Past Global Finals
Global Finals
Congratulations to the 2011 winners!!!
1st place: Next Drop
2nd Place: Sanergy
3rd Place: Tree Planet
>SIA Winner: Sanergy
SIA Runner up (tie): Prakti Design
SIA Runner up (tie): Magnivy
Check out video of all the 2011 pitches, as well as clips from the Ideas to impact conference. Watch now
Past GSVC Entrants Share their Experiences
* See videos from past entrants on our youtube channel: www.youtube.com/user/GSVC2011?feature=mhsn
Jonathan Greenblat, Co-Founder, Ethos Water
“The act of writing the summary was instructive and helped us to narrow our focus. The practice of presenting was good, too. We also really benefited from the hard work around calculating our Social Return on Investment (SROI). [My advice to future entrants is to] take the time to get [SROI] right. The GSVC-inspired practice helped us make the social impact case to prospective investors and partners.”
“There were so few sources of early stage capital for socially responsible businesses- GSVC was an oasis! We were attracted to the funding and recognition that came from [the competition].”
Aynsley Toole, Student Entrant with MicroEnergy Credits
“GSVC gave the founders of MicroEnergy Credits the opportunity to get feedback from a lot of people…with different perspectives. The GSVC also helped [my] career by facilitating connection to people in the carbon credits industry.”
Manoj Sinha, Co-Founder, Husk Power Systems
“[We chose to enter GSVC because it] was more competitive and better attended than any other socially-oriented business plan competition. Also, the location of GSVC competition (close to Silicon Valley and venture capitalists) gives it an advantage.
“The competition provided great practice in writing actual, usable business plans – and the feedback in stages two and three of the competition also was extremely helpful in improving upon the existing business plan. The SIA component of the competition was unique, but also extremely helpful in translating qualitative output into numbers… and was useful when presenting to potential and existing funders.
“[My advice to entrants is to] take advantage of mentorship, and listen to feedback from judges because you can really create a solid business plan through the process.”
Xanthe Jory, Executive Director, The Bronx Charter School of the Arts
“The money was huge – we didn’t have anything at that time and our model demanded grants. We were a really grassroots organization so we didn’t have a lot of connections. [Winning the competition] lent credibility, and it connected us to Goldman Sachs, who continued to fund us for a couple years... We also had someone [from Goldman Sachs] on our board for a while…he was very helpful when he was involved.