Life is getting sweeter for Hayley Hoverter, a student at L.A.’s Downtown Magnets High School and the inventor of a dissolvable sugar packet called Sweet Dissolve.

Not only did her sugar packets, which are made of rice paper, win the national Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship competition last month, but the judges were so enthusiastic about her eco-friendly invention that two of them offered to invest in it.

So, how did a 16-year-old win the approval of a panel of business execs?

After winning an initial contest for socially responsible entrepreneurship at her high school earlier this year, Hoverter placed well at a regional competition at USC, which landed her at the national competition in New York.

There, she presented her hand-made packet prototype to a panel of seven business people, competing against 31 other youths from across the nation.

“I don’t think there was a point that night where I wasn’t nervous,” she said.

Ultimately, Hoverter overcame her nerves to win the $10,000 grand prize and beat two finalists, including one who proposed a bracelet company using nonprecious stones mined in developing countries.

“It was probably the point in my life where I felt the most accomplished,” she said. “Nothing compares.”

But that wasn’t the end of her night. Daymond John, who judges entrepreneurs with billionaire Mark Cuban on ABC’s “Shark Tank,” offered Hoverter $5,000 in startup capital, which was matched by another panel judge. It was the first time in the competition’s six years that judges offered such an investment.

Estelle Reyes, executive director of the entrepreneurship network’s L.A. office, said Hoverter impressed because her invention tackled the problem of paper waste.

“We’re trying to get our students to integrate social responsibility into their business plan,” Reyes said.

Hoverter hopes to use her prize money to bring her product to market, perhaps by getting a licensing deal with an established sugar-packet manufacturer such as New York’s Cumberland Packing Corp., the maker of Sugar in the Raw.

She’s also talking with eco-friendly coffee shops in Silver Lake about carrying the packets, although her ideal contract would be with a global chain such as Seattle-based Starbucks Coffee Co.

As for the $10,000 investment from the judges, she would only accept it they have altruism in mind.

“I’m not giving away any of the equity,” said Hoverter, who had yet to speak to John since the competition.