Diamond Challenge 2027

The Diamond Challenge is a business and social venture competition for secondary-school students, run by Horn Entrepreneurship at the University of Delaware.

You enter as a team of two to four students aged 14 to 18 at the deadline, with one adult over 21 as your advisor - a teacher or a family member qualifies. You choose either the business innovation or the social innovation track, develop a venture concept, and submit a written concept and a pitch video.

The organisers publish a full curriculum of free video modules covering entrepreneurial mindset, customer discovery, the business model canvas and pitching, so you are not expected to arrive already knowing this.

The submission window is open now and closes on 14 January 2027 at 5pm US Eastern Time, which is 11pm in Cameroon. Teams that advance are notified on 10 February, finalists on 9 March, and the Limitless World Summit runs 29-30 April 2027.

The total prize pool is around USD 100,000, with first place worth USD 12,000 in each track. Everything up to the final round is done remotely and the competition explicitly accepts teams from any country.

One caution: no entry fee is stated anywhere on the official page, but neither is a positive statement that entry is free. Confirm before you build your plans around it.