Partnerships With Sponsors
What is One Million by One Million (1M/1M)?
One Million by One Million (1M/1M) is a global virtual incubator for entrepreneurs headquartered in Silicon Valley. The 1M/1M initiative aims to nurture a million entrepreneurs to reach a $1 million each in annual revenue and beyond by 2020, thereby creating a $ 1 trillion in global GDP and ten million jobs.
Why Sponsor 1M/1M Entrepreneur Scholarship?
1M/1M supports local economic development worldwide through local partnerships.
We provide a robust and scalable process of acceleration for technology entrepreneurs by collaborating with businesses, non-profits and agencies that support entrepreneurs locally.
We also collaborate with businesses that act as sponsors for 1M/1M scholarships.
Some businesses sponsor 1M/1M scholarships as a part of their own biz dev strategy. The entrepreneurs that they sponsor later contribute to their own bottom line through a partnership or acquisition. This could entail developing products on their platforms, for example. [See: Platform Eco-System Partnerships]
Other businesses sponsor 1M/1M scholarship because they care about their local community development and they find the 1M/1M process of local entrepreneurship development being robust, effective and scalable.
If you are a prospective sponsor, think about this: If your community can identify and help accelerate 100 promising businesses from an idea to revenues this year, what economic impact would that have on your eco-system? More products built on your platform? More jobs? More wealth? More investors put their money to work? More local heroes and community leaders?
What if your community can accelerate 100 entrepreneurs year after year? Or, if you are a large community, what if you can accelerate 1000 entrepreneurs year after year? Think about the cumulative impact it will have on your eco-system!
That is exactly what 1M/1M can help your eco-system do, whether you have 100 entrepreneurs in your community or 1,000, 1M/1M will help you accelerate all of those entrepreneurs in a very cost effective way, year after year.
How Does 1M/1M Use Sponsors’ Dollars?
Each sponsors’ dollar goes towards a 1M/1M scholarships for entrepreneurs. It takes $1,000 dollars to support one 1M/1M entrepreneur for a year.
1M/1M does not take equity in 1M/1M member companies. 1M/1M does not charge entrepreneurs any additional fees for additional services during their membership. We are very straightforward in our fees: $1,000 membership fee for a year for each entrepreneur in the program. It is such a great deal that some members say it is worth $100,000 to them!
Are You a Prospective Sponsor for a 1M/1M Scholarship?
To date, Microsoft, DMGT (UK), Elance and many other global corporations have partnered with 1M/1M in support of entrepreneurship, by providing 1M/1M scholarships to entrepreneurs on a competitive basis. Please take a look at some partner sponsored events here.
We start by enrolling six local entrepreneurs in the 1M/1M program for one year, for which we would seek your support in the amount of $6,000. This money will provide for (6) 1M/1M scholarships awarded to (6) local entrepreneurs who prove their readiness to build a strong and sustainable businesses during a well-publicized Pitch-Fest competition.
We strongly encourage the involvement of other local organizations and companies in this project.
The entrepreneurs who wish to compete will complete an application form and finalists are selected based on these applications. In the 6/10 pitch fests, 10 finalists pitch live or virtually during the competition, and six winners are announced at the end.
Like the 1M/1M strategy roundtables, these contests can be held by videoconference (Webex Events), and they can have live components to them, or they can be live-only or web-only events.
Representatives from your organization, and other local entrepreneurs and eco-system leaders are encouraged to help with judging the contests. The objective would be to involve a lot of local leaders in the events as judges and give them some global visibility.
In each event, while the judging is taking place, a 1M/1M video will be played, explaining the program, and the prizes.
The prizes for these contests are 1M/1M scholarships ($1,000 value each), for which we are seeking sponsorship. Please consider sponsoring a Pitch-Fest competition for local entrepreneurs costing $6,000 as a pilot.
Please take a look at some examples of sponsored events here. All scholarship winners are currently going through the 1M/1M program.
How Do We Scale the Process of Local Entrepreneurship Development?
When this US $6,000 pilot is successful, we can create a series of such contests and hold them quarterly or monthly with you as our partner.
Overall, with the support of like-minded sponsors, we can create the following overarching benefits to local communities:
- Local Entrepreneurs – get to accelerate their businesses at 1M/1M, a rigorous and comprehensive program deeply anchored in the Silicon Valley methodology and network. The US $6,000 sponsorship fee will allow 1M/1M to incubate six entrepreneurs for a year.
- Sponsoring Partner – gets regional and global visibility with all the PR that the contest will generate. Sponsorship dollars can be viewed as a marketing or biz dev expense, but with greater overall benefits, like lending real support to entrepreneurs and economic development in your community.
- Local Community – gets the benefit of an efficient and scalable development of its own entrepreneurship eco-system, which enables cost effective wealth creation for the region.
If you are interested in partnering with 1M/1M, please contact Maureen Kelly.
