Our programme is for everyone who contributes to the common good through entrepreneurship, whether it is social, cultural, ecological or any other positive impact. We believe all impact areas are important, and welcome everyone whose impact is positive and significant. The impact you generate might be widely affecting a lot of people (or other stakeholders) or could affect fewer people (or other stakeholders) but significantly changing their lives for the better. Show us that the size of your impact matters!
There are no firm revenue threshold in this programme, however, you should already generate sales revenue. In terms of team size, we accept teams of at least 2-3 people. If you are not there yet, you can still apply, but depending on your business profile, we might tell you to come back next year.
As we aim to help enterprises scale their impact, we are looking for participants who are not just starting their development journey, but who can already demonstrate some sales traction, a proven business and impact model, a good team in place and a vision for the future. However, we are intentionally not assigning numbers to these criteria, as we understand that in different countries and industries, and in case of different business models, growth may have different prerequisites. Because of this, in some cases prototypes, minimum viable products, pre-orders may also make your business eligible.
Yes. We also seek for-profit entrepreneurs who may not yet have a dedicated impact element in their business model but are dedicated to transform their business or develop an impact-driven business arm to make the world a better place. In this case, you should support it with evidence, that you are not only fantasizing about it as a possibility, but you are determined to make it happen.
All applicants have to fill in a comprehensive application form, where we are interested in you and your business: What is the impact that you generate? What is your business & impact model? Where are you in your development journey? What plans and vision do you have for the future? This is not a 5-minute form, but don’t worry, you don’t need to answer all of the questions at once. You can save your answers and return to the application form later. The deadline for submitting your application is September 29th (Monday) 23:59 CET, but we are more than happy to read your application earlier than that! After submitting your application form, we might initiate a short online interview with you, in case we have clarification questions. In the end, you will be notified about the results of the selection process by October 17th (Friday).
As a first step, all applicants must comply with the Eligibility criteria described in the previous question. Then, we evaluate applications based on the following criteria:
While we evaluate all of the above aspects, we understand that all enterprises have their strengths and weaknesses, therefore, there are no hard knock-out minimum criteria set in stone. And we are going to work together and support you in those topics and matters, where you need to develop further.
We establish a Selection Committee in each country covering different competencies and experiences. The Selection Committee members are not made public to exclude any possibility of influencing them. To ensure impartiality, each local Selection Committee will include delegates from our local programme partners and the local Erste Social Banking team, as well as experts or investors independent from our programme. Our selection methodology represents an extensive process of evaluating all the projects submitted. Furthermore, it is based on professionalism, transparency, encouragement of intellectual property protection, objectivity, gender equality, and non-discrimination. Due to the characteristics of the evaluation process described, we will not accept appeals from the candidates regarding the evaluation results. Please note: Even if you are not selected to Marc this year, it doesn’t mean that we don’t value your business or neglect the potential in it. It means that Marc might not be the best fit for you this year. We might be able to suggest other opportunities for your development journey or even advice you to re-apply next year. Keep doing the impactful work that you are passionate about!
We expect you to dedicate your time and efforts to the development process, and we will make the most of these approx. 7 months. Attending the mentoring sessions, bootcamps, workshops and trainings are obligatory once admitted to the programme. However, our local programme partners are always looking out for the topics most relevant for you, they are happy to support you in almost all aspects of your financial and non-financial matters. We encourage you to use Marc’s trainers, experts and mentors actively, they are the best resource for your development journey! After the 7 months are over, we follow-up with your development journey within our alumni activities, and connect you with other members of the impact ecosystem around Marc.
Participation in the programme is free, but the spots are limited.
We work with local programme partners in all of the Marc countries, who are more than happy to answer your questions. Please, visit our local programme websites and reach out to the contacts published there.
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