Oregon Coast Community College Hosts Youth Entrepreneurial Pitches

Oregon Coast Community College’s Small Business Development Center wrapped up its annual youth pitch competition Wednesday night, giving Lincoln County high school students a public stage to present their business ideas and compete for startup funding. The event took place at the Gladys Valley building at OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport. Students from multiple local high schools delivered short business pitches to a panel of judges and an audience of parents, educators, and business owners after several months of weekly coaching with Oregon Coast Community College (OCCC) Small Business Development Center (SBDC) staff.

The pitch night served as the capstone for OCCC’s Youth Entrepreneurship Program, which Dave Price with SBDC described earlier this week to the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners as “one of the coolest things we’ve ever done.” Students developed their ideas over the school year, working through basic business planning, market research, and how to communicate their concepts clearly in a short pitch format.

According to Price, a total of $7,500 in awards was made available to help students move their ideas from concept toward real businesses. Past participants have already opened local ventures, including Oregon Coast Taxidermy, launched by a Waldport High School student who later returned to serve as a judge for the competition. The program relied on a mix of local and statewide partners.

Funding and support came from the Oregon Community Foundation, the Economic Development Alliance of Lincoln County, the Lincoln County School District and its foundation, the City of Lincoln City, and Oregon Coast Community College. The Oregon Community Foundation recently awarded nearly $10,000 to support the youth entrepreneurship effort and sent a video crew to document this year’s pitches for its annual report.

During a presentation at the commissioners' meeting, Price framed the youth pitch competition as part of a broader “economic gardening” strategy: growing new businesses from within Lincoln County rather than relying solely on outside employers. He said the college’s SBDC now serves hundreds of clients a year, offering free advising and low-barrier training to both new and existing businesses across the county.

Organizers said the goal of the youth competition was not only to launch new ventures, but also to give students real-world experience in problem-solving, public speaking, and understanding what it takes to start and sustain a business on the central coast.