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The Texas VC Leadership Challenge is an impact driven competition for high school students where teams solve real economic challenges by building and testing solutions that create measurable impactful change in their communities.
What is the Texas VC Leadership Challenge?
● A team based, real world case competition where students work like founders to solve challenges and problems in their communities.
● By gamifying the process through competition, we wanted to make it engaging for young high school students to operate like a think-tank, develop business plans and create solutions.
● A four week virtual competition designed specifically for high school students to collaborate and compete to find the best solution. Students will receive mentorship from top university students, teachers and industry professionals.
● Students don’t analyze hypothetical problems. They solve real complex issues in their communities. Teams don’t just pitch. They lead and deliver outcomes
● Winners & Runners up - will receive recognition and scholarship awards
All participants will receive certificates and mentorship
Eligibility
● Open to high school students enrolled during the 2025 to 2026 academic year
● Two ways to sign up
○ As a team - Students can work together in teams of 2 to 4 members
○ As an individual - If you don’t have a team, you are welcome to participate by registering as an individual.
● Deadline for Registration: May 15th
Key Dates & Deadlines
About Us
Why did we create the Texas VC Leadership Challenge?
The economic challenges facing our communities, workforce gaps, resource inequities, limited access to capital, housing challenges, and limited opportunity, are real and urgent. The students living inside the communities often see the problems most clearly. They just haven'y been given the tools, the platform, or the credibility to act on what they know.
We didn't want to create another poster competition or hypothetical pitch exercise. We wanted to build something that treated students the way we wish the world treated all emerging leaders: as capable, credible, and ready. So we designed a competition that mirrors how founders actually work. Identify a real problem, validate it through research, build a solution, and put it in front of people who can help make it real.
The Texas VC Leadership Challenge isn't just a competition. It is a signal to every student who has ever looked at a broken system and thought, I could fix that, that we're ready to help them prove it.
What Makes Us Unique
● Real Impact, Not Hypotheticals: Solving real economic challenges in your community.
● Founder & Operator Mindset : Teams research, validate, and build solutions like early-stage ventures.
● Industry Evaluation : Solutions evaluated by industry experts on feasibility and impact.
● Student-Led Think Tank - Participants lead research, strategy, and execution to drive economic mobility.
What Students Will Gain
● Leadership & Initiative: Lead a team, make strategic decisions, and drive real outcomes.
● Critical Problem Solving: Identify root causes, validate insights, and engineer practical solutions.
● Strategic Research Skills: Learn research and validation techniques that mirror real-world product and policy development.
● Recognition & Scholarship: Earn official recognition and qualify for the Be the Light Scholarship for impactful solutions.
In partnership with: Access College America, City of Austin Youth Leadership. Participants gain access to the Be the Light Scholarship
Challenge Categories
We've identified focus areas rooted in real challenges facing our communities. These aren't hypothetical, they are problems that residents, students, and city leaders are actively trying to solve.
Choose the one that resonates most with your team. If your team has identified a different issue, bring it on! That's what the Other category is for. Teams submitting under Other must show how they validated their problem definition, who they talked to, what data they found, and why this issue is real and urgent in our community. Validation can look like interviews with community members or local organizations, surveys, publicly available city or county data, news coverage, or direct observation with documented evidence. The bar isn't perfection, but proof that your problem is real, not assumed.
1. Rethinking Housing & Affordability - How can you help people in Austin have an affordable lifestyle and prevent homelessness?
Think: co-living and roommate matching, micro-home communities, shared resources.
2. Zero Waste → Zero Hunger Fixing Food Inefficiency - How can you turn unused food into reliable, everyday access for people who need it?Think: real-time food marketplaces, restaurant partnerships, AI-powered logistics matching.
3. Mind Matters Mental Health That Actually Works - How should you redesign mental health and digital addiction for teens?
Think: simple ways for student support groups and digital detox solutions.
4. Skills, Access the Future of Work From Learning to Earning - How can you help students access the skills, and opportunities they need to go from learning to earning faster?
Think: internship matching, community tech hubs, device sharing, digital skill building.
5. Safe & Accessible Austin - How can you make the city and services safe, simple, and accessible for every resident?
Think: accessibility solutions for people with mobility challenges and disabilities, one-stop city service platforms, teen-friendly transit tools, smart real-time routing, traffic and airport connectivity.
6. Senior & Elder Isolation → Reconnecting Austin's Older Residents - How should you ensure elderly Austin residents stay connected, supported, and able to access what they need every day?
Think: community check-in systems, tech-assisted connection tools, student-led outreach programs, transportation solutions for seniors
7. Language & Immigrant Access → Breaking Down Barriers for New Austinites - How can we help Austin's non-English-speaking residents navigate schools, city services, and healthcare with ease?
Think: peer navigator programs, community-built translation tools, multilingual service guides, cultural onboarding resources.
8. Financial Literacy → From Zero to Financially Capable - How should you help young people and underserved residents build the basic financial skills and access they need to survive and thrive?
Think: first bank account programs, tax filing tools, credit-building pathways, peer-to-peer financial education. What school forgot to teach you.
Other You Spotted Something We Didn't If you've identified a real economic challenge facing Austin that doesn't fit the categories above, submit it here. Tell us the problem, who it affects, and why it matters — and show us how you validated it.
Important note before you start: We are not asking you to solve everything — we want one sharp, novel idea that targets the real root of the problem you picked. Pick one problem. Go deep on it.
Remember: Simple solutions are often the best ones.
Focus on: One specific user, One clear problem, One simple solution
The best case competitions simulate real decision-making under constraints, not perfect answers.
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