The Wharton Venture Capital Club and Wharton Social Impact Club are seeking social entrepreneurs to participate in the 2011 Sustainable Venture Capital Competition (SVCIC), which will be held on Penn’s campus on February 26, 2011.  SVCIC brings together social entrepreneurs and venture capitalists who are active in impact investing to offer MBA students exposure to the investment process.  Student teams act as VCs for a day to evaluate social enterprises and develop an investment thesis that considers both financial and social returns, and then present their recommendations to a panel of VC judges, who will provide feedback to both the students and entrepreneurs.

As a participating entrepreneur, you will have the opportunity to practice your investment pitch, which will afford the following benefits:

• An audience of VC judges from prestigious US firms; judges expected from Acumen Fund, Calvert, Grassroots Business Fund, and Burrill & Company
• The chance to expose your business plan to a large, savvy audience of students, venture capitalists, professors, advisors and spectators on the day of the competition
• Coverage of your business plan in the Wharton Journal, which is distributed to 1500 of the nation’s top MBA students
• Solid due diligence questions from top business school students
• Written deliverables from teams, along with oral feedback from students and judges

We are seeking entrepreneurs pursuing a double or triple bottom line business across any industry.  Ideally, the organization would have some revenue or initial traction with customers, and be actively pursuing or considering pursuing early stage financing.

Please respond to Sean Dowling (sdowling@wharton.upenn.edu) if you wish to be considered for this competition, and provide the following byFebruary 11^th, 2011:

• Your business plan in its current form for review
• Confirmation of your availability (or that of a C-level executive) from 9am to 4pm on Saturday, February 26, 2011

Don’t hesitate to reach out to Sean if you have any questions in the meantime, and please pass this along to any friends or colleagues you think might be interested.

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