Deadline: 15-May-22
The FINNOVATION Lab has announced an open call for the FINNOVATION Fellowship program to support impact-driven entrepreneurs as they lead and launch sustainable and innovative businesses.
The FINNOVATION Fellowship program helps build leadership and entrepreneurial skills in early-stage social entrepreneurs. Supported by the Bush Foundation, its goal is to inspire, equip, and connect social business leaders in Minnesota and beyond through an immersive nine-month program.
They are looking for fellows who are:
- Eager to develop innovative business models grounded in deep insights into the problem
- Open to learning, experimenting, and growing to be a better leader
- Passionate about expanding your perspective on the possible impact you can make
- Committed to participating in the program at a minimum of 35 hours a week.
You should apply, if:
- You:
- Are curious and dedicated to progress.
- FINN Fellows see everything as an opportunity for growth and seek out collaboration.
- Your Enterprises:
- Is innovative, has a revenue-generating component, and solves a real need.
- Early-stage ventures get mentorship and coaching on strategy, customer insight, and building sustainable impact.
- Your Impact:
- Makes a difference in Minnesota and potentially beyond.
- All areas of impact are welcome including education, health, environment, hunger, or poverty alleviation.
Qualities
Here are other qualities that they look for:
- Innovation: your idea represents a truly unique approach to addressing the problem.
- Impact Potential: this idea could potentially be scaled to impact many individual lives, a community, or systems/structures.
- Financial Sustainability: your business will generate revenue by filling a need of paying customers.
- Entrepreneurial: you’re realistic about what it means to be an entrepreneur and have demonstrated such qualities as being proactive and a self-starter, resilient, and a critical thinker.
- Continuous Learner: you are curious, a great listener, reflective, and have the ability to admit mistakes and apply learning to future situations.
- Leadership: you have demonstrated leadership skills (such as empathy, inspiring/motivating others to action, strategic/forward-thinking, ability to bridge differences in opinion, and self-awareness), and have the desire to further grow as a leader.
Benefits
- Curriculum designed to help develop leadership skills in a successful social enterprise
- Access to an entrepreneurial community of advisors and mentors with relevant expertise, advice, and feedback
- Dedicated space at FINN Lab to support the growth (and fun!) that comes from coworking alongside their cohort and other professionals
- Up to $53k covered in living and health expenses
Duration
- The program runs from September 2022 – June 2023.
Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible to apply you must:
- Be authorized to work in the United States
- Be at least 18 years of age
- Either currently live in or be willing to move to the Twin Cities Metro Area in Minnesota, and have an idea that will impact individuals or a community in MN
- Be dedicated to solving a social or environmental issue through entrepreneurship
- Not be a Bush Fellow during the FINN Fellowship program term
- Not be related to any members of the Bush Foundation’s staff or board of directors
- You or your spouse cannot be a government official during the program term
- Be able to participate in the program 35 hrs/week from September – June and work out of the FINNOVATION Lab space in Minneapolis, MN
- If your social enterprise is already operating, you are not eligible to apply if:
- you or someone else has been paid to work on it full-time for over one year
- you are not the primary decision-maker
- you do not own all the IP, trademarks, or copyrights related to the business should they exist.
For more information, visit https://www.finn-lab.com/fellowship
