What We Do
- Detailed and constructive feedback on your business plan from a team of 10-15 individuals who have been carefully curated to provide a diversity of experience in addressing the challenges you are facing.
- Connections to mentors where you choose each other. We carefully curate teams who provide written and video-call feedback on your ideas. Then you decide who you want to be your mentor, based on how useful you found their feedback.
- Opportunities to connect with leaders who are addressing the same challenges that you are. This includes Peer-To-Peer calls where everyone in the conversation has something to learn, and everyone has something to teach.
- We do NOT offer funding.
Who We Can Best Help / Who Should Apply
- Entrepreneurs who are building a for-profit company that has social and/or environmental values built into how the business makes money. If you’re just diverting a portion to charity, that doesn’t count. We’re looking for companies that integrate their values into their operations.
- Entrepreneurs who are open to feedback on your business model. We have found that our program is most valuable to firms at the prototype / seeking their first professional investment stage, but we can work with earlier and later stage companies as long as you are open to feedback on your business model.
- Entrepreneurs who can commit to the following actions if selected for our program:
- 4 phone/video calls – 2 with MCN team, 2 with prospective mentors. (A partial list of our mentors is here.)
- Submitting a business plan in English, Spanish, or French. At least one member of your team must be able to exchange emails in English. If you need to conduct the video calls in French or Spanish, please let us know in advance.
- Reviewing the 20-30 pages of feedback we provide on your plan
- Following up with all of your reviewers — either with a simple thank you for their time, or to begin a mentoring relationship with those you found particularly helpful.
Our Success
Companies that we work with, as opposed to companies we almost worked with (that were qualified, and we would have worked with if not for space, timing, etc.) are 32% more likely to be in business when compared year-by-year. Read what our alumni have to say about the program.
Our Alumni
MCN alumni including companies that are addressing some of the most important challenges in the world. A list of alumni companies still active under their own names can be found here. Some examples include:
- Increasing the amount of healthy food and healthy farmers in our world, like Ignitia & Elevated Honey.
- Bringing healthy food and drink to your table, like Kuli Kuli, Back to the Roots, Runa, & The Jackfruit Company.
- Providing access to financial services, like Tala, First Access, & Kopo Kopo.
- Improving the quality of, and access to, health care, like Access Afya, PACE MD, Sproxil, & Maternova.
- Creating safer living and working conditions for women, like Wello Water, & Pinkcollar.
- Generating affordable, clean, and renewable energy, like Husk Power Systems, ARED, & Gham Power.
- Cleaning the water, air, and/or environment for those who need it most, like Folia Materials, Chakr Innovation, and Sanivation.
- Creating a path out of poverty for employees, like Wash Cycle Laundry,
- Training and educating people to make their way in the world, like GogyUp
- Designing sustainable products, like Tonlé, WholeForest, & Yellow Leaf Hammocks.
Timeline for Spring 2022 Cohort
Spring 2022 – Processing Timeline
- February 15th – March 4th: Invited companies will be interviewed by members of the MCN community to identify if their participation in our 2022 Spring Cohort will be mutually beneficial to the companies and the MCN community.
- March 9th: The MCN will announce which companies are invited to our spring 2022 cohort. Accepted companies are asked to pay a small processing fee — $10 USD if you are based in an LDC, $50 if you are based in an OCED country, and $25 otherwise.
Spring 2022 – Program Timeline
- March 14th: Business plans are distributed to reviewers
- March 28th – April 18th: Two clarification Calls between entrepreneurs and reviews are scheduled during this window.
- April 25th: Reviews are due back to the MCN from reviewers
- May – Onwards: Mentor-matching begins.
- Ongoing program (e.g. Peer-to-Peer calls) as appropriate.
For Future Cohorts
- Social Entrepreneurs considering applying for future cohorts let us know you intend to participate via this form. We expect the next cohort to be in the summer or fall of 2022.
- For more information, entrepreneurs who are interested in learning more about, or working with the Mentor Capital Network can schedule a 30 minute zoom call with executive director Ian Fisk via calendly.com/ian-fisk.