Tiger Cage — A Shark Tank-Style Pitch Competition

What is Tiger Cage

Pitch. Get grilled. Get funded.

Student teams develop an original business or product idea and pitch it live to a panel of judges — alumni investors, school leadership, and working professionals. The judges ask hard questions. One team walks away with prize money to put straight into their venture.

01

Teams pitch live, on stage

A full presentation — problem, solution, market research, and a real ask — in front of a live audience.

02

A real panel, real feedback

Judges bring alumni perspective, financial expertise, and school leadership — not just applause.

03

Real money changes hands

The winning team leaves with funding to put toward their idea, and is expected to report back on how it's used.

The Inaugural Event

Tiger Cage debuted at Suffield Academy — April 17, 2026

Hosted in the Jeanice Seaverns Performing Arts Center, the first-ever Tiger Cage was organized by the Venture Capital Club, co-created by Alejandro Lopez Doriga, alongside the Girls' Investment Club. Four student teams pitched to a live audience and a panel of five judges.

Hosts introducing the Tiger Cage judging panel on stage at Suffield Academy

A student presenter pitching on stage at Tiger Cage

A packed audience watching Tiger Cage at the Jeanice Seaverns Performing Arts Center

Student presenters on stage at the Tiger Cage finale

The Rack team presenting their pitch at Tiger Cage

Venue

Jeanice Seaverns Performing Arts Center

Suffield Academy, Suffield, CT

Hosts

Constantine Georgiopoulos & Alejandro Lopez Doriga

Venture Capital Club leaders

$1,000 Prize

Awarded to CleatsforKids

Judged live by a five-person panel

Meet the Judges

Five judges. Real questions. No easy answers.

Greg Lynch

Dean of Students, Suffield Academy

Rhys Wilson '26

Head of the Investment Club

in LinkedIn

Bernardo Lujan

Suffield alumnus, Babson business major

in LinkedIn

Guru Anand

Suffield alumnus, Babson business major & former school president

in LinkedIn

Mike Choiniere

CFO, Reframe Solutions

in LinkedIn

"The biggest takeaway from the competition was the conviction with which each student looked their judges in the eye and declared they had created their business and the reasons behind it." — Guru Anand, guest judge, on LinkedIn

Meet the Teams

Four pitches. One winner. All of them left with real feedback.

Winner — $1,000

CleatsforKids

Sefa Petrini & Mana Petrini

A nonprofit that connects donated athletic equipment with communities that don't have access to it. CleatsforKids was already two years into the work before Tiger Cage — over $5,000 in equipment donated, a two-year youth summer program, and Delivery Hubs at prep schools including Cardigan Mountain School and Suffield Academy.

The $1,000 prize goes toward getting their donation website live and covering the real cost of shipping equipment internationally — customs, freight, and last-mile delivery to the communities that need it.

Runner-up pitch

StRipes

Andy Kim & Sean Kwon

"Tiger's stripes, food that's ripe." A school lunch pre-order app to cut wait times and food waste — menus, announcements, and a rating system, validated with a 90+ student survey where 96% said they'd use it.

Runner-up pitch

Rack

Alex Post & Damian Bond

A personalized, AI-powered shopping hub that learns a user's style through swipe-based feedback — solving what the team pitched as "the void of online shopping": no centralized platform, no personalization.

Runner-up pitch

Diversity

Anthony Boniface

A clothing brand founded by four friends from different ethnic backgrounds, built around a single idea: using fashion to promote peace and cultural unity.

What's next

Tiger Cage is just getting started.

The Suffield Academy debut proved the format works: real pitches, real judges, real stakes, in one night. Next, Tiger Cage is expanding beyond one school — from campus-level competitions to regional showcases, and eventually a nationwide stage for student entrepreneurs.

Bring Tiger Cage to your school →

Host an Event

Bring Tiger Cage to your school.

Whether it's a club looking to run a first pitch night or a school wanting a full Tiger Cage-branded event, we'll help you set up the format, the judging panel, and the pitch structure that worked at Suffield Academy.

01

Tell us about your school

Club, grade levels, and rough timeline.

02

We help you build the format

Judges, prize structure, pitch rules — based on what worked the first time.

03

Your school hosts its own Tiger Cage

With Venturutopia backing the brand and the playbook.