Business Plan Contest: Examples of Impact

Social Enterprise entries have included a pool of non-profit and for profit business plans with an explicitly social agenda. Of the teams who completed plans in the Business Plan Contest in the past three years, over 25% were Social Enterprise plans.

* indicates business plan available in Baker Library/Bloomberg Center

2011 Business Plan Contest

2011 winner, SANA Care, which will provide remote cardiac diagnostic services in the emerging markets, which account for 80% of global cardiovascular disease burden. Their proprietary software and low-cost wireless sensor converts any mobile phone into a diagnostic platform capable of performing ECG, Heart/Lung Sounds and colorimetric tests and transmitting to a specialist for feedback.

2011 runner-up team, The Watt Campaign, a rapidly scaling for-profit social enterprise that mobilizes high school students to jumpstart effective energy efficiency initiatives in their schools and communities.

2011 finalist, AppSuccess, a collaborative web-based platform which matches low-income high school seniors with college students from top universities, who work together one-on-one to select colleges, complete a competitive college application, and apply for financial aid-all through the online platform.

2010 Business Plan Contest

2010 winner, Urban Water Partners, will lease slow sand water filters to Water Vendors in Dar es Salaam to provide them the added service capability of selling clean drinking water.

2010 runner-up team, EcoSquid, aggregates options for consumers to trade in or recycle unwanted electronics in a simple and efficient web platform.

2010 finalist, Wardes ("Village Kiosk")*, aims to reduce the cost of daily goods for low income households in Indonesia by enabling Consumer Goods Companies to send electronic grocery coupons.

2010 semi-finalist, Farm Builders*, will aid in the replanting of Liberia's tree crop sector by creating a sustainable, market-based, solution for smallholder farmers to access credit, technology, and markets.

2010 semi-finalist, One by One Helmets*, aims to dramatically reduce motorbike injuries in sub-Saharan Africa by catalyzing innovative helmet design, stimulating demand through social marketing, and developing novel distribution methods.

2010 semi-finalist, Visoka*, will connect existing, independent healthcare providers and generate demand by screening people at risk for chronic diseases that now account for about 50% of total disease burden in developing countries.

2009 Business Plan Contest

2009 winner, EGG-Tech aims to provide a battery charging and swapping subscription to households in Tanzania as a cheaper, safer and more convenient electricity source.

2009 runner-up team, Doodh Bhandar, with a mission to transform the lives of 1 million rural poor in India by creating a market based solution to increase the productivity of their cattle.

2008 Business Plan Contest

2008 winner, Diagnostics-for-All will provide health care agencies and commercial organizations with a new generation of pointñofñcare tools to address the diagnostic and clinical management needs of the global medical community.

2007 Business Plan Contest

2007 winner, Unite for Health! aims to reduce the burden of heart disease in China by providing training in simple, effective, and innovative treatment guidelines and channeling existing neighborhood organizations to promote heart healthy behavior.

2006 Business Plan Contest

2006 winner, The Yashmere Company* - now called Shokay - is a sustainable and socially responsible venture providing a steady source of income to marginalized communities in China by bringing "Yashmere" (yak wool) yarn and products to the U.S. market.

2006 Pilot Stage winner, Mountains for Miracles*, provides public climbers with the opportunity to join grand mountaineering expeditions and adventure treks around the world while assisting in the fight against cancer through raising funds from within respective networks of friends and family.

2005 Business Plan Contest

2005 winner, India Info Village, enhances market and government service access of rural India through and innovative "government-business-civil society" model firmly anchored in village based, for-profit, entrepreneur owned community service centers. 2005 runner-up team, Liberty Health, is designed to increase access to health insurance for the uninsured in the U.S.by eliminating the costly inefficiencies of the health insurance distribution and risk assessment process and passing these costs savings initially onto health plans and ultimately unto health insurance consumers.

2004 Business Plan Contest

2004 winner, Sun Edison, endeavors to be the largest owner and operator of solar power generation assets in the U.S.A.

2004 runner-up team, Policlinicus*, is a network of ambulatory service and training centers in Ukraine expected to set an example for future changes in the healthcare system of the country, give rise to numerous copycats, give effective work organization training to outside doctors and healthcare managers, provide better medical services to patients and a better work environment for medical professionals.

2003 Business Plan Contest

2003 winner, Gyaana, seeks to eliminate functional illiteracy in India. At a time when children are taken out of school to work and help support the family financially, Gyaana will work with microfinance and vocational training institutions to provide funds for families to invest in their children's education and to make the children's education relevant to future opportunities.

2003 runner-up team, FoodSTOP (Food Storage and Transportation Operations) is a for-profit organization dedicated to the provision of an efficient produce distribution system. The core of the business will be the provision of storage facilities and transport vehicles, for fresh produce in order to keep the produce in an environment that retards post harvest deterioration.

2003 finalist, National Service Alumni Network, serves the 500,000 Americans who have completed a term of national service. The biggest obstacle to systemic change is an absence of political will and the realization that change is possible. NSAN will inspire and strengthen some of our most committed citizens for a lifetime of civic engagement.

2002 Business Plan Contest

The 2002 winner, BEST Education Partners, is a for-profit education management company operating charter and contract K-12 public schools, optimizing the use of school facilities by also offering after-school and adult education services.

The 2002 runner-up team, The Respond Project (formerly called The Unison Project), is a plan to reproduce nationally the local success of Respond, a fundraising CD for a Boston-area shelter for battered women.

2002 finalist, Urban Enterprise Partners and Real Estate Investors, which includes a nonprofit organization that will develop and coach inner city businesses and an urban real estate investment group which will bring capital to inner city real estate and developments.

2002 finalist, Earthmaster Housing Systems, with the mission is to create an affordable, long-term solution to the urgent housing needs of the developing world.

2002 participant, Building Blocks International, a new international organization that uses MBA talent to improve educational opportunities for children in developing countries by providing organizational support to enable existing organizations to expand their research in return for measurable results.

2001 Business Plan Contest

The 2001 winner, Low Cost Eyeglasses, a social enterprise that has developed a scalable, low cost, available solution to meet the needs of the billion people in the developing world who need glasses yet don't have them.

The 2001 runner-up team, Modulo, an enterprise developed to address the severe housing shortage in Mexico using an easy-to-use modular architecture to meet the mission of "building houses for the poor."

2001 participant, The Rebuild Center, a self-sustaining enterprise that provides its customers with used or surplus building materials and also provides a work and training opportunity for a workforce of homeless and needy people.