An Overview of the 2012 Institute

The Unreasonable Institute arms entrepreneurs creating solutions to the world’s biggest social and environmental problems with the mentorship, capital, and networks they need to do so. Our 2012 Summer Institute, a 6-week mentor-driven accelerator, will take place between June 13 and July 25, 2012. Here’s an overview!

25 entrepreneurs from around the world will be chosen to attend our Summer Institute, where they’ll live under the same roof in Boulder, Colorado (ranked as the most educated city in the United States by Forbes) for six weeks. There, they’ll build relationships with 50 mentors, including the former Managing Director of Investments at Google.org, the CTO of HP, and an entrepreneur who’s enabled over 19 million farmers to move out of poverty. They’ll also have the chance to pitch to one hundred potential funders, and form relationships with at least 20 impact investment funds and foundations. Our goal is to accelerate these entrepreneurs as they grow profitable ventures that can scale to meet the needs of at least one million people.

The First 5 Weeks: Accelerating Your Venture (June 13 – July 17)

• Tangible Outcomes: Based on weekly targets established by top mentors and investment funds, as an Unreasonable Fellow, you will walk out of the 2012 Institute with:
  • An ability to communicate clearly & compellingly, including, a well-rehearsed investor pitch, a presentation to inspire hundreds of people, the ability to have effective one-on-one conversations with people you never thought you could share one with, and clear, compelling messaging skills you can use in your website, in marketing materials, or in conversation so that anyone anywhere can understand what you do and how they can help.
  • An executable, three-year timeline for reaching customer acquisition goals.
  • A defendable and scalable business model that can stand up to challenges in the field and investor concerns because it will be built, refined and strengthened with the help of Unreasonable mentors, Capital Partners, and Fellows. You will also come away with a working financial model, essential for managing your finances internally and acquiring capital externally.
  • Relationships that will lead to at least 2 board members, long-term advisors or investors from our 50 Mentors and 20 Capital Partners. You will learn to build lasting, meaningful, valuable relationships with world-class mentors and leading investors. We will put the eco-system in place for you to build these relationships and secure these board members, advisors and investors. It will be up to you, however, to secure them!
  • The ability to assemble & lead a world-class team. The number one cause of failure in Unreasonable Fellows so far has been Co-Founder issues. That’s why, as a 2012 Fellow, you’ll learn where to look for world-class teammates, how to hire and fire them, how to create a company culture that builds cohesion and allows your teammates to make the most of their skills and passions. Given the amount of people you will connect with while at the Institute and those within the the Unreasonable Network, you will have an incredible amount of leads to actually find world-class teammates and the communication and relationship building abilities to bring them on to your team.
  • A simple mechanism to assess, enhance & scale your impact. You’ll crystallize the single most important outcome you’re working toward and ensure that every aspect of your business leads you toward that. You’ll learn to measure how effectively you’re reaching that outcome for use to improve your business and to attract additional customers.

  Intensive workshops targeting these 6 skills will be led by an Entrepreneur-in-Residence, some of our 50 mentors, and the Unreasonable Team. See all that Unreasonable Fellows get here!

• Mentorship: To guide the chosen Unreasonable Fellows, we bring in 50 seasoned entrepreneurs and proven practitioners as mentors, who live with the Unreasonable Fellows for between 3 days and two weeks. They work with Fellows to build companies that not only effectively address a social or environmental need, but do so in a way that is profitable and scalable to at least 1 million beneficiaries. These mentors include:
  • Hunter Lovins, a Time Magazine Hero of the Planet and founder of Natural Capitalism
  • Kamran Elahian, a Silicon Valley VC who’s exited 7 companies for between $40 and $700 million
  • Tom Suddes, an entrepreneur who’s started 19 companies and fundraised over $1 billion
  • Lisa Waits, the Director of Business Development at Nokia
  • Bernard Amadei, the founder of Engineers Without Borders

  See all of the mentors in our network here!

• Capital Partners: We’ve observed that investment flows through relationships, not pitches or business plans. Thus, we give Unreasonable Fellows the chance to build relationships with lead investment decision makers from our Capital Partners, 20 active impact investment funds and foundations. These lead investors live with the Unreasonable Fellows for between 3 days and 2 weeks during our Summer Institute in Boulder, providing our entrepreneurs the chance to learn how to make their companies more investable, secure capital, and begin conversations that may lead to later-stage investments. A few examples of these Capital Partners include:
  • Acumen Fund, tackling poverty via health, water, energy, housing, & agricultural investments
  • First Light Ventures, making seed-stage investments in solutions for emerging markets
  • E+Co, making clean energy investments in developing countries
  • TONIIC, the largest network of angel investors in the impact space
  • RSF Social Finance, investing in food & agriculture, education & the arts, and conservation.

  See all of our Capital Partners here. Please also note: there is no guarantee that capital will be secured by attending the Institute, but we can assure that few entrepreneurs in the world have the type of relationships that Unreasonable Fellows have with Capital Partners. Capital Partners should be looked at as much more than just a sources of fund and instead as valuable assets to help entrepreneurs build stronger businesses that make a more promising case for to attract capital and to help them better navigate the capital markets and find and secure what they need to grow.

The Last Week: Outreach & Exposure (July 18 – July 25)

• Execution, Outreach and Exposure: After 5 weeks of intensive mentor-driven acceleration, the Unreasonable Fellows will have the chance to put all they’ve learned and achieved to the test. They will showcase their ventures at the culminating Unreasonable Climax (see Climax page from 2011 here), in front of hundreds of attendees including a specific pitch event for about 100 potential funders.

Ongoing Support

• Access to Free Legal Services: As a Fellow, you’ll be able to access a global network of top-tier lawyers working in 100 countries willing to provide pro-bono support to an exclusive network of their partners. As Unreasonable Fellows, you’ll be able to submit legal projects to the Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation for consideration.
• A Global Network: After graduating from the Unreasonable Institute, each Fellow will join and have ongoing access to an exclusive global network of Unreasonable alumni, mentors, and partners. This world-wide community will provide on-going support and invaluable relationships for the years to come.
• An Unreasonable Family: Unreasonable Fellows will have a peer community at the Unreasonable Institute unlike anything they’ve ever experienced. You’ll begin the Unreasonable Institute as strangers and leave as a lifelong family, ready to tackle the worlds greatest problems together.
• Unprecedented Exposure: Through the Unreasonable Marketplace and our international media partnerships, you’ll be exposed to hundreds of thousands of people. Select entrepreneur’s stories will be seen around the world on Unreasonable TV. Furthermore, it is our goal to ensure that you are able to pitch to over 600 people in person at various events while at the Institute.

You Don’t Pay

As an Unreasonable Fellow, you don’t spend a dollar during the 6 weeks of the Institute. Your food, housing, and travel for Institute-related events, is completely covered by the funds you raise on the Finalist Marketplace. (Note: you will have to cover your airfare to the Unreasonable Institute and any visa costs you may incur. If you need assistance with these costs, please let us know and we may be able to help you.)

Want to Apply?

Applications are closed for the 2012 Institute. Applications for the 2013 Institute will open in September of 2012!

Every entrepreneur that applies to the Unreasonable Institute will get direct feedback from readers. We hope that all entrepreneurs and ventures take value from the application process. (this was inspired by the William James Foundation). You can prepare yourself by reading about how our selection process works, how to become a competitive applicant, and the Frequently Asked Questions page.

See for yourself

Check out what past Fellows have to say about their Unreasonable Institute experience!

Get a glimpse of what a summer at the Unreasonable Institute is all about by watching the 2011 Unreasonable Fellows go from arrival to graduation on our 7-part web series on Unreasonable.tv! Start with Episode 1 here!

You can also check out this blog post, written by 2011 Unreasonable Fellow Saba Gul (Pakistan) describing her take on the Unreasonable Institute experience.

You Decide Who Will Be a 2012 Fellow

We are in the middle of selecting the 2012 class of Unreasonable Fellows. We’ve narrowed it down to 46 Finalists. Now its your chance to select who becomes and Unreasonable Fellow in 2012! Head to the Unreasonable Marketplace now!