An upcoming business plan competition hosted by The William James Foundation provides mission-driven entrepreneurs an opportunity to compete for investment dollars, as well as many other prizes. Exclusively for mission-driven entrepreneurs, the competition’s volunteer judges (including yours truly!) provide feedback on entrants’ business plans.
The William James Foundation’s Sustainable Business Plan Competition offers a total of $150,000 worth of services, cash, and investment offers to the best new for-profit plans with social and/or environmental goals. Entrants can be any age or anywhere in the world, but must be starting or growing for-profit companies that are either pre-revenue, or are within five years of their first revenues. All entrants who are accepted into the competition receive an average of 20 pages of feedback a round.
Having participated as a judge for several years now, I can tell you from experience that the applicants receive immensely powerful strategic advice, usually from as many as five judges, and from across industries. In the last competition, a lawyer from Rimon Law Group, a certified B-Corporation, was one of the other judges in my group, and she has since become my legal counsel, mainly because I was so impressed with the feedback she gave to the applicant in the William James Foundation.
So, if you are looking for help and potentially funding on your mission-driven business idea, submit your application soon. Deadline for 5-8 page summaries is Oct. 12. Visit http://www.williamjamesfoundation.org/howtoenter for more information on entering or contact us at [email protected] or @WJF_competition with any questions.
———————————————————————–
Scott Cooney is the developer of a new Triple Bottom Line, Monopoly-esque board game, and the author of Build a Green Small Business (McGraw-Hill).
Follow Scott’s company, GreenBusinessOwner.com, on Twitter: Twitter.com/GreenBizOwner
