Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/201447
Making The Proposal Entrepreneurs who make it to the second round of the competitive Green Launching Pad grant process must provide more detail about their proposed businesses if they are to be considered for funding. Here are some of the questions these finalists need to answer: I What will your company do or make? Describe your capabilities and provide documentation of technical viability. Provide a URL to a descriptive video or website. I How will your company help to reduce energy use and carbon emissions? I How will your company create jobs in New Hampshire? Provide job projections for the next one to five years. I What is your target market? Your potential total market? Who are your direct and indirect competitors? I What's the timeline for the commercial launch of your product? I How much has been invested in the project so far? Include the investment of money as well as time. I How can GLP help your company launch? How much support and funding are you requesting? How would you use the money? I How will you continue to raise money once you've received funding from GLP? I Provide details about all team members, including what roles they would play in the company and what experience they bring to the project. Can all team members commit significant time to work on the venture if your project wins a GLP award? All finalists are assigned mentors who help team members develop their proposals before they make their presentations to a panel of judges. In each round, judges select three to six winning teams from a pool of ten finalists; they also decide how much funding to provide each winning team. In the past three rounds, judges have heavily weighed factors such as market feasibility, time to enter the market, and team experience when choosing winning teams. 40 November/December 2013 BizEd two years, its success has attracted the attention of private supporters, who have provided enough money to allow GLP to continue its operations. We are currently seeking to secure matching funds from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration. Other changes are ahead. GLP currently operates on a grant basis, giving the selected companies funding and business development support. In the future we plan to offer seed funding, which will support businesses in the earliest stages as they do rapid prototyping, conduct market research, and write business plans. We also plan to work with our investment partners to offer post-seed money to our GLP companies in the later stages of their development. Altogether, we believe these efforts will promote green ventures throughout the state. Lessons Learned We are still fine-tuning our efforts, but we've learned a few lessons along the way—most important, that to be successful, a program like ours needs to attract volunteers and funding from the private sector and the state. In addition, it needs to secure support from the university, so that it can engage faculty from many disciplines, including business, engineering, environmental science, and law. It's useful to have backing already in place from the government and private sectors to help university administrators understand the greater possibilities an initiative offers. It can also help to point out how much major corporations are investing in green energy. For instance, in May 2010, Google devoted $39 million to wind power and followed this up with a shared investment of over $1 billion in deep-water transmission lines for offshore wind. Procter & Gamble recently announced four impressive long-term goals: to use 100 percent renewable or recycled materials for all products and packaging, to have zero consumer and manufacturing waste go to landfills, to power all its plants with 100 percent renewable energy, and to emit zero carbon dioxide emissions. Figures like these help administrators see the rewards of investing in green energy. Finally, it's essential to involve students in the process, because their enthusiasm can also win over reluctant faculty and administrators. In addition, when students work with green startups, they can learn so much across so many disciplines that the experience is an education in itself. (See "Green Collaboration" on page 38.) From my experience at UNH, I can say that it's exciting and worthwhile to put a business school at the nexus of green innovation and entrepreneurship. GLP has enhanced the image of the University of New Hampshire as a key player in the state's economic development. It also has set an example for how business schools can play a role in the local, regional, and national economies. Venky Venkatachalam is professor and associate dean at the Peter T. Paul College of Business & Economics and Project Director of Green Launching Pad at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. More information can be found at www.GreenLaunchingPad.org.