- “I’ve been involved with the [MCN] since its earliest days. The social enterprise competition is something I’ve always supported. If it had been around when Honest Tea was started I am sure we would have been participants there as well. I’ve enjoyed getting to know the winners over the years, giving them some guidance and mentorship, and always when I get the chance to share some of the lessons and hopefully inspire them I’ve tried to do that too….The large businesses aren’t going to be the ones to take things in a different direction on their own. What’s going to happen is that entrepreneurs, like the ones coming out of [MCN] will develop compelling ideas that will succeed in the marketplace. And then big business will try and buy or invest or adapt these models.” – Seth Goldman, T-EO of Honest Tea
- “[The MCN] led to all the key items in Mexico including all my partners and my employees/contractors and the partner led to the corporate. Also, [The MCN is] one of only two entities I know in the impact social enterprise/investor space to be meta-aware and ask how to improve and what you’re doing wrong. I just wish more would do that.” – Jonathan Levine, Folia Materials
- “The more entrepreneurs I meet and speak to, I realize how critical your organization is for entrepreneurs to develop their ideas and get ready to raise capital. [The WJF is] helping to create a future pipeline for investors. There are lots of savvy people who want to start sustainable/ social businesses and truly care about their community. They just need a bit of guidance and support to get there.” – Kesha Cash, Director of Investments, Impact America Fund.
- “Since 2015, we have raised $1.6 million in donations and investment. When we entered the mentoring program, we had not raised any investment, despite working flat out since 2013 with bilateral and multilateral funds, social impact funds, and private investors. We had raised $600,000 in conservation donations in 2015 and 2016 to purchase forestland. In 2017, I took our Mentor Capital Network vetted business plan to our donor, and against his initial refusals eventually got him to start investing in our new business line, as a way to expand our conservation impact. Without the guidance and mentoring on our business model and plan, I would not have been able to achieve the subsequent $1 million to build our plant and launch the new business.” – Peter Pinchot, WholeForest
- “Thank you So much for all your support with InVenture. The [MCN] has helped so much already – and seriously what a difference a year can make! I really can’t thank you enough for helping us begin.” — Shivani Siroya, CEO of Inventure (Now called Tala, a $200mm company), who participated in our program for multiple years.
- “Increase in sales was directly related to the support from the mentors of MCN which has given us the opportunity to move into a larger facility and expanding our team. We will be expanding into NYC’s market thanks to help from MCN mentors.” – Sophie Eckrich, Co-founder of Teysha
- “Ten years after we entered your program, you are still unique in the kind of support you provide…. the MCN was the only one where we actually had access to the feedback and the judges and it was fantastic in helping us to adapt the model.” – Sameer Hajee, founder of Nuru Energy
- “I find that what the [MCN] has been doing, working with companies to help them create better business plans has been invaluable to me as an angel investor. What is tremendous about the [MCN] is that it works with the companies, helps them be profitable.” – Valerie Gaydos, Director of the Angel Venture Forum
- “Some of the best judge advice that I have ever seen. To me, one of the biggest pieces that has come out of this [MCN]’s experience is our conversations with Mac McCabe—he has been a fantastic source of very frank, very helpful, very real information and advice. It has been great to pick the brain of someone who has been through the trenches of a lot of different small businesses and different stages of growth. Mac has been excellent and I was lucky enough to meet Seth Goldman, CEO and Founder of Honest Tea, once or twice before Mentor Capital Network, but then we got thrown together again and after we got thrown together again and now I get a couple of questions a week answered by Seth by e-mail.”– Sofia Redford and Jimmy Edgerton, Watusee Foods
- “Your process and scorecard are truly first rate, better than other competitions I am involved with. Very well done!” — Mark Albion, a co-founder of SVN and Net Impact.
- “I think the feedback is AMAZING & really appreciate all the time you guys have put into giving us genuine & most importantly,actionable and constructive criticism.” – Alejandro Velez, Back to the Roots
- “For social enterprises that are in that early stage prior to taking on investment, I really think that all [of those] companies should be involved with the [MCN] because it provides immediate feedback on your plan, even if you only get through the first round. The feedback helped build our team focus. It should be in the entrepreneur handbook – you’ve got to do [MCN].”- Tricia Compas-Markman, founder and CEO of Day One Response