About iStart
The iStart Web site is the leading online community for business plan competitions. iStart began as studentbusiness.com – the big idea of three Harvard University students, who have since graduated and gone on to launch even bigger ideas. In 2009, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation bought the site and renamed it iStart. We added more functionality and the public side to increase transparency. Our goal is for iStart to become the go-to site for entering business plan competitions from around the world, browsing pages of plan abstracts and networking with hundreds of innovative, energized entrepreneurs.
The iStart Web site is:
- The catalyst for new businesses. We are dedicated to increasing the number of new firms formed – that’s our big idea.
- Accessible. Applicants can make their plan abstracts – and their companies – searchable to anyone on iStart. If you want your big idea to get noticed, this is the place.
- Easy to use. Whether you are a competition administrator, a judge or an applicant, iStart helps you work at maximum efficiency and speed.
- Standardized. We offer one simple platform for everything you need – from the call for entries to the final judging round. More functionality. Less time. Sweet!
About the Kauffman Foundation
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is a private nonpartisan foundation that works to harness the power of entrepreneurship and innovation to grow economies and improve human welfare.
Through its research and other initiatives, the Kauffman Foundation aims to open young people's eyes to the possibility of entrepreneurship, promote entrepreneurship education, raise awareness of entrepreneurship-friendly policies, and find alternative pathways for the commercialization of new knowledge and technologies.
In addition, the Foundation focuses on initiatives in the Kansas City region to advance students’ math and science skills, and improve the educational achievement of urban students, including the Ewing Marion Kauffman School, a college preparatory charter school for middle and high school students set to open in 2011. Founded by late entrepreneur and philanthropist Ewing Marion Kauffman, the Foundation is based in Kansas City, Mo., and has approximately $2 billion in assets. For more information, visit kauffman.org. Follow the Foundation on twitter and facebook.
