Sabin Environmental Venture Prize

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$25,000 Cash Prize!

Stop Dreaming. Start Venturing!
Promoting Environmental Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Yale

This competition is only available for Yale students and faculty.

The Sabin Environmental Venture Prize (the “Sabin Prize”) is a new initiative created with the generous support of the Andrew Sabin Family Foundation. It is an annual winner-take-all prize of $25,000. It will be awarded to the best Yale student and/or faculty idea for a product, service, project or program that advances a more environmentally sustainable way of life.

The Sabin Prize seeks to:

Stimulate entrepreneurship and innovation as they apply to environmental problems;
Promote multi-disciplinary approaches to environmental problem solving;
Generate ideas that are scalable, achievable, quantifiable, and financeable; and
Educate how entrepreneurs turn a concept into a successful reality.

Many technologies, business models and ideas can be re-purposed or applied to solving environmental problems. Applications are expected from a variety of business, technical and scientific disciplines, using for-profit, non-profit or hybrid models. Examples of proposed ventures could include a new start-up company with a nano derived technology for desalination; a new non-profit organization that distributes existing environmental technologies to rural villages; or a new government grant or subsidy that advances solutions to an environmental problem.

There will be a Speaker Series during the 2008-2009 school year to promote the prize and spark idea generation. The topics will be environmental ventures, entrepreneurship and financing; and are intended to draw a diverse audience of students, faculty, and staff. The series will bring in Yale alumni representing a cross section of disciplines in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors. It will also involve local partners including LaunchCapital and the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund.

Joining the competition

Step 1: This competition is only open to current Yale students and faculty
Step 2: Read all the information on this page
Step 3: Create a user profile on Vator
Step 4: Create a company profile on Vator
Step 5: Click the "Participate in this competition" button in the top right hand corner of this page
Step 6: Create a letter of interest word or PDF document (following the template shown in the additional details section) and upload it to your company profile (in the playlist section on the right hand side of your company profile) by January 23th, 2009
Step 7: Submit your Application for the Prize by April 2nd, 2009

Key Dates

January 23, 2009	Letter of interest
February 6, 2009	Workshop
April 2, 2008	Application due date
April 17, 2008	winner announcement

1-2 page Letter of Interest (LOI) by January 23, 2009 that includes the following information: description of your idea including a brief market overview, value proposition, and environmental problem your idea is seeking to address, background information on your team, and contact information including phone, e-mail, and address.
For those planning to submit an application a workshop with SOM lecturer and business plan expert Maureen Burke will be held on Friday, February 6, 2009. It will cover the elements of a strong application such as: quantifying market opportunities and benefits, customer or beneficiary research, competitive analysis, assessing operations, marketing and personnel needs and preparing simple financial projections. Your submission of the LOI will reserve your spot at this important workshop.
Applications for the prize which will be due on April 2, 2009.
The announcement of the winner will be in April 17, 2009 at a special Awards event.

If you have any questions relating to the Sabin Prize, please contact either Bryan Garcia ([email protected]) or Anastasia O’Rourke ([email protected] ).

Additional Resources

Yale Courses in Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Venture Capital

For those interested in learning more about these topics, the following is a short list of courses being offered at Yale:

MGT 618/FES 80019	Entrepreneurial Business Planning (Cromwell and Burke)
MGT 529	Global Social Entrepreneurship (Garstka)
MGT 896	Legal Aspects of Entrepreneurship (Bagley)
ENAS 323	Creativity and New Product Development (Bolanos)
MGT 946	Venture Capital and the Finance of Innovation (Metrick)
MGT 635	Venture Capital & Private Equity (Cromwell)

Related Yale Institutes & Initiatives

For those interested in accessing additional support, please visit:

Yale Entrepreneurship Institute (YEI)
Yale Entrepreneurial Society (YES) and the Y50K Competition
Yale Office for Cooperative Research and Development (OCR)
Yale Office of Sustainability

Center for Business and the Environment at Yale

Joining the strengths of two preeminent professional schools, the Yale School of Management and the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, the Center for Business and the Environment at Yale supports innovative approaches to environmental problem-solving through education, advocacy, and cutting-edge research.

More information about CBEY can be found at: www.yale.edu/cbey

See more details for the Entry Agreement.

see more details

Sabin Environmental Venture Prize

Entry Agreement

By submitting an application for the Sabin Prize, organized by the Center for Business and the Environment at Yale (“CBEY”), each entrant listed below agrees to the following conditions:

Originality of Plan: The ideas and concepts set forth in the application must be the original work of the entrants, and the entrant is not under any agreement or restrictions that prohibit or restrict his or her ability to disclose or submit such ideas or concepts for the Prize.

Eligibility: One of the entrants must be affiliated with Yale University by being either a student at one of the University’s schools or a faculty member. CBEY directors and all those directly involved in organizing the Prize are not eligible to enter.

Compliance with Guidelines of the Competition: Each entrant has reviewed the 2009 Contestant Entry Kit and by his or her signature below certifies that this entry complies with the guidelines and agrees to abide by the guidelines.

Prize: The prize will be distributed in the amount described in the guidelines. Each entering team has until December 31, 2009 to claim its prize. The prize money will be issued in the name of the principal entrant.

Waivers and Releases: Each entrant understands that each of the Prize’s co-sponsors, mentors, judges, co-organizers (collectively the “Prize Officials”) and each of the directors, officers, partners, employees, consultants, and agents of CBEY (collectively the “Organizer Representatives”) are volunteers and are under no obligation to render any advice or service to any entrant. The views expressed by the Prize Officials and the Organizer Representatives are their own and not those of CBEY or any other person. Each entrant also understands and agrees that although the Competition Officials have taken and will take reasonable care to ensure confidentiality of the ideas and plans submitted by the entrants, the legal protection of the ideas and plans submitted by the entrants for the Prize is otherwise the sole responsibility of the entrant. In consideration of the time, expertise, and other resources provided by the Prize Officials and Organizer Representatives to the Competition, each entrant hereby voluntarily releases CBEY, each Prize Official and each Organizer Representative from any further liabilities, responsibilities, and accountabilities relating to or arising out of such Prize Officials or Organizer Representatives’ participation in the Prize.

Business Idea Title:

Entrants (Team Members): List principal entrant (point-of-contact) first.