Tim Draper, Ed Hesse, and Trent Mc’Conaghy will select five winning pitches for the Startup Society Founders’ Awards. Each winner will receive $2,000 USD plus 1,000 $JUR to support their startup society. Anyone can enter but to win, your society proposal needs to be clear, attractive to others, and realistic to achieve. Let’s talk about how to set up the basic structure to support a winning pitch:

To enter, you will fill out a form to describe your startup society concept (which takes less than 2 minutes).

In order to craft a winning proposal, you should focus on addressing the following questions: Why would people want to join your society? Does it have broad appeal with values that are common to many people? Or perhaps your society would only appeal to a narrow niche, but your citizens would be passionately committed. Is your goal useful and achievable? How could your society benefit citizens in a way that is realistic? When someone asks “what’s in it for me.” the answer should be something that is meaningful to them and something your group could really deliver. 

As you consider your answers, try to imagine what someone could say that would get you excited about an idea like yours. Remember a time when you felt inspired reading about a similar vision? Strive to capture and share that creative energy. 

You can also join the Jur community on Discord to talk about Startup Societies in general and get reactions to your specific idea.

An Awards Committee will evaluate your concept and assign a score of 1 to 5. The ten highest-scoring proposals will be shortlisted for evaluation by the judges. Each founder on the shortlist will get support from the Jur team to refine their pitch for the judges. The judges will score the pitches on three criteria: desirability, feasibility, and viability. In other words, do people want a society like this? Can the goals of their society be achieved? Do the goals bring substantial benefits so that their society will endure?

Pitch your Startup Society now!