In early April, as the coronavirus pandemic hit St. Louis, Weinberg senior Tejas Sekhar suddenly had $500. He’d won the prize at a Teach for America pitch competition, but his team wasn’t going forward...

Wildfire 2019’s Demo Day was fast approaching, and Nathan Graber-Lipperman hadn’t really worked on a pitch all summer. The Medill junior’s company, Unplugg’d, had a shot at thousands in prize money....