Entrepreneurship
Policy Accelerator
What is the Day One Entrepreneurship Policy Accelerator?
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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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.
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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.
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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:
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An entrepreneur
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A graduate student or academic researcher focused on entrepreneurship
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A small business investor or venture capitalist
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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:
Timeline and Process
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Submit your entrepreneurial policy idea below by July 17th, 2020 at 11:59pm EST to be considered for our next entrepreneurship accelerator cohort.
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Later this summer, we will invite a cohort of entrepreneurship accelerator participants to join our program and develop their idea into a Day One Policy Memo.
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At the end of the program, participants have a chance to pitch their idea to an audience of policymakers at a Day One event later this year.
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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.
Before You Submit
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Check out our FAQ.
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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).
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Preview the questions in the submission form below.