Big Idea Challenge
Live Pitches: Wednesday, November 18, 2026
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.
Application Deadine is Sunday, October 25, 2026 at 11:59 pm.
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 25th, 2026 at 11:59 PM Mountain Time
- Application Review: Monday, October 26th - Friday, October 30th
- 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 2025 Winners:
Agriculture and Food Innovation Category:
- First Place: Wheat Roots — Megan Engel, Plant Sciences & Plant Pathology, College of Agriculture
- Second Place: Ubuntu — Luke Ciesla, sustainable food and bioenergy systems program in the College of Education, Health and Human Development
- Honorable Mention: Joe’s Gelato — Joseph Re, Master of Science in Innovation and Management, Jake Jabs College of Business and Entrepreneurship
Health and Life Science:
- First Place: Kynex Biosensor — Matthew Herzog, Hadley House, Kenzie Radway, and Lucy Tourville, biomedical engineering program in the Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering
- Second Place: Exhalo — Tate Baker and Lucas Gaston, biomedical engineering
- Honorable Mention: PeakMotion — CerebroFlow — Claurisa Davidson, Megan Lamping, Liv Reich and Maya Schmitz, biomedical engineering
- Honorable Mention: uForce Labs — Kishwat Ijaz Malik and Samuel Roberts, mechanical engineering
Products and Services:
- First Place: DetailPro — Brady Schlapkohl, financial engineering
- Second Place: Borash Design Co — Paul Borash, mechanical engineering
- Honorable Mention: Agent List — Ali Brown, Master of Science in Innovation and Management
- Honorable Mention: Perch — Harrison Romney and Rowan Wren, Master of Science in Innovation and Management
- Honorable Mention: SceneSync.live — Sergei O’Sullivan, Plant Sciences & Plant Pathology, College of Agriculture
Social, Cultural or Climate Impact:
- First Place: Wolly-z — Riansares Pedroche, engineering exchange student
- Second Place: Trilla Archive — Ashlyn Lieberman and Piper Reivich, marketing
- Honorable Mention: Warriors Azimuth — Henry Bradford, Individual Interdisciplinary, Trevon Kentzel, Mechanical Engineering Technology, and Joshua Spillers, Psychology program in the College of Letters and Science
Your 2025 Judges:
Eric Fulton, venture partner at Two Bear Capital and former head of Global Telecom for Citadel
Securities
Lisette Herbanek, managing director of Ocean Azul
Jim Cole, managing director for PricewaterhouseCoopers' Managed Services practice
Aaron Schilke, an executive sales leader with over 20 years of experience with companies including
Rippling and Zendesk.
Past Events:
