Douglas County students win state honors, cash in entrepreneurship challenge

Daniel Dao and Ian Bryan turned ideas into prize money in Lawrence, with Dao taking first place and a $1,250 award for BrainQuest and Bryan earning second place and $1,000 for IB Western Supply at the Douglas County Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge. The competition was held Feb. 20 at the Dwayne Peaslee Technical Training Center, where students pitched ventures built to look and sound like real businesses, not classroom exercises.

Dao’s BrainQuest is an app built around carefully curated exercises grounded in educational research to strengthen critical thinking and problem-solving skills for users of all ages and backgrounds. Bryan, a senior at Baldwin High School, presented IB Western Supply, which sells handcrafted leather goods including wallets, clips, belts and everyday tools. Both projects fit the event’s business-first approach, giving young founders a public stage for products they could carry into the market.

Thirteen students representing nine businesses competed in the county event, and the prize pool totaled $3,500. Other winners included Trudy Kirkland of Lawrence High School, Abhirup Maity of Billy Mills Middle School and an Innovate Globally Prize team from Billy Mills Middle School. A new $250 Innovate Globally Prize, sponsored by KU Innovation Park, was added this year, underscoring how local partners are using the contest to push student ideas toward broader economic and entrepreneurial potential.

Douglas County said students in the challenge work through a written business plan, an elevator pitch, a presentation and a trade show display, a format meant to simulate the demands of launching and selling a product. The county first brought the competition to the community in the 2017-2018 school year, and it has since become part of a larger pipeline that connects schools, mentors and business organizations across Douglas County.

Dao’s win carried extra significance because he also took first place in the same county competition during the 2024-2025 school year and later won Kansas’s 2025 Congressional App Challenge for BrainQuest. That track record suggests a venture with staying power, not just a one-day pitch.

The Douglas County contest feeds into the statewide Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge Series, now in its 13th season. In 2025-2026, more than 1,200 Kansas middle and high school students took part in 70 local competitions, with first-place local winners and 25 wildcard winners advancing to the state championship in Manhattan on April 28 and 29. Network Kansas, working with Kansas State University’s Center for the Advancement of Entrepreneurship and K-State Extension 4-H, says the series is designed to build an entrepreneurial ecosystem by letting students learn from local entrepreneurs, teachers and community leaders.