Techcrunch Disrupt-like Pitch Competition at NFTE’s StartUp Tech Expo

WHO: Witness young tech titans in the making! Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship will host its first ever StartUp Tech Expo with high school students from Tech Access Foundation, a STEM focused public school for students of color for grades 6-12.

WHAT/VISUAL: Experience first-hand the energy and innovation of the Techcrunch Disrupt-like Pitch Competition. Four teams will be given a few minutes to pitch their app idea to an audience filled with local business owners, executives, entrepreneurs, students and educators.

App ideas will include a sign language learning app, a real-time local natural disasters help and alert app, a STEM gaming tool and even an app that allows users to change battery draining settings on their phone, plus a prototype of a solar powered phone. Teams will be awarded a cash prize - winners will announced at the Expo.

WHEN: Thursday, February 5th
Crew Arrival: 11am       Wrap: Noon
WHERE: Google Seattle Campus –
601 North 34th Street Seattle, WA 98103

WHY: The Pitch Competition and the Expo are the culmination of the StartUp Tech program – a pilot tech entrepreneurship program developing high school students entrepreneurship and coding skills which is running in four cities nationwide.

The event will also include a Q+A session with Googlers about what it’s like to work at the Internet product and services behemoth. 

EXAMPLE: The award winning team of 7th graders, JSark Industries (the J is silent) had been working on their solar powered phone case prototype in their Engineering class with Mr. Diaz, founder of SODO Makerspace.

When the team entered the StartUp Tech Incubator this semester they learned how to add a software component to their hardware plans.

In addition to submitting their idea to the Verizon App Challenge in November, they also presented their concept at the TAF Academy STEM Pitch Event at Impact Hub Seattle.

Catch teammate, Ravi who’s starting a crowdfunding campaign at the Expo, with the hopes of travelling to the 11th International Fab Lab Conference & Symposium in Boston this summer.