Reflections on Georgetown’s 2025 pitch competition from Ted Leonsis

Last week, Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business once again became a launchpad for the next generation of bold thinkers and doers. At this year’s Bark Tank Pitch Competition, eight teams took the stage to pitch their ventures to a panel of expert judges, competing for a record $150,000 in prizes. Watching these entrepreneurs present their ideas, it’s impossible not to feel inspired — not just by their creativity, but by their commitment to solving meaningful problems. At Revolution, I’ve seen what backing entrepreneurs with big ideas can breed. Bark Tank serves as a yearly reminder of the promise these ideas hold at their very beginning.

When my family and I launched the Leonsis Family Entrepreneurship Prize, our goal was to spark innovation and support student entrepreneurs who embody Georgetown’s value of being “men and women for others.” Year after year, Bark Tank has exceeded that vision. This year’s finalists tackled challenges ranging from improving surgical precision with augmented reality to streamlining hiring for home care providers to combating pollution with robotic lawn care solutions — an idea that brought me right back to where it all began. Each team represents what makes entrepreneurship so powerful: the ability to see problems as opportunities and use technology to create solutions that drive real impact.

Take Hilda, this year’s grand prize winner. Led by Andres Brillembourg, Hilda transforms how home care providers recruit talent, using AI to reduce hiring time from weeks to minutes. As we grapple with massive societal issues like our aging population and direct care worker shortage, we need more founders like Andres and startups like Hilda to reimagine a way forward. Chef, entrepreneur, humanitarian, and my friend José Andres put it well: investing in young entrepreneurs is investing in solutions.

As a proud Georgetown alumnus and a long-time believer in the potential of our region, I see these student entrepreneurs as a microcosm of D.C.’s startup ecosystem. They’re diverse, resourceful, and both practical and ambitious. If we can retain forward-thinking, self-starting students like these, D.C. will only become a more formidable innovation hub. Bark Tank is also a testament to the role universities like Georgetown play in shaping the future of entrepreneurship. By fostering programs like this, we empower students to think big, act boldly, and embrace their role as changemakers.

To the entrepreneurs who presented this year: thank you for inspiring all of us. You represent the spirit of Georgetown, the ingenuity of D.C., and the promise of innovation in our country. At Revolution, we know the power of nurturing entrepreneurs in communities outside the usual tech hubs. Witnessing your passion gives me even greater confidence in the District’s ability to lead the next wave of innovation. I can’t wait to see what you all accomplish next.


Bark Tank and the Spirit of D.C.: The Future of Entrepreneurship in our Nation’s Capital was originally published in Revolution on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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