WASHINGTON (Nov. 14, 2011) – Startup Open, a competition for startups with high-growth potential featured as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) 2011, today announced the two grand prize winners: Kavita Shukla, founder of Fenugreen, and Jason Ethier, founder of Dynamo Micropower. The two Boston-area entrepreneurs were selected from a group of startups dubbed the “GEW 50” announced last month. In selecting the winners, a panel of judges took into account each of the startups’ concept, growth projections and knowledge of their industry.

“Young firms, like those conceptualized by Kavita and Jason, are the linchpins to revitalizing the world economy,” said Carl Schramm, president and CEO of the Kauffman Foundation, founder of Global Entrepreneurship Week. “Their ingenuity, innovation and entrepreneurial passions exemplify the spirit of entrepreneurship and will inspire others to strive to create new firms.”

Shukla’s Fenugreen offers patented, all-natural material to address the global challenge of food spoilage. The sustainable product keeps food fresher from “farm to fork” by helping reduce transportation, inventory and energy costs. Shukla will receive an all-expenses paid trip to participate in the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Liverpool in March 2012. The Congress will bring together entrepreneurs, investors, global leaders and startup champions from more than 100 countries. Shukla will have the opportunity to showcase her business plan on a global scale, gain valuable insight from successful and experienced entrepreneurs, and network with world leaders and economists.

Ethier’s Dynamo Micropower has developed a proprietary ultra-micro turbine architecture that will supplant conventional power solutions in the sub-10kW range. Ethier will receive one year of mentoring from Redbox founding members and serial entrepreneurs Michael DeLazzer and Biju Kulathaka, courtesy of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO). The program will include a trip to DeLazzer’s home in Marco Island, Fla. where Ethier’s business plan will be scrutinized and market opportunities will be identified.

Selected startups from the “GEW 50” will be invited to participate in Start-Up Chile, a ground-breaking program that attracts world-class, early-stage entrepreneurs from around the world to start a business in Chile. The program offers startups $40,000 in equity-free, seed capital and a one-year work visa in Chile, along with access to the most potent social and capital networks in the country. “GEW 50” company participation could help Start-Up Chile reach its goal of bringing in 300 participants to Chile in 2011.

The Startup Open competition, now in its second year, was open to entrepreneurs who had a “startup moment” between GEW 2010 and GEW 2011 (11/22/10 to 11/20/11). A startup moment is defined as any event related to launching a new business, such as incorporating a company; officially opening the doors for business; completing a first sale; and securing outside funding.

Today’s announcement coincides with the beginning of GEW, an initiative to spur new ideas, ingenuity and firm creation through local, national and global activities. A record 123 countries will take part in the week-long event. In the U.S. alone, more than 1,400 organizations – including top universities, non-profit organizations, startups, government agencies and corporate sponsors – will host 3,500 GEW events.

For more information on the 2011 Startup Open winners, visit startupopen.com. To learn more about what is happening around the world during the GEW 2011, visit unleashingideas.org.

Global Entrepreneurship Week

During one week each November, thousands of activities around the world inspire millions to engage in entrepreneurial action while connecting them to potential mentors, collaborators and investors. In four short years, Global Entrepreneurship Week has expanded to more than 100 countries—empowering nearly 20 million people through 95,000 activities. Powered by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the initiative is supported by dozens of world leaders and a growing network of 24,000 partner organizations. For more information, visit unleashingideas.org, and follow @unleashingideas on Twitter.

Kauffman Foundation

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is a private nonpartisan foundation that works to harness the power of entrepreneurship and innovation to grow economies and improve human welfare. Through its research and other initiatives, the Kauffman Foundation aims to open young people’s eyes to the possibility of entrepreneurship, promote entrepreneurship education, raise awareness of entrepreneurship-friendly policies, and find alternative pathways for the commercialization of new knowledge and technologies. In addition, the Foundation focuses on initiatives in the Kansas City region to advance students’ math and science skills, and improve the educational achievement of urban students, including the Ewing Marion Kauffman School, a college preparatory charter school for middle and high school students set to open in 2011. Founded by late entrepreneur and philanthropist Ewing Marion Kauffman, the Foundation is based in Kansas City, Mo. and has approximately $2 billion in assets. For more information, visit kauffman.org, and follow the Foundation on Twitter at @kauffmanfdn and Facebook.

Last week, one of Tennessee’s startups was tabbed as one of the ‘GEW 50′–the most promising startups launched around the world since Global Entrepreneurship Week 2010. It marks the second straight year that a new Chattanooga firm has been recognized as part of the Startup Open competition. 

The following is a blog post originally published on the Company Lab (Co.Lab) site.

………………………………… 

GEW Lists Cumberland Signal Labs Among World’s Top 50 Startups

Chattanooga companies keep showing up in big ways! We were notified today that Global Entrepreneurship Weekk selected 48Hour Launch participant, Cumberland Signal Labs (CSL), as one of the top 50 start-ups… ON THE PLANET! How awesome is that?!

GEW reviewed hundreds of applications from over 60 countries and selected 50 start-ups based on the concept, growth projections, and knowledge of the industry. More details about the list can be found herere.

CSL was chosen, and now founder Richard Hardin has a chance to win:

• an all-expenses-paid trip and VIP delegate credentials to participate in Liverpool’s Global Entrepreneurship Congress in March 2012
• one year of mentoring from Redbox founding members and serial entrepreneurs Michael DeLazzer and Biju Kulathaka
• other great prizes.

Seriously… how sweet is that?!

So, our friends from Secure Waterss made the list last year, CSL is our second GEW Top 50, and there is a chance we could see the third at this fall’s 48Hour Launch on 11/11/11. We’re especially excited this time around because we are Tennessee’s official kickoff event for Global Entrepreneurship Week!

How awesome would it be to have back-to-back events produce top 50 start-ups?!

Wisty Pender, representing GEW TN, is excited as well. She says, “We are really excited that The Company Lab is kicking-off Tennessee’s 2011 Global Entrepreneurship Week with 48Hour Launch! The creativity and innovation that go into and emerge from an event like this is a testament to the role that entrepreneurs play in innovation and ultimately job creation. There is an amazing slate of activities engaging entrepreneurs and future entrepreneurs across the State including pitch competitions, speaker forums, training events, speed networking, celebrations and much more. It’s going to be a great week!”

Who’s going to create the next big Chattanooga buisness??

Maybe you…

Get Started

Kansas City, Mo. (July 27, 2011) – Startup Open aims to answer a question plaguing economists, investors and Main Street alike: Who are the next generation of entrepreneurs that will grow to become tomorrow’s Google, Apple or Facebook? Startup Open is a competition that recognizes the “GEW 50,” a group of 50 companies deemed to have the greatest chance of growing into game-changing firms that will move markets and create jobs.

Startup Open today announced its top honors and prizes, which will be awarded during Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) 2011. One winner will receive an all-expenses paid trip and VIP delegate credentials to participate in Liverpool’s Global Entrepreneurship Congress in March, 2012. The Congress will bring together entrepreneurs, investors, global leaders and startup champions from more than 100 countries. While there, the Startup Open winner will have the opportunity to showcase its business plan on a global scale, gain valuable insight from successful and experienced entrepreneurs, and network with world leaders, economists and other experts.

“Job creation rests in the hands of high-growth startups, those with the agility to navigate tough marketplaces while solving real-world issues through innovations that improve lives,” said Carl Schramm, president and CEO of the Kauffman Foundation. “Startup Open is designed to identify these startups and give them the tools to make real, fundamental change.”

A second Startup Open winner will receive one year of mentoring from Redbox founding members and serial entrepreneurs Michael DeLazzer and Biju Kulathaka, courtesy of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization. The program will include a trip to DeLazzer’s home in Marco Island, Fla., where the winner’s business plan will be scrutinized and market opportunities will be identified. Redbox is the second largest video rental company in the world, with more than 35,000 locations in the United States and revenue exceeding $1 billion.

“Participating in Startup Open deeply changed the way I think about my company and the impact it can have if we pick the right path. We were challenged to think bigger than ever before,” said Olivier Ceberio of Resolute Marine Energy, the 2010 Startup Open Grand Prize Winner.

Select startups from those named to the “GEW 50” will be invited to participate in Start-Up Chile, a ground-breaking program that attracts world-class, early-stage entrepreneurs from around the world and gets them to start their firms in Chile. Participating startups will receive $40,000 in equity-free, seed capital and a one-year work visa in Chile, along with access to the most potent social and capital networks in the country. The involvement of the “GEW 50” aims to help Start-Up Chile reach its goal of bringing in 300 participants to Chile in 2011.

Startup Open is a featured competition of GEW, an initiative founded by the Kauffman Foundation to spur new ideas, ingenuity and firm creation through local, national and global activities in more than 100 countries. The competition, now in its second year, is open to entrepreneurs who have a “startup moment” between GEW 2010 and GEW 2011 (Nov. 22, 2010 to Nov. 20, 2011). A startup moment is defined as any action related to launching a new business, such as incorporating a company; officially opening the doors for business; completing a first sale; or securing outside funding. The “GEW 50” will be announced on Oct. 15, 2011, with those companies then competing for the top honors and prizes to be announced at the start of GEW 2011 on Nov. 14.

Startup Open applicants will have until Sept. 15 to submit their “startup moment.”

For more information on how to enter and the 2010 winners, please visit www.startupopen.com.

Global Entrepreneurship Week

During one week each November, thousands of activities around the world inspire millions to engage in entrepreneurial action while connecting them to potential mentors, collaborators and investors. In three short years, Global Entrepreneurship Week has expanded to more than 100 countries—empowering nearly 20 million people through 95,000 activities. Powered by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the initiative is supported by dozens of world leaders and a growing network of 24,000 partner organizations. For more information, visit www.unleashingideas.org, and follow @unleashingideas on Twitter.

Kauffman Foundation

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is a private nonpartisan foundation that works to harness the power of entrepreneurship and innovation to grow economies and improve human welfare. Through its research and other initiatives, the Kauffman Foundation aims to open young people’s eyes to the possibility of entrepreneurship, promote entrepreneurship education, raise awareness of entrepreneurship-friendly policies, and find alternative pathways for the commercialization of new knowledge and technologies. In addition, the Foundation focuses on initiatives in the Kansas City region to advance students’ math and science skills, and improve the educational achievement of urban students, including the Ewing Marion Kauffman School, a college preparatory charter school for middle and high school students set to open in 2011. Founded by late entrepreneur and philanthropist Ewing Marion Kauffman, the Foundation is based in Kansas City, Mo. and has approximately $2 billion in assets. For more information, visit www.kauffman.org, and follow the Foundation on Twitter at @kauffmanfdn and Facebook.

Kansas City, Mo. (May 26, 2011) – Startup Open, a competition that recognizes startups with high-growth potential, has launched its search for the 50 most promising new startups around the world as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) 2011. The “GEW 50” will be announced on Oct. 15, 2011, with those companies then competing for the top honors and prizes.

“Economic growth and job creation is directly tied to young businesses with the potential to become part of tomorrow’s Fortune 500, so recognizing and rewarding those most promising startups on the path to success may inspire others to follow their examples,” said Carl Schramm, president and CEO of the Kauffman Foundation.

Startup Open is a featured competition of GEW, an initiative founded by the Kauffman Foundation to spur new ideas, ingenuity and firm creation through local, national and global activities in more than 100 countries. The competition, now in its second year, is open to entrepreneurs who have a “startup moment” between GEW 2010 and GEW 2011 (Nov. 22, 2010 to Nov. 20, 2011). A startup moment is defined as any action related to launching a new business, such as incorporating a company; officially opening the doors for business; completing a first sale; or securing outside funding.

Startup Open applicants will be judged on concept, growth projections and knowledge of their industry. A handful of companies winning the top honors and prizes will be announced on Nov. 14 as GEW 2011 gets underway.

The Startup Open 2010 grand prize winner received a trip to Richard Branson’s privately owned Necker Island. Winner Olivier Ceberio, founder of Resolute Marine Energy (RME) in Boston, Mass., recently returned from his trip, where he took part in multiple networking sessions with Branson and other successful entrepreneurs. Additional activities included a sailboat race with Branson and a trip around the island in the “Necker Belle” catamaran. Ceberio won the top prize at GEW 2010 for his RME plan to develop wave energy converters that generate clean energy from ocean waves. The goal of RME is to aid the 1.2 billion people worldwide who lack access to safe drinking water.

“During my stay at Necker Island, I had the opportunity to learn from and exchange ideas with some of the brightest and most inspiring entrepreneurs in the world,” said Ceberio. “I am very grateful to the Kauffman Foundation for providing me with this invaluable experience that will help expand my network as I improve and grow my business.”

Last year’s second and third places winners received two days of mentoring at Kauffman Labs for Enterprise Creation, a Kauffman Foundation program. Entrepreneurs Stas Samarin of PulmoCAD, LLC in St. Louis and Kahoru Watanabe of Wing Power Inc in Sarasota, Fla., had the opportunity to hear new ideas and feedback on how to improve their business models from every angle.

Startup Open applicants will have until Sept. 15 to submit their startup moment. For more information on how to enter and the 2010 winners, please visit www.startupopen.com.

Global Entrepreneurship Week

During one week each November, thousands of activities around the world inspire millions to engage in entrepreneurial action while connecting them to potential mentors, collaborators and investors. In three short years, Global Entrepreneurship Week has expanded to more than 100 countries—empowering nearly 20 million people through 95,000 activities. Powered by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the initiative is supported by dozens of world leaders and a growing network of 24,000 partner organizations. For more information, visit www.unleashingideas.org, and follow @unleashingideas on Twitter.

Kauffman Foundation

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is a private nonpartisan foundation that works to harness the power of entrepreneurship and innovation to grow economies and improve human welfare. Through its research and other initiatives, the Kauffman Foundation aims to open young people’s eyes to the possibility of entrepreneurship, promote entrepreneurship education, raise awareness of entrepreneurship-friendly policies, and find alternative pathways for the commercialization of new knowledge and technologies. In addition, the Foundation focuses on initiatives in the Kansas City region to advance students’ math and science skills, and improve the educational achievement of urban students, including the Ewing Marion Kauffman School, a college preparatory charter school for middle and high school students set to open in 2011. Founded by late entrepreneur and philanthropist Ewing Marion Kauffman, the Foundation is based in Kansas City, Mo. and has approximately $2 billion in assets. For more information, visit www.kauffman.org, and follow the Foundation on Twitter at @kauffmanfdn and Facebook.

First, I’d like to thank the Kaufman Foundation for hosting me on my visit to Kansas City. It was a very intense and exciting journey that ventured into every aspect of our business model and plan.

A light, yet important note, they have the best cafeteria food!!! Also my “Master of ceremonies” Jennifer Kearns was terrific and ensured that there was never a dull moment during my visit, including providing me with the very important local knowledge such as where to find the best Kansas City ribs….

The pace for this experience was set on the first morning in my first meeting with Bo Fishback, the Vice President of Entrepreneurship who set the fast and furious pace that would be my visit.  Needless to say he had the intensity and broad vision that befits this organization full of over achievers…. I remember him saying “you may not necessarily like everything you hear, but you’ll get ideas and feedback on your business from every angle.”

He was certainly right about the “every angle part”, but in retrospect, our Business Plan certainly seemed to hold up to the scrutiny and the various creative inputs it was put through by everyone. Other than my reluctant acceptance that I need to look more carefully into the wonders of social networking tools, I was very pleased by the feedback.

I am now more confident than ever that there will be less that will surprise or derail me in the future.  I suppose what I was put through by the various staff members was no different than what I imagine a Graduate student goes through when orally defending their final dissertation. In this case, it just happened to be our business model and plan. I am quite certain that this process has great value to potential entrepreneurs particularly prior to being exposed to the “real world” of fund raising.

The final bonus was a phone conference with a Vijay Chandrasekharan, who has developed a new technology being tested by NASA….(Not bad) and who is interested in refining our patented technology in a manner that will bring our performance to a new level. Between what were already doing in computer modeling at the College of Aeronautics at the Florida Institute of Technology and now with the potential of using Vijays invention (and potential use of the wind tunnels at the University of Florida), I’m not sure we could do any better in the refinement of our blade design.

Thanks to: Doug Krebs, Matt Pozel, Adam Hoffman, Nick Seguin, Jamie Rice, all of you have made me stronger and one step closer to having a reasonable chance at executing on this business plan in an effort to create a transformational company!!!

The timing of my visit could not have been better, as over the next 2 months, I will be attending various fund raising & networking events where I will be faced with the exact variety of questions and scrutiny that all of you put me through.

When I started my new life with Resolute Marine Energy, two years ago, I knew where I wanted to go: to create a profitable business around a system that would use the incredible power available in the oceans to drive a desalination system and provide water in coastal communities for millions of people in developing nations. What I did not know was what would be the journey to get there and I was surely not prepared that this journey would bring me to spend one day in the Necker Island in the company of Sir Richard Branson and a group of twenty amazing business mavericks as the prize of winning the Startup Open Competition 2010.

The island is a unique pearl in the British Virgin Islands and when I was lucky to get five minutes of tranquility, it was a delight to contemplate the infinite ocean unfolding from the panoramic resort built on its top.

The day flew like a dream: a race in hobby cat with Sir Branson as personal pilot; a trip around the island in the Necker Belle, a catamaran that looks more like a floating resort than a sailboat; a casino night; and several networking sessions where I could mingle with some of the brightest people I ever met.

But, I think it is during the morning brainstorming session that I got the most interesting insights from the group. The participants in the Maverick Business Adventures were all incredible entrepreneurs with… incredible stories! From the young entrepreneur who created his third business by the time he was 17 or the courageous one who survived cancer and transformed such a dreadful experience into her most positive life-changing event. All of them had something meaningful to share.

One comment I particularly resonate with was from Dan Sullivan, founder and president of Strategic Coach, Inc. He said that “getting results doesn’t take time, it’s the not getting results that takes up all the time”. I envision the exercise of entrepreneurship as an incremental process similar to learning how to ride a bicycle: you try, fall, stand up and ride again hoping you understood why you fell down in the first place. But learning how to ride is not enough; you need to ride in the direction that focuses on the results you want to achieve because any other directions is source of unnecessary distraction.

This trip on Necker Island was a rich experience that will, without doubt, help me in my journey as entrepreneur and I am very grateful for the chance that was given to me by the Kauffman Foundation; the Startup Open and to all the people I was lucky to meet there.