideas during the competition.

“I've judged a lot of these at the college level, and I was really surprised that high schoolers were able to do this so well,” Chris says. 

Shalini admired the depth of the pitches and “the extremely detailed questions from students who wanted to learn more” about topics like marketing funnels and advertising conversion rates.  

“I was thrilled to hear some students were hoping to take their product to market someday,” she says. 

Thank you to all who participated!

Find results of the 2025 “The Elevator: Ready to Launch” business competition below. Thank you to all the students, mentors, judges, and competition organizers who participated!

First place: “Little Leaf Pot,” an automated plant-growing pot that teaches kids to care for plants, pitched by Cedar Loehr (SAAS), Kaavya Manam (SAAS 10th grader) and Ousman Dibba (O'Dea High School 12th grader) 

Second place: Fortis Performance, an online program providing personalized, sport-specific training plans to prevent common injuries, pitched by Nolan Gerard (SAAS 11th grader), Dylan Mirsky (SAAS 10th grader), and Calder Smith (Seattle Prep 10th grader). 

Third place: Razee, a razor blade refurbishing service, aimed at reducing waste, pitched by Danny Lucht (SAAS 10th grader), Manisha Nilakantan (SAAS 9th grader), and Gavin Nolz (SAAS 10th grader).

Fourth place: Unfiltered, a social-media-style news app designed to give teens a balanced perspective of world events, pitched by Ruby Harman (SAAS 10th grader), Miles Lipson (SAAS 10th grader), and Leah Palmer (Annie Wright 11th grader).

2025 mentors: Andy Pollack, Chermeen Pithawalla, Christine Krabak, Lubica Lutz, Shalini Nilakantan

2025 judges: Hagen Adler, Jonathan Augustus, Amy Bosch, Ned Carner, Jonathan Corcoran, Ginnie Crawford, Shabnam Erfani, Sarah Imbach, Nancy Manzo, Dave Masin, Dave McCoy, Agastya Mongia, Michele Mulnick, Jason Palmer, Babak Parviz, Niko Richardson, Tadhg Scully, Harley Sitner, Stuart Voboril, Brad Wilken, Chris Wood