So our team is proud to report that we made it into the next round of the GreenSpaces Green Business Competition. We were the 10th quarter finalist to be announced so it was definitely a nail biting experience.
We are lucky to be going back to present next week! Stay tuned to learn more about our progress!
We have been really fortunate to attract a number of entrepreneurs to our company and can’t wait to meet more! Recently, we learned that our friends over at SunShine Suites (who are giving us free rent), are also helping run NYC ENT to “ strengthen and accelerate the collective entrepreneurial spirit of New York City.
Check it out!
So a few days ago, Iris was able to create the ability for folks to pre-order our sandals from Cambodia. She accomplished this by signing up for the paypal system and we are happy to announce that Stephen P. of Carmel, NY booked a pre-order using this system.
See below for a screenshot. Check out http://shop.greensoulshoes.org/ to book your first sandal!
So we have the pleasure of working with Winnie Ho, formerly from Citigroup. Winnie heard about us from Lisa Tai, one of Stephen’s friends from his work at another nonprofit, and decided to send us an email.
We asked her what she was interested in working on and her answer?
Designing shoes and running contests!
Within two weeks, Winnie designed and launched a shoe contest to source the best shoe designs using techniques of crowdsourcing and launched the first of many contests to make sure our consumers have as much say as they can in the design of our eco-beneficial footwear.
Check out our judging criteria and let us know if you think something should be changed in the rules! Check out the complete rules here: http://greensoulshoes.strutta.com/ to enter your submission today!
A pool of GreenSoul Shoe buyers, designers and the Board of Directors will judge all entries. The designs will be judged on originality, creativity, attractiveness, artistic merit, inspiration, commercial appeal as they each relate to a Generation Y hipster or LOHAS shoe brand and other factors as determined by the judges.
Design submissions will be evaluated on the following merits:
Details may be found on the contest website: http://greensoulshoes.strutta.com/
We’re written up in today’s blog posting on innovate 2 uplift! Sidney writes,
The Bridgespan Group conducted an extensive study of the leadership requirements of nonprofit organizations [...] to increase the flow of talent into nonprofit leadership, [...] expand the pool of potential leadership talent by considering people outside of the typical nonprofit circle.
So we have been busy working on our business plan for The Green Business Competition to promote emerging green businesses in New York.
The competition will reward investment funds to companies that “have the ability to revolutionize their industry by working with our ecological resources while creating economic opportunities.”
Sounds like us! In other news, we have been taking resumes for 10 week internships, anyone interested? We have had about half-a dozen requests so far!
We spent the weekend at Brown at the “Sustaining Social Entrepreneurship” conference hosted by noted academic Shirley Brice Heath. She is a Professor of English and Dramatic Literature and a linguistic anthropologist whose primary interests are innovation in learning, business, health, race relations and organizational learning.
Our team was asked to talk about our experiences on the complexities of social entrepreneurship.
We spoke about the value of social capital and its link to underlying economic prosperity. More to come!
Our teammate Iris wrote us today from Lima, Peru:
Greeting from Lima! As my trip is approaching to its end, I had the opportunity to visit the market place in Lima called La Parada, where I had the opportunity to chat with local street-stand business owners selling ojotas. The great news is the shoes have a thinner, lighter, more flexible sole. They also have a variety of models which I am bringing back to test on the streets of New York [...] I am off to the beach now! -Iris.
Just for fun, since Iris was not able to attach pictures of the sandals she found in Lima, I decided to do a youtube video on ojotas.
This is a very funny commercial sponsored by El Commercio which is Peru’s biggest newspaper and their series in Invincible Brands, highlighting Nike, Coca Cola, etc.
Iris is traveling in Lima, Peru for about 10 days and we’re looking forward to hearing her reports when she gets back to the United States. Among other things, she will be visiting with a few villages while there.
Let us know if there are locations she should be visiting at iris@greensoulshoes.org.
A friend sent us this video today where Giannina from TheGreenGirls.com shows how one can make sandals from old bike tires!
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