Wanted: The World’s Most Unreasonable Entrepreneurs

The Unreasonable Institute, an international accelerator for high-impact ventures, is scouring the globe for those entrepreneurs convinced their enterprise is a viable solution to the greatest social and environmental challenges of our time. The search begins on September 30, 2010 when Unreasonable opens its applications to the world for its Second Annual Institute.

The World’s Most Unreasonable Trailer from Unreasonable Institute on Vimeo.

“We’re looking for twenty-five of the world’s most audacious and promising entrepreneurs, those who have the ‘unreasonable’ conviction that they can launch globally significant and scalable ventures,” explains Founding President Daniel Epstein.

These entrepreneurs will gather in Boulder, Colorado between June 9, 2011 and August 4, 2011 to attend the Unreasonable Institute’s eight-week summer acceleration program. Selected entrepreneurs, dubbed “Unreasonable Fellows,” will work and live with over 60 world-class mentors who are leading innovators, thought-leaders, and investors.

Mentors like the co-founder of google.org, the Executive Producer of ER and Law & Order, the founder of a 400 Million dollar impact investment fund, and the former head of global branding at Coca Cola will support the Unreasonable Fellows as they work tirelessly during the Summer Institute.

Furthermore, the 25 entrepreneurs will pitch their ventures to investors and foundations in five major entrepreneurial hubs across the United States (San Francisco, Boulder, Boston, New York City, and Washington D.C.), learn from comprehensive workshops lead by top consulting organizations, gain unprecedented exposure, as well as the training, mentorship, and access to seed capital needed to give their ventures wings.

“Ultimately,” explains Epstein, “the Institute is relentlessly focused on one objective: accelerate ventures that future generations will remember as having defined progress in our time.”

“There is a tremendous hunger for a place that provides entrepreneurs the practical skills and support to solve the world’s biggest problems,” explains Tyler Hartung, Vice President of Operations and Finance for Unreasonable. “This past year we had over 900 entrepreneurs from over 100 countries begin applications.”

So how does the Institute decide who twenty-five of the world’s most promising entrepreneurs are? From the initial applicant pool, approximately 50 will be selected as finalists. These finalists will showcase their ventures to the world on an online marketplace, where the public will vote with their dollars on the ideas they think are most viable for creating globally scalable ventures.

“The first 25 entrepreneurs to raise $10,000 in sponsorship are the ones we accept to the Institute,” says Hartung. “This past year nearly 3,000 individuals from over 130 countries voted with their dollars to select the 2010 class and this year, we predict thousands more will convene on the Unreasonable Marketplace when it launches in early January.”

“This selection process tests an integral characteristic of any entrepreneur: the ability to get others to believe in you and in your idea enough to commit capital and tap into their networks,” explains Epstein, “It is the ultimately testament of their entrepreneurial mettle.”

Applicants will have until November 10th to submit their initial applications and the finalist marketplace will launch January 5th, 2011. Reasonable entrepreneurs need not apply.

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