My partners Shawn and Kevin have been tirelessly working with one of our client companies, World Centric, to launch an in-house accelerator (link to application at the bottom of this blog post). World Centric, in partnership with LIFT Economy, will be selecting 1-3 early stage companies and placing $25-$50k in funding as a zero interest long-term loan to be used by the enterprise to move through feasibility to an established proof of concept, plus strategic coaching.  I am excited to extend this invite and call for applications to entrepreneurs/organizations who might fit our selection criteria. The application deadline is October 15th, 2014.

How many accelerators like this exist in our world right now that are born out of an ethos of generosity? From my perspective, this is one of the first. Biomimicry teaches us from observation of ecosystems like redwoods and monsoon forests, that nature functions best when operating from a principle of generosity.

That is why I am so excited to be participating, watching, and learning from this pilot, because I believe the world needs more of these types of experiments. And, I am going to be taking the learnings from it to help influence my work with my clients, each of whom is on the cutting edge of this work.

If you are inspired by this business accelerator model as I am, please do the following:

• Apply! Don’t hesitate, if this accelerator is calling your name, please submit an application! Please read through the entire RFP before applying, particularly pages 3-5 which describe our desired principles. To Apply: World Centric Impact Accelerator RFP
• Share! Send this to your community, pass it on via LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc. 
• Invite! Maybe you know someone specific who fits the criteria – Invite them to apply!
• Connect! Give us your feedback, leave a comment below telling us what you think of this pilot and how you might see yourself participating. This is an iterative process and we need your participation.

I believe that what World Centric is doing with this pilot is forward-thinking. The generous offer of a $25K – $50K no-interest loan plus strategic coaching to a deserving enterprise indicates to me that this company is thinking in terms of seven generations out – and asking the question : How do we strategically use the tools we have at our disposal now (money, human ingenuity, fossil fuel resources) to help support entrepreneurs to lay the foundation for post-oil technologies to sustain human populations in a new, regenerative way?  It is in essence, a new picture of a 501(k) retirement plan –– a retirement of old ways of doing things (competition, hoarding, and exploitation) in favor of a new form of long-term investment that is being born into being.

Much gratitude to World Centric, to my business partners at LIFT Economy, and to all the entrepreneurs out there who are taking action for the sake of a better future and brighter world for us all.