Big Idea Challenge
Live Pitches: Wednesday, November 19, 2025
Event Starts: 5:30 pm
Location: Jabs Hall
The Launchpad’s Big Idea Challenge encourages all Montana State University students with early-stage ideas to pitch for a portion of $10,000 in awards! All ideas are welcome, including but not limited to new products, services, non-profit ventures, and social impact focus.
Participating students will gain access to other Launchpad programs on our campus and additional support as they develop their entrepreneurial skills.The competition is hosted on our StartupTree platform. Click below to start...
Application Deadine is Sunday, October 26.
Event Details
👤ELIGIBILITY
The applicant must...
- be a current MSU student (undergraduate or graduate-level)
- be a founder/co-founder (i.e., the person with the original idea)
- be in the early stages - have an idea or have just started building on an idea
- create a profile on Startup Tree and apply as an individual or with a team
Participants will need to select 1 of the following 4 tracks.
- Social Impact
- Health & Life Science
- Products & Services
- Agriculture or Food Innovation
📆IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER
- Deadline for MSU Campus Round: Sunday, October 26th, 2025 at 11:59 PM Mountain Time
- Application Review: Monday, October 27th - Friday, October 31th
- Applications will be evaluated and scored and finalists will be selected and notified
Do you have questions or would like to schedule a meeting to discuss your ideas?
Schedule a meeting: https://www.montana.edu/launchpad/schedule.html
Contact the MSU LaunchPad: info@msulaunchpad.org or 406-994-4383 or drop by the Launchpad in the Strand Union Building (SUB) room 251
Your 2024 Winners:
Agriculture and Food Innovation Category:
- First Place: AFRO Montana Fusion — Bello Yunusa, a graduate student from Jalingo, Taraba State, Nigeria, studying sustainable food systems.
- First Place: Artimis — Crunchy Seeds — Marina Adelmann, from Bozeman, studying integrated lens-based media.
Health and Life Science:
- First Place: H2Oasis — Sage Dodier, from Amesbury, Massachusetts, Brady Ash, from Ellison Bay, Wisconsin, and Jack Hathaway, from Golden, Colorado, all studying in the Master of Science in Innovation and Management program.
- Second Place: Maxillofacial Rehab — Casey Odegaard, from Bismark, North Dakota, Cody Berry, from Whitefish, and Jakob Ritzdorf, from Kalispell, all studying biomedical engineering.
- Honorable Mention: PeakMotion — Spencer Kayser, from Belgrade, and Benjamin Matheson, from River Falls, Wisconsin, Kyra Herronen, from Thorton, Colorado, and Tyler McMillan, from Boise, Idaho, all studying biomedical engineering.
Products and Services:
- First Place: Huevo Paints — Moira and Aurora Espinoza Chaney from Camas, Washington. Moira is a graduate student in the architecture program and Aurora is studying management and marketing.
- Second Place: TerminusDetail — Jill Reddick, from Snohomish, Washington, and Layne Algaard, from Laurel, both graduate students studying architecture.
- Honorable Mention: MORREST — Eli Morris, from Denver, Colorado, studying mechanical engineering.
- Honorable Mention: TableWorks Gaming — Tully Warren, from Spokane, Washington, studying finance, and Jonny Hughes, also from Spokane, studying computer engineering.
Social, Cultural or Climate Impact:
- First Place: Includify — Kyla Andersen, from Belgrade, studying computer science; Molly Claussen, from Ham Lake, Minnesota, studying accounting and finance; and Eoghan Perkins, from West Linn, Oregon, also studying computer science.
- Second Place: International Education Networking Initiative — Enkhchimeg Sharav, from Mongolia, a Ph.D. student in curriculum and instruction in the Department of Education.
- Honorable Mention: EcoFill — Share Your Work. — Jonathan Onken, from Tijeras, New Mexico, double majoring in fish and wildlife ecology and management and film.
Your 2024 Judges:
Marc Hamilton, vice president of solutions architecture and engineering at NVIDIA
Denay Solis, director of AI and strategic accounts at Oracle
Michael Mawn, a 2022 MSU graduate and founder and CEO of Posted and StandBy
Brooke Lahneman, assistant professor of management at MSU.
Past Events:
