2025 Patriot Pitch Competition

Note: This page features highlights and information from the 2025 Patriot Pitch Competition. Content is provided for informational, planning, and inspiration purposes only. For the most up-to-date details and to register for the 2026 competition, please refer to the official registration page.

Presented by: 

The Patriot Pitch Competition supports ideas and early-stage business ventures and is open to current George Mason students and recent alumni from all majors/fields of study.

Students and Recent Alumni
If you have an idea and a desire to launch a new business, enter to compete for a chance to win a share of this year’s $50,000 Patriot Pitch Competition prize money. 

The Patriot Pitch Competition is led by the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Costello College of Business. Semi-finalist teams will participate in mentoring sessions and entrepreneurship training sessions between March 3 and April 9. Semi-finalists will present their pitches virtually on April 3 between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Finalists will be chosen after the semi-final presentations and will make their pitches in front of a live audience on Thursday, April 10 at the Johnson Center Bistro on the Fairfax Campus. 

Faculty, Staff, and Members of the Business Community
If you want to mentor a team, coach a team as they perfect their pitch leading up to the semi-final and final rounds, or judge pitches during the semi-final and final competitions, we would love your support. Email ciemason@gmu.edu to learn more.

We’d also love for you to attend! 
Come support the finalists, hear innovative business ideas, and be part of the excitement as we award $50,000 in prize money to the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Competition Tracks

Applications will be reviewed by a panel of entrepreneurship experts, who will select up to 4 semi-finalist teams for each track.

Keynote Speaker

Sid Banerjee, Technology Founder and Executive 

Over a nearly 30 year career Sid Banerjee has amassed deep skills building companies and solutions based on customer experience (CX), business intelligence (BI), and AI-powered technologies.  

He serves as Chief Strategy Officer of Medallia, a customer experience (CX) software company that uses AI and machine learning to help businesses improve customer satisfaction. He also serves as Chairman at Prolific, a high growth technology company providing a platform for high-quality, human-derived AI and research models. 

Sid Banerjee was Founder, and served as CEO, Chairman, and Chief Strategy Officer at Clarabridge, acquired by Qualtrics in September 2021 for $1.125 billion, and he served as Chief XM Strategy Officer at Qualtrics until January 2024. 

He was a founding employee of Business Intelligence vendor MicroStrategy, and founder/CEO of BI services company Claraview (acquired by Teradata in 2008). He also held executive and management positions at Ernst & Young and Sprint. He holds a BS/MS in Electrical Engineering from MIT. He presently lives in Washington DC with his wife, and has two college age children.

Thank you to our 2025 Sponsors!

Track Sponsors

Pre-Pitch Sponsor