Mainers sought to enter new global $125K MIT biz competition
Photo / Lori Valigra
Devin Cook, executive producer of MIT Sloan School's global Inclusive Innovation Competition, encourages Maine companies to apply to win up to $125,000.
A new global competition has cast a worldwide net, but its executive producer, who is based in Maine, told Mainebiz that its focus on raising economic prospects for middle- and base-level earners makes it a natural for Maine businesses to compete.
Among the competition’s first-phase judges is Jess Knox, head of Maine Accelerates Growth and a founder of Maine Startup and Create Week. The competition will award 30 prizes totaling $1 million, with four grand prizes in four categories awarding $125,000 each.
Unlike other competitions like the MIT $100K, the $15K Colby College Entrepreneurial Business Competition and the $20K UMaine Business Challenge, which are primarily business plan competitions, the MIT contest will focus on both for-profit and not-for-profit companies that already have solutions focused on using modern technology to raise economic prospects among workers at the middle and base of the economy, said Devin Cook, executive producer of the Inclusive Innovation Competition. The contest is being overseen by a leadership team from the MIT Sloan School of Management’s MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy, which launched the competition with the MIT Innovation Initiative.
Cook, who holds an MBA from the Sloan school is working from her office near Augusta and collaborating with a team in Cambridge, Mass.
“The $100K competition is for business plans and startups,” she said. “We want to target organizations focusing on making the economy more sustainable for the middle and base level. We also want organizational progress, not just ideas. And we want a track record, someone with success.” She said any size of organization can apply, and the judges will be looking for many things, including unique, innovative ideas and ones that focus on underrepresented populations like immigrants and rural dwellers.
The competition opened on March 1, and all applicants must register by June 1. The application deadline and competition close are on June 15.
“Core” judges, including Knox, will review all applications and rank them from June 22 through July 20.
Then the second “champion” committee judges will select the grand prize winners from Aug. 10 through Sept. 16. One grand prize winner will be chosen from each of four categories:
1.) Skills: How do we re-skill members of our workforce to prepare them for opportunities of the future?
2.) Matching: How do we connect qualified individuals with open opportunities for work?
3.) Humans + Machines: How do we augment human labor with technology?
4.) New Models: How do we create new operational practices and business models to revolutionize the existing labor market?
Another 16 companies, four in each category, will get $25,000 awards. Plus, the judges will give out a handful of “Judges’ Choice” awards to “uniquely inventive organizations.”
Cook said she expects about 300 applications in this first year of the competition.
The first phase involves filling out the online application, which Cook said could take about five hours. The core judges will rank the applications, and the MIT leadership team will assure they are vetted.
The champion judges will choose the finalists in each category, and those companies will then have to supply a 2-3 minute video, references and be interview in person or by phone by the MIT competition leadership team.
Judging is on four criteria: economic impact, scalability, vision and performance/track record of the applicant, Cook said.
“Awards will be made in person in Kendall Square [Cambridge] on Sept. 27,” she said.
The competition is being funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and Joyce Foundation. The aim, said conference managers, is to focus entrepreneurial and innovative energy on improving economic prospects for all workers. The competition was announced along with MIT’s new Solve cross-disciplinary program to address the world’s most pressing challenges.
Most Recent
Most Recent
Comments