Worcester Girl's App Idea Wins Shark Tank-Style Competition

WORCESTER, MA — When Hilary Yeboah was in high school, she realized there were more opportunities for scholarships and internships than she had imagined before. The only problem was there wasn't a convenient way to get to them all — and that's when her app idea first started to form. Now Yeboah is 20, a finance major at Bentley University and an entrepreneur.

Yeboah stuck with her app idea of having a one-stop-shop for high school students to get scholarship, internship and college information. She brought that idea to this year's Fourth Annual World of Money Youth Business Pitch Competition, and her idea won.

The World of Money is a non-profit organization whose mission is to empower youth with a sound financial education. The competition is hosted with the support of JPMorgan Chase Advancing Black Pathways program and brings 15 black students from around the country together to compete in a "Shark Tank style" event.

The competition is open to people contestants ages seven to 23 and the winners get over $15,000 in cash prize. The competition has three age groups for contestants to compete in.

Yeboah competed in the oldest age group and won on Monday. She said pitching her idea a few times to the panel of business and tech executives was nerve wracking. "I was very nervous and anxious for the meeting, but I just used what I'm passionate about, finance, to motivate me," Yeboah said.

She was tipped off about the competition by her mentor at Bentley University and Yeboah said now that she's won the competition she plans on pursuing her plans to make the app a reality. "I got the contact information of a few people during the competition who want to help me start the app, so I hope I plan to get things started," she said.