Lam Family College of Business & Computer Science Pitch Contest
The Lam Family College of Business (LFCoB) is proud to collaborate with the San Francisco State University chapter of the Association for Computer Machinery (ACM) and SparkSF to host the Engineering & Technology Pitch Competition (formerly called the Computer Science Pitch Competition).
Past Pitch Competition Winners
- First Place: HouseSync - Swastik N. Amatya (Computer Science); Chun Heng Poon (Computer Science)
- Second Place: Laby - Odera Nwosu (Computer Science)
- Third Place: Cardinal - Rehmat Gill (Computer Science)
- First Place: AlignAI - Westly Cho and Natalie Yam
- Second Place: FreshLens - Junghyun Song, Jinwon Choi, and Ronald Tieu
- Third Place: AccoAI - Alex Loughry
- First Place - Andy Poon, Nagamatsu Mai, Eric Su, Iwano Yoshimasa
- Second Place - Jijeong Lee, Marie Shimizu
- Third Place - Sravani Viswanadha, Jean-Michael Arraki, Chantal Gerwe
- Fan Favorite - Raul Cardenas, Tu Le, Zubair Shaik, Ram Francis
The top three pitches win cash prizes!
This is a great opportunity for engineering and techology major students to hear feedback about their innovative ideas from industry experts and faculty. Students can also apply for the University-wide Innovation Pitch Competition with the same idea if they wish. We welcome any stage of entrepreneurial ideas from the ideation phase to those that are ready for angels and seed investments.
- First place: $500
- Second place: $300
- Third place: $200
Important Dates and Deadlines:
- Applications Close: March 20, 2026
- Acceptance Notification: April 6, 2026
- Pitch Day: Friday, April 10, 2026
Event Location
The pitch competition will be held in person on the SFSU main campus. The specific location will be announced closer to pitch day.
To Enter the Pitch Contest
- Submit your application and pitch deck [Applications Announced TBD Spring 2026].
- Applications will be reviewed, and finalists will be notified through email.
- Selected applicants are invited to present live in front of the judges panel.
- Winners will be announced after judges deliberation on competition day.
Read the full terms and conditions for your application.
Entry Requirements
- At least one of the cofounders and the presenter must be a student currently enrolled, at least part-time, as major, minor or graduate student within the College of Science and Engineering at San Francisco State.
- Prototypes are preferred but not required.
- Teams are limited to between 2 and 6 students.
- Individual submissions are allowed.
Judging
The preliminary round of judging focuses on finding a compelling and convincing innovation or entrepreneurial story, based on a five (5) minute live pitch, followed by a question/answer session with the judges.
The most successful entries typically demonstrate:
- A clear value proposition for a clearly defined target market. Who is the prototypical consumer of your innovation, and why would they pay for your solution? What problem of theirs does your innovation solve? What need(s) does your innovation fulfill?
- A clear explanation of how you are able to solve the consumer’s problem. How or why does your solution work? What enables your solution to fulfill customer needs better than anything/anyone else out there?
- Traction in the marketplace. Is there a demonstrated product-market fit? Do you have evidence that your idea or prototype is desirable to, adopted by, or sought after by a market?
- A well-articulated revenue model. How does this innovation generate revenue? What recurring revenue streams are created? Who’s paying, and how are they paying for your offering?
- A founding team that is set up for success. Does the founding team have the right expertise to execute the innovation? Is this something that the founders will continue to pursue after graduation?