High School Entrepreneurship Cup®

1. General Description

A business idea competition created by high school student teams, featuring amazing prizes.

Teams of 2 to 5 students, all regularly enrolled and currently attending from the final year of middle school (9th Grade) to the final year of high school (12th Grade), must submit a business idea on the competition website (www.entrepreneurshipcup.com) by answering six questions, uploading a pitch deck (slide presentation), and a video of up to 3 minutes explaining their business idea for evaluation by the judges

Submitted materials will be reviewed by a panel of successful entrepreneurs and startup mentors who will select 10 finalists based on the following criteria:

• Disruption
  Business ideas with disruptive innovation—offering a product, service, material, technology, or business model unlike anything done before—will have a greater chance of winning.
  
  
• Scalability
  Judges will award higher scores to scalable ideas—those capable of exponential, self-sustained growth with minimal effort.
  
  
• Job Creation
  Another criterion is the business’s potential to create direct and indirect jobs.

While these criteria do not define the overall success of an idea, they will be used as tiebreakers among submitted projects.

How to Participate

To participate, schools must schedule a free 90-minute workshop for teachers and students, which can be held in-person or virtually, depending on availability and location.

The workshop includes motivational content about entrepreneurship, explains the competition rules and prizes, and teaches students how to produce their video pitches.

Workshops may be preceded by a meeting with school leadership or even a teacher seminar. To schedule a meeting, schools must register on the competition website.

After registration, educators gain access to resources developed at Harvard and refined in Silicon Valley through the competition platform (www.entrepreneurshipcup.com), with support available via WhatsApp or email.

1.1. Objectives

1.1.1. General Objective

The High School Entrepreneurship Cup® aims to foster entrepreneurial culture among students from 9th to 12th grade by developing the skills involved in the entrepreneurial process—such as business ideation, understanding the relationship between business and employment/income, steps to starting a company, creating slide presentations, and producing audiovisual content to pitch creative business ideas.

1.1.2. Specific Objectives

• Spark interest in entrepreneurship through self-awareness.
• Inspire young people to pursue entrepreneurship through motivational incentives.
• Provide knowledge about the business world, its operations, and particularities.
• Offer tools that present a step-by-step guide to building a business.
• Develop audiovisual, communication, and creativity skills for the competition.
• Generate audiovisual productions made by students to present their ideas.
• Award up to 15 students (3 winning teams of up to 5 members) with full scholarships for the Business Administration & Entrepreneurship degree at URM | Roberto Miranda College or other programs/institutions, depending on availability.
• Award an intensive entrepreneurship course in the United States, with travel, transfers, insurance, transport, and meals fully covered for all winning team members and the assisting teacher.
• Improve living conditions for all citizens, promoting values such as honor, honesty, loyalty, fairness, and ESG principles (Environmental, Social, and Governance).

2. Competition Details

Teams of 2 to 5 students from the 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th grades must produce an original video presenting their business idea and post it on the competition website along with a PDF pitch deck (up to 10 slides preferred) and answer the listed questions.
The video (up to 3 minutes) must explain the problem the business idea solves, its job creation potential, and scalability.

The website will also require teams to complete a form to help structure and present their ideas.

Inspiration and tutorial videos on startups will be provided free of charge to schools, educators, and students.
Step-by-step video lessons on how to build and pitch a startup will be freely available on the competition site.
Educators may use these resources at no cost to run creativity and video production workshops for the competition.

All videos and descriptions posted by the teams will be reviewed by a panel of entrepreneurs with startup experience during the "Selection" phase, which takes place from October 1–31 annually.
Ten teams will advance to the final and present their pitches live online to a panel of successful entrepreneurs.

3. Competition Stages

3.1. Registration

The project is open year-round for the registration of Schools, Educators, Teams, Projects, and Volunteers.
Registrations must be submitted exclusively through the official website: www.entrepreneurshipcup.com.

Volunteers who wish to mentor teams must send a resume to: mentores@copacolegial.com.br

3.1.1. Schools

School registration allows principals, coordinators, advisors, and teachers access to content and support materials that assist in forming teams and developing their potential.

Requirements:
To participate, schools must offer both 9th grade (middle school) and high school.

3.1.2. Educators

Educators can register for access to competition content and support materials.

Requirements:
Educators must teach either 9th grade or high school. Each educator must associate their registration with a specific school. To support multiple schools, they must register separately using different email addresses.

3.1.3. Teams

Eligible teams must submit their business idea via the website. Each team must:

1. Answer the six required form questions in full and accurately.
2. Upload a pitch deck (PDF with ~10 slides).
3. Upload a video pitch (max 3 minutes) explaining the business idea.

Instructions for the form and file uploads are in the registration section and explained in a tutorial video.
Support is available via WhatsApp on the site.

Requirements:
Teams must have 2–5 students currently enrolled in 9th–12th grade at a public or private school.
Team members may be from different grades or schools, aged 13–19. Each team must associate its project with one school. Multiple projects may be submitted with one school linked per project.

Social Media Engagement:
All team members must actively engage with the High School Entrepreneurship Cup® on social media (follow, share, comment, react on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn).
Engagement may be used as a tiebreaker.

Each team must be supervised by a responsible teacher (who may supervise multiple teams).

3.1.4. Volunteers

Individuals interested in giving talks or mentoring at public or private schools can register by sending a resume to mentores@copacolegial.com.br.
Materials will be provided free of charge upon signing a volunteer agreement.

Requirement:
Volunteers must also actively engage with the Cup’s social media channels.

3.2. Selection Phase

Held from October 1–31. All submissions are reviewed by experienced entrepreneurs.

Selection Criteria:

1. Form Completion: Only forms filled out in full will be accepted.
2. Content Quality: Judges will assess information based on competition criteria.

Submissions received after October 30 are automatically considered for the following year’s edition.

3.3. Final

The live final pitch presentation will be held online on November 10.
Ten teams will be selected to present their ideas live to a panel of successful entrepreneurs.
Judging will be based on the established criteria.

3.4. Awards

1st Place:

• Up to 5 full scholarships for the Business Administration degree or other courses (depending on availability).
• One trip per team member to Silicon Valley, California, for a 1 to 2-week entrepreneurship program (Silicon Valley BootCamp®).
• The supporting teacher will accompany the team. Their name must be included in the "TEAM" slide of the pitch deck submitted by September 30.

2nd Place:

• Up to 5 full scholarships for the Business Administration degree.

3rd Place:

• Up to 5 full scholarships for the Business Administration degree.

Scholarships may be provided by partner institutions and disclosed at the time of the awards.

U.S. Visa Requirement

All travelers must hold a U.S. Passport or a valid U.S. visa.

The organizing committee will assist with the visa application, but processing times depend on the U.S. Consulate.

If any participant or teacher cannot secure a visa on time, the entire group will be rescheduled for the next available Silicon Valley BootCamp®.

If a visa is permanently denied (e.g., due to a criminal record or prior deportation), that individual will not be eligible for the trip, and no compensation will be provided. The rest of the team may still participate.

Travel Insurance

The organization will provide travel insurance that:

1. Starts the day before departure and ends one day after return.
2. Covers medical and dental emergencies.
3. Covers transportation of remains if necessary

4. Judging Criteria for Winners

In addition to the initial criteria, the final winners will be selected based on:

1. Innovation: Unique ideas with minimal competition score higher.
2. Scalability: The project’s growth potential and investment efficiency carry significant weight.
3. Job Creation: The potential to create jobs will be used as a final tiebreaker.

5. Disqualification

Teams will be disqualified if they

1. Include members not enrolled in high school.
2. Use illegal methods to gain a competitive advantage.
3. Exhibit behavior incompatible with the competition’s standards.
4. Commit plagiarism.

Other issues not outlined here may also result in disqualification at the discretion of the organizing committee, whose decisions are final.

6. Competition Timeline

• School Registration: Open year-round
• Team/Project Registration: Until October 30 each year
• Finalist Announcement: By November 10 each year
• Grand Final: November 15 each year

7. Final Authority

The organizing committee has absolute authority over any matters not covered in this regulation.

8. General Provisions

8.1. Regulation Updates
This document may be updated until September 30. By registering, participants agree to any changes made by that date.

8.2. Intellectual Property
All ideas remain the property of their respective creators.

8.3. Project Confidentiality
Projects are judged confidentially during the selection phase. After the final, they may be disclosed in media, social networks, and online, and confidentiality is no longer guaranteed.

8.4. Terms of Agreement
By registering, all participants agree to the rules and terms of this regulation and waive any claims.