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The Beat Waste Startup Challenge

Start Date
Entry Deadline
Voting Deadline
Start Date
Apr 06
Entry Deadline
Jun 27
Voting Deadline
Jul 02
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The Beat Waste Startup Challenge is a competition offering $25,000 in cash prizes for businesses and social enterprises that reduce or eliminate waste. It is sponsored by Adventure Ecology, organizers of the Plastiki expedition. The challenge is for early stage ventures seeking funding to grow.

All you need to enter is an elevator pitch and a brief 200 word description (see full brief for details). Crowd voting helps determine the winning entries, and you can find out more about voting here.

The Prize

A prize pot of $25,000 is available for the winners, as well as an audience with this world renowned panel of judges (Paul Hawken, Graham Hill founder of TreeHugger, too many inspiring names to mention, just check them out!). There is also a $500 prize for the Myoo Create member who provides the best quality of feedback during the Challenge. So everyone should join in, comment, share ideas, and share with your friends.

Entry requirements:

  1. We're looking for enterprises with an innovative and scalable solution to the problem of waste – regardless of whether you're using a for-profit, more-than-profit, or not-for-profit enterprise model. We are talking here about both waste and pollution that ends up in places it shouldn't be, like plastics in the oceans!
  2. Your enterprise must be a startup or early stage venture and have received no more than $200,000 in revenue, income or funding up until 31 December 2009.

Learn more

You can find full details on dates, entry requirements, judging criteria, and prize allocation in the full brief tab. Download the complete briefing (PDF) for detailed challenge rules.

The winners of the first round are invited to submit their enterprise plans and compete for the overall prize pot. Congratulations to the shortlisted entrants from round one listed below, and stay tuned here for the announcement of the final winners!

The winners

The Plastiki is sailing across the Pacific on an unusual mission. She's charged with inspiring us all to re-think waste. How? Well for starters, she is built out of trash. Old two liter plastic bottles keep her afloat while reclaimed irrigation piping stands as her mast. Altogether she is a 100% recyclable boat that explores uncharted waters in her endeavor to show there's no such thing as waste.

Now it is your chance to join in and kick the 'take-make-waste' life style to the curb. The Beat Waste Startup Challenge is a competition for businesses and social enterprises that reduce or eliminate waste, sponsored by Adventure Ecology, organizers of the Plastiki expedition, and the Sculpt the Future Foundation. The challenge is for early stage ventures seeking funding to grow. A prize pot of $25,000 is available for the winners.

We're looking for enterprises with an innovative and scalable solution to the problem of waste – regardless of whether you're using a for-profit, more-than-profit, or not-for-profit enterprise model.

There is also a $500 prize for the Myoo Create member who provides the best quality of feedback during the Challenge. So everyone should join in, comment, share ideas, and share with your friends.

Entry criteria

  1. Your enterprise must be a startup or early stage venture and have received no more than $200,000 in revenue, income or funding up until 31 December 2009.
  2. Your enterprise must contribute to the challenge of reducing or eliminating waste. Waste comes in many forms. We are talking here about both waste and pollution that ends up in places it shouldn't be, like plastics in the oceans!

The detailed Challenge Rules are available here (PDF).

How to enter

By no later than 23.59 (PST) on June 27th, 2010:

  1. Provide a description of your enterprise in no more than 200 words
  2. Upload to YouTube an 'elevator pitch' video of no more than 3 minutes and provide us with the embed link

Make sure you cover:

  • what your enterprise does
  • the problem your enterprise solves
  • your market
  • what makes you different
  • your team
  • how your enterprise will be funded
  • your implementation plan

See detailed judging criteria below.

Most Valuable Myoo Create Member

We believe that collaboration is at least as important as competition in stimulating breakthrough innovation. To recognize this and to encourage collaboration between community members, we are offering a $500 prize for the Most Valuable Myoo Create Member.

The prize will be awarded to the community member who, in the opinion of the judges, provides the best quality and most valuable feedback on the challenge entries.

Anyone is eligible for this prize - all you need to do is join in the conversation and contribute useful ideas and feedback on the challenge entries.

The Challenge timetable

Round 1: April 7th - July 2nd First round

The Challenge is open for entries until June 27th. Community members have until July 2nd to watch the pitches, vote for their favorite, provide feedback, and share with friends. The prizes for Crowd Favorite and Most Valuable Myoo Create Member will be awarded based on Round 1.

Round 2: July 10th - August 12th Second round for top ten entries

After all the votes are in, the top seven ranked entries, and three wildcard picks (like separation of government, it’s good to have checks and balances) will be notified via e-mail on July 9th and invited to submit a summary enterprise plan of no more than 10 pages (the shorter the better!).

Finals: date in mid September to be confirmed

The top 4 enterprises will join a one hour global online webinar where they will present their pitches directly to the panel of judges and respond to questions, leading to the selection of a winner. The final four will be notified of their qualification no later than August 20th, 2010.

Prizes

Prizes will be paid to the winning enterprises:

  • $15,000 First Prize
  • $7,500 Second Prize
  • $2,000 Crowd Favorite - for the top ranked entry in round 1

Prize paid to most valuable member of the Myoo Create community:

  • $500 Most Valuable Myoo Create Member - decided by the judges based on the Member who contributes the most valuable ideas and feedback to other entrants during Round 1 of the Challenge

Judges

Lynell Cameron - Director of Sustainability, Autodesk

Paul Hawken - environmentalist, entrepreneur, and author

Graham Hill - Founder of Treehugger

Zem Joaquin - Founder of EcoFabulous

Adam Lowry - Founder of Method

Blake Mycoskie - Founder of TOMS Shoes

David de Rothschild - Founder of Adventure Ecology

Premal Shah - President of Kiva

Adam Werbach - CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi S

Judging criteria

The panel of judges will evaluate the businesses as if they were considering an investment - and, as so, will use their own judgment in deciding on a winner. The criteria they will consider include:

Environmental and Social Impact

  • Potential to reduce or eliminate waste
  • Cradle to cradle or closed loop production potential
  • Run on a responsible basis and potential for social benefit

Products/Services

  • Meets a customer need
  • Evidence of customer demand
  • Improvement on alternative existing solutions
  • Scalability

Markets & Competition

  • Clearly identified market
  • Attractive market in terms of size and growth
  • Viable sales and marketing strategy
  • Potential to create defensible competitive advantage

Team

  • Management team with appropriate industry expertise, business track record, evidence of required skills

Financial

  • Clear pathway to financial profitability and sustainability
  • Likely attractiveness of investment proposition to investors

Implementation

  • Roadmap for implementation
  • Feasibility of implementation

Please or to write a comment.

16 comments in the discussion

  • 51_profiles_small_icon_logo_-_small
     

    adminwritten about 1 month ago

    Hi Jane, Tom, Alex, everyone! I wanted to draw your attention to my very long winded response to all your thoughtful comments. More coming soon, http://www.myoocreate.com/blog/2010/07/collaborating-while-competing-for-funds/

  • Dummy_user_icon
     

    Jane Byrdwritten 2 months ago

    I want to say how deeply heartening and encouraging it has been to survey and vote for the many excellent projects which entered this Beat Waste Challenge -- like a blessed little piece of Wiser Earth. I see and feel the goodness of people caring about life and about each other in wise and wonderful ways evidenced in their initiatives. It is quite a counterpoint to the dismal doings of "corporate persons" like Big Oil around the planet and in The Gulf. And thank you to Myoo Create for blazing a trail with their beta site, and to Plastiki for posting the challenge. DocMono in particular has been a special presence on the site and has created an essential sense of common engagement with the issues of waste. I also echo the frustrations and observations already noted by others about the klunkiness of site functions and set up in an eliminations game. I want all these projects to gain further funding and hope there is a way to keep them before the attention of patrons and patient investors who will foster their development. Our consulting firm, Natural Logic, has been doing some work on taking a comprehensive look at solid waste solutions for America and I hope Myoo Create provides a way for all of us to stay in touch with the entrants, an ongoing archive of follow-ups and follow-throughs if you will, that makes the most of the possible synergies among the entrants. The issue of who owns the elements and resources now known as waste is indeed a very potent issue of the Commons in our common future. As more and more cities and states struggle under the financial burdens of dealing with "waste" Extended Producer Responsibility Laws will make more and more sense, and we, as citizens, will need to weigh in on the creation of product life cycle systems that make sense for the good of everyone (and all species) and not just a privileged few. At Natural Logic our motto is "more value less stuff". This means that our greatest potential growth sector as an economy lies in becoming more resource efficient and (even more critically) more ecologically effective in our way of life on this planet -- to become in effect, an economy of Nature, not an economy of false pricing that dominates, undermines and destroys the non-human world we all need to thrive. So we at Natural Logic look forward to the progress of all these Beat Waste startups. And we will be helping build the business case for making the shift from an aging grey infrastructure of lifeless concrete to the vibrant living systems (and ecosystem services) that Nature can provide to us in living city systems of sunlight, air, water, soil and ...songbirds! Reconciling human economies to the necessities of Nature will be our destiny, our joy and our sustenance. We see this in every entry in this challenge. Bravo to all of you!!

  • 51_profiles_small_icon_logo_-_small
     

    adminwritten 2 months ago

    Efeinblatt - Thank You. It is late in this time zone, so I am going to wait to provide the response this thoughtful comment deserves. But incredibly insightful, and I must quickly echo YOUR observation: "All in all I was gobsmacked by the variety and creativity of the entries and by the commitment of so many participants to make a difference." Agreed. We have been overwhelmed and inspired by the variety and creativity. In these final minutes of the first round, my mind is racing with opportunities to expand upon this challenge and maximize the opportunity for all participants. But for now, all I can do is express my gratitude and amazement. Thank you.

  • 270_profiles_small_icon_sandalhas
     

    efeinblattwritten 2 months ago

    I just want to echo Docmono's observations, concerns, and insights. He rightfully thanks all of those who have been participating in this challenge - especially those who have done so from the beginning - for their passion and dedication, and the creative ways they've chosen to address the deeply rooted problems of waste. And, of course, Myoo Create deserves our thanks as well for sponsoring this Challenge and allowing us to share ideas and learn from each other in this forum and from the entries and the thoughtful comments to those entries. However, Docmono was the single 'competitor' - and it is, perhaps, problematic that I use this word in the context of the Challenge - who commented on our work, and I've read the comments he's made to others as well. His presence in this Challenge has been indicative of his sense of solidarity with the efforts and innovations of other entrants, and it’s a trait that is sorely needed (but not often found) if we are going to tackle this problem seriously and together. Waste is a big commodity and it's becoming bigger, and there is a real danger that with its commoditization will come weak, so-called solutions that actually mimic the original problems in the first place. We have learned from our work in Argentina that the question 'who owns the waste' has serious implications for public policy and has social ramifications as well. Something that should be of concern to all of us. The voting problems have indeed been a downer, and unfortunately those problems have probably alienated - though, hopefully, not in the long run - plenty of people who really wanted to vote but were too frustrated to continue trying to do so when things kept going wrong. I'm sure that some of the issues were due to human error, and this can be nipped in the bud in the future with more precise step-by-step instructions on how to vote. One interface design suggestion ... on the login/register page that appears after 'Vote for it!' is clicked, I would reverse the order of login and register. I heard many people complain that they were unable to login when, in fact, what they needed to do was register. Changing the order of the two may help. The popularity contest is always going to be fraught with problems, and I think you’ve done a decent job of minimizing the downside to it, though perhaps there could be more than three wildcards to give additional groups, which have really thought through what they’re doing, an opportunity to spell out their stories in their enterprise plans. I know it’s a delicate balance to achieve, and I don’t know that I have a better solution than the one you’ve chosen for this Challenge. All in all I was gobsmacked by the variety and creativity of the entries and by the commitment of so many participants to make a difference. It’s been heartening to participate in the process. eric for waste for life

  • 9429_profiles_small_icon_monticellojune14_10_037
     

    mulchingwritten 2 months ago

    This kind of operation, which produces non-petroleum based fertilizer by-products, is essential for future sustainability.

  • 368_profiles_small_icon_p1011645
     

    docmonowritten 2 months ago

    Thanks for your kind and prompt response. Ya'll are a class act and we appreciate your efforts in correcting those pesky bugs that seem to crop up in any computer related ventures. Sail on Plastiki sail on!!! Tom

  • 51_profiles_small_icon_logo_-_small
     

    adminwritten 2 months ago

    Hi Tom! THANK YOU so much for your insights and perspectives about the Beat Waste Challenge. Your concerns have definitely been heard. As you can guess, its been a huge learning curve for us in regards to registering people on the site and getting them voting. We have been in constant contact with our developers and have isolated a few of the bugs that have been giving us trouble (thanks to everyone's feedback!). That being said, we understand how frustrating it can be to watch the more tech-savvy entries take the lead. We sincerely APPRECIATE how active and involved Compost Tahoe has been from the very beginning recognize that you are special people making a difference.

  • 368_profiles_small_icon_p1011645
     

    docmonowritten 2 months ago

    As this contest nears the completion of its’ first round of eliminations, I just want to congratulate everyone for acting on their passion for reducing waste and demonstrating sustainability. There are some truly marvelous and timely ideas on these pages. As the voting begins to reach a fever pitch, I feel that some discussion about the difficulty more than a few people have experienced in creating a username and /or password (hence voting) is needed. I've been told by people much more computer savvy than I, that the problem is likely with the individuals’ browser....that it needs to be “refreshed”. This, along with rejected passwords / usernames and the (false) perception that information used to create a username / password could be misused, has dissuaded many...especially 'older' folks...from proceeding beyond that point. The MYOO team has been very responsive to this issue but once people lose their initial motivation…it’s very difficult to get them to try again. I don’t continue to pester my friends who’ve reported these difficulties because their friendship is more important to me than their vote. Those entries from younger folks are rightfully using their generations' fluency with computers and social networking to their advantage and that's just plain smart marketing. Just witness the huge number of votes that have been garnered by entries that made the deadline by just a few days or hours! I just want to share my observation with those entrants who may feel that their efforts were overlooked due to the low number of votes. We are in the same boat at Compost Tahoe despite socializing it through both our business and personal Facebook pages. I’ve noticed that most younger folks’ Facebook friends number in the several hundreds…..a very large pool of social network and computer savvy individuals from which to garner votes. Please understand that this is not a case of sour grapes....not at all as we are ALL making a difference…I'm simply trying to make sense of why some entries that don't have the potential for making a significant dent in reducing waste or climate altering GHG, garner so many votes over other, much more comprehensive ideas like bio-char, bio-fuels, composting etc. Be that as it may, we're all working for the same result...an environmentally and socially sustainable planet. Best of luck to everyone and thanks MYOO for this opportunity to share our ideas. Tom Wendell for Compost Tahoe

  • 51_profiles_small_icon_logo_-_small
     

    adminwritten 2 months ago

    Hello all! We love getting your feedback! However, this discussion section is meant for questions and comments about the Beat Waste Startup Challenge as a whole. Please direct your comments about specific entries to their entry pages by entering your comment in the comment box under their video. Thanks!

  • Dummy_user_icon
     

    deepawritten 2 months ago

    It is an comprehensive e-waste recycling & management programme to the telecom, electronics and software industries all over the world. Very good video clip. Deepa

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