SAN JOSE, CA – Exciting news! Silver Creek High School has been recognized on the national scale again; this time for entrepreneurship.

The Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge, run by the Network For Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), is a series of business plan and pitch competitions, lasting for eight months. Participants first present business plans at the local and regional levels. Eventually the cream of the crop compete in a high-stakes national championship in New York City. The competition is judged by successful entrepreneurs and business leaders who decide the top three winners. Over the last fifteen years, NFTE has sponsored the competition, awarding over two million dollars in prize money.

This year’s runner up winner for the Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge was Silver Creek High School sophomore, Abhinav Gorrepati. Gorrepati won second place and took home $2,500 for his business CredX, an educational platform that encourages financial literacy in teens through educational lessons. 

Gorrepati at NFTE

As Gorrepati was growing up, he developed an admiration for entrepreneurship. Starting one’s own business allows one to control where they end up in life, or as Gorrepati calls it “control their own destiny.”

Gorrepati has founded CredX with two main philosophies: struggles do not indicate failure and self-interest should never prevail over the interests of the customers. Gorrepati says, “Building relationships with other people, and making sure that your interests are aligned with the people around you is a big deal. Business is really all about connections and relationships, and I can definitely say that the biggest thing I’ve gained from my entrepreneurial journey is the people I’ve met and the connections I’ve established.” Gorrepati thanks his Introduction to Business (ITB) teacher, Mr. Butler, for the connections he has made with business experts. Through connections he made, Gorrepati experienced different perspectives on how he could improve his business. 

Gorrepati admits that he is still a novice in the business field. He concedes, “I personally haven’t gone through the struggles that a lot of other entrepreneurs have been through when starting their businesses, it’s still something that I keep in mind.”

Although he believed he could have done better, Gorrepati was honored to be named the runner up of the challenge. He says, “It felt like all the hard work that I, along with people like Mr. Butler, really paid off, and it was an amazing experience.”

In the future, Gorrepati aims to start his own business, with all the knowledge he has acquired. He has ideas for what he wants to do and has already started working on potential projects. He closes, “I definitely want to keep working on the idea that brought me all the way to nationals, and I hope that I’ll eventually get a chance to actually turn it into reality.”