BENTONVILLE, Ark. (Diya TV) — Rajat Paharia, an ex-Google executive turned founder of AI business Ask Steve, will provide the keynote speech for the sixth annual Heartland Challenge, an international student startup competition organized by the University of Arkansas.
The Heartland Challenge, which mimics the venture capital-raising process for high-growth companies, has distributed close to $588,500 in prize money since its launch in 2020. The competition this year, to be held April 3-5 at the Ledger in downtown Bentonville, will see 12 student-founded startups from all over North America vie for a portion of close to $100,000 in funding.
Paharia’s company, Ask Steve, also seeks to democratize artificial intelligence by giving power to employees, not large corporations. “That’s the entire premise of Ask Steve: anyone can create these really powerful AI tools, deploy them, and then share them with the people around them,” Paharia said. “AI is great, but that doesn’t help if nobody’s using it because it’s too hard, too much effort, or doesn’t help with their everyday problems.
Following close to a decade working at Google, Paharia moved from California to Northwest Arkansas, driven by his family’s historical ties to the area. He has subsequently interacted with regional entrepreneurial visionaries and the University of Arkansas’ Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation. The competition, hosted by the Sam M. Walton College of Business and supported by the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation, will culminate in a final round that is open to the public and will be live-streamed.
The overall winner will receive $40,000, with additional prizes awarded for second through fifth places, as well as in the elevator pitch competition and Investor Roundtable Awards.
