FulPitch Challenge Bay Area 2021 Finalist Winners Announced: High School Students “Doing Well by Doing Good”
TUESDAY, MAY 4, 2021, BAY AREA, CALIFORNIA — Today, our top semifinalists across the East Bay Area competed at the 2021 FulPitch Challenge, which asks youth to come up with innovative and impactful solutions to solve near-and-dear challenges present in their local communities and the world.
And the finalists are…
Six top teams emerged to compete in the final round, and among them, Happy Curls won the Eden Area Innovation Award, The Community of Peace & Love won the Que Phillips Social Impact Award, and Unconnected Apparel won Fulphil’s StitchPitch Award.
Happy Curls
Happy Curls is founded by Lexxi Romero-Williams, a student from Hayward High School. Her startup centers around creating healthy hair products to build confidence in young women to be comfortable in their own bodies.
Tiara Jenkins, a final round judge commented, “Happy Curls is an inspiring brand being bred by an even more inspiring young woman. Super innovative with a promising future!”
Romero-Williams won the Eden Area Innovation Award which awards students based on the strength of their business model, product innovation, and efforts accomplished to validate startup ideas and create traction.
“The whole competition was so much fun and helped me learn and feel more confident in my entrepreneurial skills and I feel so grateful to have been able to
participate!” exclaims Romero-Williams.
“[Lexxi] is amazing. She came into my program in early February and quickly adapted to the entrepreneurial mindset,” added Rick Charles, a recognized multi-national-award-winning entrepreneurship teacher from Hayward High School.
Community of Peace & Love
Meanwhile, Ruchita Verma, a student from Mount Eden High School and the founder of The Community of Peace & Love, won the Que Phillips Social Impact Award. The Community of Peace and Love is a platform made to combat stigma around mental health for adolescents, which Verma created after the experience of losing a close friend.
“Ruchita Verma is an exemplary young entrepreneur who has modeled the attributes of leadership, passion, creativity, and commitment,” says Vanita Lee-Tatum, Mount Eden Entrepreneurship Teacher. This school year Ruchita has done an amazing job of achieving high levels of success in her academics while developing and leading a mental wellness community for youth.”
The Que Phillips Social Impact Award was created to inspire students to create a meaningful social impact on their communities at scale.
“Playing a role in Fulphil’s FulPitch competition, and more importantly, the Social Impact Award, brought me back home to my origins,” says Quency Phillips, whom the award was made in honor of. “Dreaming of not only making a difference but being the difference was what I witnessed in all of the entrepreneurs. Big congratulations to Ruchita Verma for showing that common sense and community always have a place in the business world!”
Unconnected Apparel
Topping off the afternoon, Jorge Trujillo, founder of Unconnected Apparel, took home the StitchPitch Award, which was a TikTok elevator pitch competition, challenging students to pitch their startups creatively in 60 seconds or less.
“Our experience with the FulPhil Business Plan competition was amazing!,” says Laura Jagroop, San Leandro High School Entrepreneurship Teacher. “The focus on “giving back” as part of the Biz Plans was highlighted by FulPhil’s inspiration to our students to “do well by doing good.”
Other top finalists from the competition included the following:
- Skraps (founded by Izba Haq, Michelle Lew, Rosa Dhamar from San Leandro High School): a company that sells high-quality eco-friendly products to reduce their carbon/methane footprint through upcycled and budget-friendly household items, clothing, and furniture
- Power Plant (founded by Trang Back, Mikhayla Zhey Ramos from San Leandro High School): Special bioengineered plants that act as an affordable source of light
- Princess Protection (founded by Alexia Carranza, Christine J Belenson, Jacqueline F Barocio from San Leandro High School): A fashionable wristlet with self-defense devices to give women the power and ability to protect themselves when going out
- CuVion (founded by Rshel Osuna from Hayward High School): Customizable PCs that look and run the way you want them to
And most importantly, thanks to our wonderful judges!
Fulphil was fortunate enough to have a panel of judges for the competition. Thank you so much to all of our semifinal judges and finalist judges. In our commitment to be representative and true to our values, each one of our panels included the following composition: 1 former Fulphil student, 1 individual with a background in education, 1 venture capitalist or accelerator representative, and 1 entrepreneur. We had the fortunate opportunity to host the following individuals for our semi-final round: Ashley Allston, Andres Carillo, Brett Topche, Bria Deveaux, Elijah Miller, Laura Remaker, Michael Aronson, Michael Wong, Osase Edogun, Riley Gonta, and Tiara Jenkins.
For our final round, we were joined by the following judges:
- Tiara Jenkins: Fulphil 2019 alumna
- Kathrina Miranda: Board Member of Fulphil, Founder & CEO of MiMA LLC, and former entrepreneurship instructor for Eden Area ROP
- Lucas Bagdadi: Co-founder of Go Taza and the winner of this year’s $1,000,000 Hult Prize
- Muhan Zhang: Founder and Editor of Startup Investing for All and also former COO of Yang 2020, Andrew Yang’s Presidential campaign
“The breadth and depth of the young entrepreneurs’ ventures was awe-inspiring,” says Zhang. “It’s incredible to see the platform that Fulphil is building for the next generation of business leaders. Look out for this next generation of founders as they unleash their vision upon the world.”
As this year’s competition comes to an end, teachers remain optimistic and excited to know that next year’s FulPitch Challenge will be held in-person. Despite the challenges of COVID-19, teachers are nonetheless proud of the hard work of their students.
“After a year of shutdown and distance learning this event provided a much-needed spark and it helped the students realize that their dreams and their destiny do not need to be put on hold,” says Charles from Hayward High School. “As we face the challenges of COVID19, we can grow from this experience and utilize our creative thinking to recognize that the opportunity is bigger than the problem.”
