The 2025 John Pappajohn Student Entrepreneurial Venture Competition was held April 25, at the University of Iowa Pappajohn Education and Events Center in Des Moines. The final presentation round consisted of 18 students presenting 15 business ideas to a panel of judges.

“John Pappajohn launched this student competition 25 years ago, and entrepreneurial students continue to innovate and present the most amazing businesses year after year," said Judi Eyles, director of the Iowa State University John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center. "The competition brings student entrepreneurs together from across the state. They enjoy the opportunity to connect and support each other. To make it to the finals of this competition is a great achievement for these young entrepreneurs."

Student entrepreneurs entering the competition came from Drake University, Iowa State University, North Iowa Area Community College, the University of Iowa, and the University of Northern Iowa. The following three businesses emerged as winners of this year’s competition, each winning venture receiving $5,000:  

Archaneon Supplements, founded by Tyler Graham, University of Iowa, is an elite supplement brand built for those who train with purpose and refuse to settle for anything less than peak performance. Archaneon Supplements engineer clinically dosed, high-impact formulas with a zero compromises approach, combining transparency with unmatched intensity. The products are crafted not just to compete, but to dominate. Created by lifters, and backed by science, Archaneon isn’t just a supplement brand—it’s the edge every serious lifter needs.

“Presenting Archaneon Supplements was a meaningful opportunity to share the vision and heart behind a brand built for those who push their limits every day," said Tyler Graham, company founder.  "Seeing the results was a powerful reminder that passion, authenticity, and sacrifice can build something truly special."

Casmium, presented by co-founder Henry Shires, Iowa State University, aims to revolutionize youth sports by saving coaches time and developing players with an intuitive software platform that provides a user-friendly statistics collection and analytics tool. Casmium enables teams to score games with a digital mobile app, view sophisticated and personalized analytics, store aggregated team stats from multiple third-party products and sources, and export stats to popular league databases in one customizable website dashboard.

Henry Shires, co-founder of Casmium, said that winning one of the top prizes meant a lot to his team and attributes it to the hard work they have put in to grow Casmium’s reach across the country.  

“We are  excited to put this prize toward funding travel to coaching clinics, team and media sponsorship, and expanding our product development and sales teams," Shires said. "Huge thanks to the Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Centers for their continued support of our business.”

Renner Ag Solutions is an Ag Tech company founded by Caleb Renner, a fifth generation farmer from Klemme, Iowa. He is the developer and innovator behind the AgriNet which is a revolutionary technology that cleans out grain bins with the press of a button. This makes grain storage clean out automatic, streamlined, and much safer. (Renner participated in the Mason City cohort of Venture School, sponsored by the University of Iowa John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center.)

Other finalists, each receiving $500, were Davis Stelzer (University of Northern Iowa), North Lindell (University of Northern Iowa), Noah Bronk (University of Northern Iowa), Josh Hanson (NIACC), the team of Christopher Madsen, David Roman, and Ethan Kudej (NIACC), Gabe Howard (Drake University), Dorian Boyland (Drake University), Diego Munoz (Drake University), the team of Alana Corwin and Jamal Beavers (Iowa State University), Spenser Leise (Iowa State University), Michal Brzus (University of Iowa), and Emmanuel Akor (University of Iowa).  

The competition is a collaborative effort among the Iowa John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Centers located at Drake University, Iowa State University, North Iowa Area Community College, the University of Iowa, and the University of Northern Iowa.