In 2009 we became involved with The William James Foundation (WJF), an organization based in Washington D.C. that hosts a global business plan competition to identify, reward, and support the next generation of sustainable businesses. We created the Enjuba Young Entrepreneur Prize at WJF for businesses with management teams under the age of twenty-eight. Our prize is the creation of a professional promotional video for each winner’s business. Waste to Watts and Runa won the 2011 Enjuba Prizes.
The annual WJF competition offers an average of twenty pages of feedback per round plus cash and in-kind prizes. To date more than 400 reading judges have assisted over 350 entrepreneurial teams. Those teams have launched hundreds of businesses, more than 100 of which are active today. The foundation has awarded more than $350,000 worth of in-kind prizes & cash and has reached 10,000 pages of constructive feedback.
Here are four examples of the success of William James Foundation entrants:
- Nuru Light was honored by the United Nations.
- President Bill Clinton told the world what we already know – that “[Sproxil] is a genuinely remarkable achievement…[it's] empowering… putting people in charge of their own healthcare.”
- PowerMundo is partnering with NESsT to bring Peruvian made sustainable products and services to the marketplace.
- Atayne was featured on the home page of AOL Small Business.
If you would like to enter the competition, feel free to contact us or get in touch with WJF directly. You will learn a lot from the reading judges plus you might even win a prize!