$50,000 Business Plan Competition

Student teams compete for over $50,000 in cash prizes and in-kind services. Two rounds of judging are held and the top six teams will be selected to present their ventures publicly at Brown University on the day of the competition. 

The winning teams will also be able to send their business plans to the Annual DFJ East Coast Challenge, where a $250,000 prize will be awarded.

Congratulations to our 2009 finalists!

• Green Handicraft Initiative
  
  The Green Handicraft Initiative (GHI) is a venture that links environmentally responsible consumer choice with community-based social entrepreneurship. First, GHI ensures employment for earthquake victims in Sichuan, China by helping them launch and manage sustainable rural enterprises that sell locally-embroidered cloth napkins and bags to urban consumers. GHI then works with local media partners and environmental organizations to promote cloth napkins and bags as "green" substitutes for paper napkins and plastic bags. Finally, GHI uses sales revenue to rebuild disaster-impacted villages into ecotourist sites with the help of China’s largest grassroots environmental NGO, Global Village of Beijing.
  
  
• H&F Contracting Services
  
  H&F Contracting Services is a disaster relief company that specializes in debris removal in the aftermath of natural disasters of every kind. H&F seeks to change the culture that exists in the government contracting industry by taking an honest, considerate, and transparent approach to providing emergency services to families and businesses that are tragically affected each year by natural disasters. H&F approaches each disaster relief contract as an opportunity to help people in need, and this is the motivating factor behind our business model.
  
  
  
• National Students of AMF (deceased or "Ailing Mothers, Fathers," or loved ones) Support Network
  
  The National Students of AMF (deceased or "Ailing Mothers, Fathers," or loved ones) Support Network is the only organization dedicated to supporting college students coping with the illness or death of a loved one and empowering all college students to fight back against terminal illness. We accomplish our mission by helping students to start Campus Chapters of Students of AMF on colleges nationwide (currently 24), providing information and support at www.studentsofamf.org, raising awareness by hosting the National Conference on College Student Grief, National College Student Grief Awareness Week, and raising funds by hosting the annual Boot Camp 2 Beat Cancer & Family Fun Walk and AMF Banquet. Each Campus Chapter of Students of AMF includes a peer-led Support Group for students coping with the illness or death of a loved one to speak with others "who understand," a Service Group open to all students to participate in important causes, and an Angels program that connect faculty members with students in the Support Group.
  
  
  
• NuLabel
  
  NuLabel is developing a liner-free label printing system to satisfy the waste-reduction and cost-minimization needs of the thousands of companies that use labels daily. Using its proprietary technology, NuLabel hopes to revolutionize the $70 Billion label industry by eliminating the costly, hazardous, and environmentally-unfriendly liners that are currently used on the backs of labels. The company will license its proprietary technology to printer manufacturers and also process and sell its proprietary liner-free labels to end-users
  
  
  
• Runa
  
  Runa, as a project and social enterprise, exists to create US and international markets for traditional Amazonian plants, beginning with the rainforest holly called guayusa (wai-you-suh). Guayusa is a caffeinated, calming, naturally sweet leaf that has been used as a tea for centuries, and we are working to share that tradition with international consumers. By leveraging the power of markets for healthy products (particularly energy beverages), Runa can plant forests, develop supplemental livelihoods for indigenous communities in Ecuador, and re-envision how these communities can actively lead new ventures. We will add the most possible value to our raw ingredients in Ecuador, leaving greater benefits in the country before final production of consumer beverages in the US, while lowering our costs and giving consumers the knowledge that their purchase is going as far as it possible to support Ecuadorian communities.
  
  
  
• SolarCycle
  
  SolarCycle began in 2008 in response to the staggering environmental damage and negative health effects caused by contaminated drinking water and indoor air pollution in the developing world. Seeking to address this issue with locally-available, low-cost materials, SolarCycle’s founders, John Tilleman and Drew Durbin, looked to trash. Mr. Tilleman and Mr. Durbin have designed a revolutionary material made from used plastic bags and the aluminized interior of chip bags, which will replace virgin plastics and mirrors in solar concentrating applications. Using this “upcycled” manufacturing process, SolarCycle produces the most durable, sustainable, and financially accessible solar cookers and water pasteurizers on the market and turns an urban trash problem into a potential solution for diarrheal illnesses and respiratory diseases.
  

New for 2009: