Applications are now being accepted for entrepreneur Fellows and Mentors for the SJF Cleantech Mentorship Program. We’re expanding the SJF Cleantech Mentorship Program to the Southeast and Appalachia, as well as the Northern Mid-Atlantic and NYC Metro regions, to provide innovators with valuable resources and connections to grow their businesses and increase their positive impacts.
SJF’s network of mentors and other entrepreneurs is the most powerful aspect of the program, according to Kelly Sickles of Noveda Technologies, a 2010 Cleantech Fellow. “Now that relationships have been established, there are opportunities to work together and stay in touch to share advice,” she said. The 2010 program included an impressive lineup of industry leaders serving as mentors, including Columbia University’s Bruce Usher, former CEO at EcoSecurities; Michael Caslin, Chairman and CEO at Urgent VC; David Anthony, Managing Partner at 21Ventures; Cary Bullock, President and CEO of GreenFuel Technologies; Ron Croce, COO at Validus DC Systems; Owen Davis, Managing Director at NYC Seed; Bill O’Farrell, Senior Advisor at Old Square Capital, Founder and Managing Director of Ground Floor, and CEO at SpeechWorks; Jeff Stewart, Founder and CEO of Urgent Career; Kevin Dutt, Managing Director at Sustainable Edge; Preston Henske, Partner at Bain & Company; and John F. X. Keane, Division Director at Citibank.
Mentors work closely with Fellows to improve their ability to attract private investment capital. The 2010 mentorship program included content sessions on topics such as strategic planning, pitching to investors and valuation/terms discussions, sales and marketing strategy, managing growth and effective leadership, and one-on-ones with investors. “The opportunity to share experiences and solutions with other early stage CEOs and to learn from the mentors was incredibly valuable to our company as we started to grow,” said Benjamin S. Parvey II of Blue Sky Power LLC, another 2010 Fellow.
2010 Cleantech Fellows and some of their accomplishments include:
- BlackGold Biofuels, a company that first began producing biodiesel at its San Francisco waste water treatment plant, was recently recognized among Going Green’s Top 50, honored as a finalist in ImagineH2O’s Water Energy Competition, and took second place in Global Water Intelligence’s investment competition.
- Blue Sky Power was awarded “Best New Company” by the NJ Conference of Mayors in 2009 and moved to a LEED Gold Waterfront Technology Center in Camden.
- Ener-G-Rotors placed first at the New Energy Technologies Clean Tech Business Plan Competition during the TechConnectWorld’s 2010 Conference.
- Noveda Technologies won a PS&G award for solar monitoring and was also recognized as NJ’s enviro-energy company of the year.
- PaceControls announced a large scale rollout for a major retail chain serving over 3.5 mm square feet of storage space.
- ThinkEco announced an agreement with Con Edison to develop and deploy energy-management technology for window air conditioners.
- TerraFusion, a company that offers a range of biomass-based construction products to help clients save money, simplify construction processes and reduce their environmental impact.
- SOMS Technologies is a company with an eco-friendly oil filter product that enables vehicles to operate up to 30,000 miles before having to change the vehicles motor oil.
- Locus Energy, whose customers include installers under the CT Solar Lease program, had a rollout funded by NYSERDA with 200 units in NY.
Interested, early stage cleantech entrepreneurs that are committed to accelerating their private company’s growth may now enroll to become a cleantech Fellow in the Northern Mid-Atlantic and NYC Metro region (http://www.sjfinstitute.org/node/387) or in the Southeast/ Appalachia (http://www.sjfinstitute.org/node/385).
Thank you to our 2011 Sponsors of the SJF Cleantech Mentorship Program NYC Metro Region!
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Bronze Sponsors
