If you’re a social entrepreneur looking for mentorship, funding and global connections, the 10-week programme to be held in Boulder, Colorado, USA next year (from May 28th to August 7th, 2010) might be the thing for you. The Unreasonable Institute aims to bring together 25 young social entrepreneurs (called Unreasonable Fellows) from all around the world for an intensive summer training programme.
Their goal is to incubate & finance 25 social ventures a year that will each effectively address a major global issue (e.g. poverty), become financially self-sustaining within a year, scale beyond the country of origin within 3 years, and ultimately reach at least 1 million people.
Watch this short video for an introduction:
Mentors
These Unreasonable Fellows will get to interact and be mentored by a list of specially chosen mentors who are innovators, entrepreneurs, investors and change makers themselves.
Some of these mentors include: Stephen Chen (Co-founder at GreenSoul Shoes – a charitable, 100% recycled shoe company, Former Vice President at Bear Stearns), Kjerstin Erickson (Founder and Executive Director of FORGE – an international NGO that facilitates peace building and development in war-torn African countries), Bob Pattillo (Founder, Gray Ghost Ventures – a regional microfinance equity fund incubator, CEO, First Light Ventures) and Dennis Whittle (Co-Founder and CEO of GlobalGiving – the leading marketplace for international aid and philanthropy).
Funding
Additionally, to seed these 25 social ventures, the Unreasonable Institute has partnered with the VC fund Gray Ghost Ventures to form the Unreasonable Village Fund. Instead of investors selecting the ventures they’ll be investing in, Gray Ghost will provide the entrepreneurs at the Institute a fund that they will distribute amongst themselves. Gray Ghost is testing the hypothesis that a group of entrepreneurs incubated together for 10 weeks will do a better job of selecting viable investments than a VC fund.
Sponsorship
If selected, you will have to make your way to Boulder, Colorado yourself, from whichever country you’re flying from. The sponsorship will however cover all your costs from the time you touch down at the airport. Room, board, training and mentorship at the Institute will all be sponsored.
Applications
The official search for the world’s most Unreasonable young social entrepreneurs (ages 20-30) begins on November 15th 2009.
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