submit your idea

What is the Day One Accelerator? 

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The Day One Accelerator gives anyone with a promising science and tech policy idea the tools to develop a proposal for action and advocate for it. Participants need not be experts in policy making to contribute—they just need to be passionate about a promising idea.

 

Over the course of a part-time 45-day sprint, our team and network of policy experts guide participants through a process—with training, technical assistance, and dedicated resources—to convert an initial idea into a tailored policy proposal memo with a concrete set of implementable policy actions aimed at a policymaker audience. 

 

What is the Day One Entrepreneurship Policy Accelerator?

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The Day One Project seeks impactful entrepreneurship policy ideas for participation in the upcoming Day One Entrepreneurship Policy Accelerator. Thanks to support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, we are able to offer a dedicated entrepreneurship policy accelerator devoted to incubating policy ideas that address the challenges faced by entrepreneurs – an urgent task as we embark on the road to economic recovery.

 

Over the course of the program, participants who understand the challenges entrepreneurs face are guided through a process to transform their ideas into a tailored policy memo with a concrete set of implementable policy actions aimed at a policymaker audience. Participants commit to the accelerator on a part-time basis and interact with veteran policymakers to convert their idea into a ready-for-action federal policy memo. These memos will contribute ideas for an entrepreneurship policy agenda to inform the priorities of the next presidential term on Day One.

Benefits of participating

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  1. Learning - You will have access to training, technical assistance, and dedicated resources for you to develop or refine your policy development and advocacy skills, regardless of your background.

  2. Networking and Mentorship - Not only will you work hand-in-hand with the Day One team, but you will collaborate with your cohort and our network of entrepreneurship policy experts and policymakers convened to hear your ideas in a final showcase event.

  3. Impact - Ultimately, you will be given the chance to showcase your policy recommendation to veteran policymakers and contribute to the entrepreneurship policy agenda provided to the next presidential administration on Day One of their term.

Who should apply?


Participants need not be lifelong policy experts, although they are welcome. What we are looking for is someone who has a deep understanding of the challenges entrepreneurs face and ideas for how to solve them. The ideal candidate may have experience as one of the following:

  • An entrepreneur

  • A graduate student or academic researcher focused on entrepreneurship

  • A small business investor or venture capitalist

  • An active leader or supporter of their local entrepreneurial community

What kind of ideas are we looking for?


We are looking for a diverse range of creative ideas from people who have experience in the entrepreneurial world, but will use components of Start Us Up: America’s New Business Plan, a Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation initiative, as guideposts. We encourage you to refer to the whole plan, but have included select examples related to each of the plan's main components here for inspiration:

Opportunity: A level playing field and less red tape to promote diversity and access

Streamline the process of starting a business. Require an Entrepreneurship Impact Statement (EIS) for all new laws, regulations, and rules developed that affect businesses less than 5 years old. Establish a startup visa that authorizes foreign entrepreneurs to start businesses in the United States. Replace occupational licensing with less onerous forms of regulation. Restrict the use of noncompetes through outright bans or by shortening the maximum duration.



Funding: Equal access to the right kind of capital everywhere

Develop state and local entrepreneurial capital catalyst grants. Request that Congress make substantial funding available to states for strengthening the private financing of new businesses. Incentivize financial innovation that addresses gaps in capital access by spurring the creation of new funding models and technologies that serve all types of new businesses. Raise the Regulation Crowdfunding offering limit so new businesses requiring larger amounts of capital may utilize this tool. Expand the nation’s investor base by updating accreditation standards to allow more investors with high financial sophistication to participate.



Knowledge: The know-how to start a business

Integrate entrepreneurship into K-16 education. Create pay-for-success models that provide federal support to organizations that serve entrepreneurs when certain agreed-upon benchmarks are met, such as the number of new businesses created. Collaborate to develop an Entrepreneurship Corps, or “E-Corps,” to mentor and train entrepreneurs. Prioritize entrepreneurial skill-building, access to networks, and new business creation as key components of workforce training programs.



Support: The ability for all to take risks

Provide health care options for early-stage entrepreneurs. Permit entrepreneurs to make “reach-back” contributions to their retirement accounts for a limited number of years, and to have the tax deferral apply to the current tax year in which those payments are made. Provide entrepreneurs relief from student loan debt.



Before You Submit

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  1. Check out our FAQ.

  2. Review our policy papers and check out the ideas and backgrounds of our first cohort (note: our first cohort did not have an entrepreneurship-specific cohort as this one will).

  3. Preview the questions in the submission form below.

Timeline and Process

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  1. We are accepting submissions on a rolling basis.

  2. Late summer/early fall, we are working with a cohort of entrepreneurship accelerator participants to join our program and develop their idea into a Day One Policy Memo.

  3. At the end of the process, participants have a chance to pitch their idea to an audience of policymakers at a Day One event later this year.

  4. The entrepreneurship accelerator cohort will have the opportunity to integrate their idea into a policy agenda to inform the priorities of the next presidential administration in the new year.

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1112 16th Street NW

Washington, DC 20036

info@dayoneproject.org

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An initiative of the Federation of American Scientists

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