Fast Pitch Competition
CSUN students:
Have a new business idea?
Want to learn more about entrepreneurship?
Plug into the entrepreneurial community at CSUN, where you can connect with mentors and investors, find new team members, and compete for $4,000 in cash prizes!
What is Fast Pitch?
Held virtually in the Fall semester, CSUN Fast Pitch is an "elevator pitch" competition where 5 teams of CSUN students, selected as finalists from a competitive field, have three minutes & three slides to pitch their new venture idea to a panel of judges and audience. Each of the student presentations is followed by a 3-5 minute Q&A period from our distinguished panel of judges.
CSUN Fast Pitch is meant to be prelude, or training ground, for teams to prepare for the CSUN Bull Ring New Venture Competition in the Spring semester and is a great way to "pressure-test" your idea in a realistic, yet low-risk, environment.
Applications are due Sunday, October 25th, 2026 at midnight.
See below for more details!
Fast Pitch winners will receive:
Grand Prize: $2,000
2nd Place: $1,000
3rd Place: $500
Audience Choice: $500
Applications are due Sunday, October 25th, 2026. Required application materials:
1) A 10-15 page slide deck (PDF preferred) or 2-3 page executive summary, AND
2) A video not to exceed 1 minute (submitted via YouTube or equivalent).
Sunday, October 25th, 2026
Fast Pitch Application Deadline
Submit Application
Thursday, November 19th, 2026
Fast Pitch Final Event (Zoom)
1) The competition is open to ALL current CSUN students.
2) The competition is intended for student-created, -managed, and -owned ventures.
3) Solo entrants are eligible.
4) At least 50% of team members must be current CSUN students as of the 2026-2027 academic year (Spring 2026 graduates eligible). The "pitch" must be delivered by a CSUN student.
5) Businesses currently earning >$15K in annual revenue are not eligible.
6) Business that have already raised >$50K in funding from outside sources are not eligible.
7) Both for-profit and non-profit business concepts are eligible; however, sources of revenue must be addressed.
8) An individual may only be a member of one team.
9) 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners from past Fast Pitch/Bull Ring Competitions are not eligible.
The 11th annual CSUN Fast Pitch New Venture Competition concluded on November 13th, 2025.
Student prize winners:
Grand Prize ($2,000)
Listabid
Kamyar Sepanlou
Listabid is the first platform that empowers home sellers to save tens of thousands of dollars and find the best realtor for their home — by having agents compete.
2nd Place ($1,000) + Audience Choice ($500)
Olga's Salsa
Jatziri Lopez & Olga Ahumada
Olga's Salsa is developing handcrafted salsas to help people bring authentic Mexican flavor to their meals with fresh ingredients and family recipes passed down from our taco stand.
3rd Place ($500)
Les Chouchous
Aaliyah Troupe
Les Chouchous is a beauty brand developing a refillable LED-lit lip compact that helps women keep their lip products organized and accessible, bringing elegance, inclusivity, and sustainability to everyday beauty.
Honorable Mention
NERI
Carlos Marin
NERI’s innovative approach enables landfills to evolve into bio-based processing hubs, where organic waste is transformed through biological agents into regenerative materials supporting both economic and ecological goals.
Honorable Mention
Cerebral Atlas
Luis Olmos
Cerebral Atlas provides adaptive AI infrastructure for enterprises, delivering self-learning systems that cut retraining costs and keep intelligence current through a scalable platform that helps businesses evolve their AI as fast as their data.
Special guest from Granada Hills Charter High School:
ConnectAI
Alyssa Chen
ConnectAI is an AI-powered social enhancement platform that helps individuals become stronger communicators in professional settings and social interactions.
If you have additional questions, please contact Ryan Holbrook, Entrepreneurship Program Director at the Nazarian College.