The Global Social Venture Competition (GSVC) empowers the next generation of social entrepreneurs by providing them with mentoring, exposure, and over $50,000 in prizes to transform their ideas into ventures that address the world’s most pressing challenges. Teams from across the globe learn how to design scalable models through a process that emphasizes stakeholder discovery, business innovation, and social impact assessment.
More the Global Social Venture Competition
The Global Social Venture Competition (GSVC) empowers the next generation of social entrepreneurs by providing them with mentoring, exposure, and over $50,000 in prizes to transform their ideas into ventures that address the world’s most pressing challenges. Teams from across the globe learn how to design scalable models through a process that emphasizes stakeholder discovery, business innovation, and social impact assessment.
Eligibility Rules and Guidelines
- Submitted ventures should aim to be financially sustainable or profitable; whether it is a for-profit, non-profit, or hybrid business model, your venture must aim to be self-sufficient on earned revenue.
- Submitted ventures should be scalable long term. This criterion will mean different things for each business. Scalability will take into account the potential for growth of the business, both financially and in its social impact.
- Submitted ventures must have a quantifiable social and/or environmental bottom line incorporated into their mission and practices.
- Submitted ventures must be less than 2 years old (with the start of the venture marked by incorporation or first income, whichever occurred first) as of December 31, 2015.
- Submitted ventures may not be a wholly owned subsidiary of an existing entity (of either a for-profit or non-profit entity).
- Submitted ventures must not have received more than $250,000 in funding from venture capital, private investors, grants (government or foundation), loans, or other funding sources. Lifetime revenue should not exceed $500,000 as of December 31, 2015.
- The team must include a graduate student (current or within two years of graduation as of December 31, 2015) from any masters-level or post-graduate higher education program in any area of study in the world; the student must be actively involved in the venture
- Your team should include a statement describing the graduate student’s level of involvement.
- The graduate student or recent graduate student must be one of the team’s presenters and must be available to answer judges’ questions regarding the business in the final two rounds of the competition.
- Teams are strongly encouraged to include seasoned entrepreneurs and professionals with relevant skills and experience.