Celebrating its 10th year and 20 competitions to date, student entrepreneurs showcased their best ideas at the Spring 2026 Rainforest Pitch Competition. Innovation Academy, in partnership with UNM Rainforest Innovations, hosted the event, giving students the opportunity to compete for funding to help turn their entrepreneurial ideas into reality.
Held at Bow & Arrow Brewery, 10 finalists presented their 90-second pitches in front of a panel of judges, business leaders, entrepreneurs, and the community.
The judges for the competition included:
- Beverly Bendickson – President, Sandia Financial Consulting, LLC
- Joe Maez – Founder & Qualifying Broker, The Maez Group
- Mike Bickel – Senior Vice President, Relationship Manager IV Commercial Banking Team, Bank of Albuquerque powered by BOK Financial
- Sonya Priestly – Co-Owner, Gardenswartz Realty
- Stephen Griego – CEO & President, Distribution Management Corp. (dba DMC Logistics LLC)
A special thank you to event sponsors Bank of Albuquerque, Bernalillo County, Judy Love, and Suzann Owings for making the competition possible, and to Bow & Arrow Brewing Co. for hosting.
The Audience Choice Award, determined by real-time voting, went to Sherwin Thiyagarajan, Kelly Welch & Akansha Nanda for Phyllo-Gel.
Judges’ Choice winners included:
- Sandra Gabriella Casaus – Los G’s
- Ricardo Garcia and Loryn Montoya – QueueSkin
Finalists also included:
- Nina Bao – Select Speak
- Malia Dumlao – SideChat
- Hirofumi Mitsui – TrimSpend
- Aidan Kuni – WisdomBrew
- Aayusha Timalsina – AfterCare
- Preston Minor – Right Wing, Left Wing
- Andres Sanchez, Sina Fakhraei, and Sneha Gupta – Terra BIM OS
Congratulations to all of the finalists for an inspiring evening and we look forward to seeing what comes next!
See the UNM Anderson School of Management’s LinkedIn post here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/unmanderson_innovation-was-on-full-display-at-the-spring-activity-7451009155420745729-H2LS?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAC5ViZYBm0mNWVq18sNyxb_MryjEezenuVo
Learn more about the Rainforest Student Pitch Competition at https://innovations.unm.edu/epc/ and stay tuned for more opportunities by signing up to the UNM Rainforest Innovations newsletter: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/2guVu32
