Siddhant Jain
A local high school student has won this year’s Maverick Challenge Regional Finals.
Siddhant Jain, a Columbus North High School junior, took first place with his business, Sid’s Studios, and was awarded $1,500. Benjamin Stoops, a sophomore at Lawrenceburg High School, came in second and won $750 with BS Baseball Gloves. The Judges’ Choice Award, along with $500, went to Brownstown Central High School junior Luke Imlay for Lucky’s Farrier Equipment.
Seven students from five counties in southeastern Indiana competed at the regional finals, which were held over Zoom on Feb. 18, according to the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce.
The Maverick Challenge is coordinated and sponsored by the chamber. The competition is designed to give high school students firsthand experience with entrepreneurship through mentorship, business pitches and digital curriculum on foundational business concepts. More than 330 students from Bartholomew, Dearborn, Franklin/Ripley, Jackson and Scott counties participated in this year’s program.
“The wide array of innovative ideas and well executed business plans pitched by the teams on Saturday made it a tight competition,” said chamber officials. “For the first time in recent years, all three award winners have already launched their businesses and are providing valuable services to their respective communities as high school students.”
Sid’s Studios LLC is a social media marketing agency that creates, manages and promotes media content for businesses and individuals in a monthly subscription format.
The runner-up, BS Baseball Gloves, is a business focused on breaking in baseball and softball gloves while still preserving their integrity and life.
Lucky’s Farrier Equipment is a fabrication shop that provides custom racks for farriers to organize their tools and equipment in their truck beds. The business is rebranding to become Lucky’s Custom Fab to reflect new offerings such as side bed shoeing boxes, heeling dummies, hoof stands, truck beds and other custom metal fabrication.
Other regional finalists included:
- Recwares — A pitch by Scottsburg High School seniors Hunter Campbell and Katelin Conder for a business that uses recycled materials to create hand-crafted jewelry.
- Rest Assure — A pitch by Oldenburg Academy seniors Luke Meyer and Matthew Miller for a business that provides bathroom stall locks with electrical indicator lights to show if stalls are being used.
The 2022-23 Maverick Challenge Regional Finals judges were Steven Mohler, assistant professor of management with IUPUC’s Division of Business; Velocities Startup Ecosystem Manager Dan Nash; Jon Padfield, assistant professor of management with IUPUC’s Division of Business; and Old National Bank Market President Jeanine Scheidler.
Regional partners for the Maverick Challenge include the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce, AIM Young Professionals, the Brownstown Chamber of Commerce, IUPUC’s Division of Business, the Jackson County Industrial Development Corp., the Seymour Chamber of Commerce, the Southeastern Indiana Small Business Development Center and Velocities.
Since its inception in 2008, the Maverick Challenge has awarded more than $100,000, and thousands of students have participated.
