Incoming Tepper School First-Year Student Wins Innovate WithIN Pitch Competition

Ethan Hilton, an incoming first-year student at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University, along with his teammates Tolen Schreid, an incoming aerospace engineering student at Purdue University, and Emily Rudolph, an incoming engineering student at Notre Dame, has won the 2024 Innovate WithIN competition, the largest high school pitch contest in the nation, with over 3,000 teams competing in 2024.

The three were friends in Evansville, Indiana, when they came up with their idea. (Pictured left to right, Tolen Schreid, Ethan Hilton, and Emily Rudolph). Their startup, Caseflood.ai, is an innovative AI receptionist designed for lawyers, helping small law firms efficiently qualify potential clients in multiple languages. Hilton, who has experience in the legal tech industry, identified the challenge small law firms face in managing client inquiries due to limited resources.

“Reaching the Innovate WithIN finals put us in front of real decision-makers,” Hilton said. “We spent about two hours manning booths for our company. During that time, we made a deal with a VC firm, got dozens of warm leads for early adopters, and the CEO of another VC firm offered me an internship.”

Innovate WithIN is a year-long program designed to teach Indiana high school students about entrepreneurship and innovation. It culminates in a statewide pitch competition, which is free and open to all Indiana high school students. The program offers scholarships, seed funding, and a comprehensive online toolkit to help students develop and pitch their ideas.

Hilton’s team took home the grand prize, which included $25,000 in cash, $30,000 in 529 funding, and 50 billable hours with a marketing firm and a software engineering firm on retainer. He attributed their success to meticulous preparation.

“Competing in Innovate WithIN for the second year, we practiced for hours every day, perfecting our pitch down to vocal inflections, pauses, and intonation. Even our worst practice runs were great,” he said.

In addition to the competition, Innovate WithIN participants had the opportunity to travel to Washington, D.C., where they met congressional representatives, visited startups, and engaged with executives at major companies like Amazon and Google.

Hilton noted that his admission to Carnegie Mellon University largely impacted his pitching experience. “The name itself carries weight in the tech startups community, making people more receptive to our claims of being fit to solve the problem, especially since we’re AI-based,” he said. “It’s helped me build trust with people who I sell to or do business with.”

As Hilton prepares to begin his academic journey at the Tepper School, his achievements with Caseflood.ai, and victory in the Innovate WithIN competition sets a promising foundation for his future in technology and entrepreneurship.