Deadline: April 28, 2023
Applications are open for the Halcyon Climate Resilience in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) Intensive Fellowship 2023. Halcyon’s newest fellowship is designed for entrepreneurs that seek to build climate resilience across the Latin America and the Caribbean to combat the compounding effects of climate change on poverty, food insecurity, health disparities, and displacement – issues predominantly faced by vulnerable populations.
Below are some examples:
- Nature based solutions that improve resilience and support livelihoods
- Health solutions that respond to the impacts of climate (e.g., supporting air quality, early detection of emerging infectious disease, etc.)
- Financial tools that support ability to respond to climate related shocks
- Energy solutions that reduce impacts on health / improve access to clean air
Benefits
- A $5,000 USD per venture equity-free stipend to use toward travel expenses to attend the residencie.
- One week long residency at Halcyon’s facilities in Georgetown, Washington, DC
- One week long residency in Mexico City with a culminating event featuring pitches from each venture and connections to investors, advisors, and media
- Free workshops focused on investment readiness training, preparing ventures for scale with a focus on customer discovery and ethical product
- Supporting founder leadership development
- Honing storytelling and pitching
- Access to pro bono legal support
- $25,000 USD in Amazon Cloud credits
- Join a community of over 300 impact driven entrepreneurs
Eligibility
To be eligible for this fellowship, you:
- Must live in and/or have your venture based in Latin America or the Caribbean.
- Applicant must be the CEO and/or hold primary decision-making power in the growth and strategic vision for the venture’s development and management.
- Must be able to make a full-time commitment to work on the venture during the residency phases (**July 31- August 4, 2023 in DC and **October 16-20 in Mexico City).
- Must be able to attend monthly virtual meetings and residency programming in-person in Washington, DC and Mexico City.
- Must be fluent in English.
- Must be at least 21 years of age by the start of the program.
- May apply on your own or with up to one Co-Founder who meets the above eligibility requirements.
- Must be willing to contribute to the growth and development of Halcyon’s fellow community.
To be eligible for this fellowship, your venture:
- Must be an original idea of the applicant(s).
- Your venture must be focusing on nature-based, health-based, financial tools, or energy solutions to build climate resilience across the region.
- Must be at Minimal Viable Product (MVP) stage.
- Must be an independent or autonomous venture that is not under the direction of an existing organization.
- Must have plans for a sustainable business model to generate revenue by selling a core product or service.
- Must be a for-profit or hybrid venture with the core mission is to create measurable social and/or environmental change.
- May not be a 501(c)(3) non-profit venture.
Selection Criteria
- Impact. Successful applicants demonstrate a significant impact as a core part of their venture. They look for impact both in terms of how impactful the core product or service is, and how scalable is the model to spread this impact.
- Problem/Solution. Does your venture identify a real and pressing problem and propose a viable solution? Strong applications effectively and narrowly define a pain point and outline a solution that addresses the pain point.
- Sustainability. They are looking for innovative social ventures that sell a core product or service to achieve impact.
- Execution. The application is the first introduction; get off on the right foot. Successful applicants have a big vision but also pay careful attention to detail.
- Innovation. How is your solution to a problem different from current solutions? What sets you apart? They value audacious ideas that disrupt the status quo and move the needle on 21st century challenges. Think big!
- Talent. Do you have what it takes to lead your venture to success? Strong applicants exhibit characteristics of extraordinary leadership: vision, intelligence, resilience, and follow-through.
Application
