Runa Wins Brown Business Plan Competition

by Nathaniel Whittemore

category: Competitions and Fellowships

Published April 28, 2009 @ 11:18AM PT

More news from the business plan competition front. Fair Trade tea startup Runa won Brown University's Business Plan Competition on Sunday, coming in over runners up H&F Contracting Services, a disaster cleanup service, and SolarCycle, a company which uses recycled plastics to build solar cookers and other appliances.

It's pretty interesting to note that this was not a pure "social venture" business plan competition, but that all of the winners had a social enterprise focus and mission. More evidence that this blended value space is increasingly where young entrepreneurs heads are at, no matter what terms you stick around it.

Congrats to the winners! Read more about them below:

Runa, as a project and social enterprise, exists to create US and international markets for traditional Amazonian plants, beginning with the rainforest holly called guayusa (wai-you-suh). Guayusa is a caffeinated, calming, naturally sweet leaf that has been used as a tea for centuries, and we are working to share that tradition with international consumers. By leveraging the power of markets for healthy products (particularly energy beverages), Runa can plant forests, develop supplemental livelihoods for indigenous communities in Ecuador, and re-envision how these communities can actively lead new ventures. We will add the most possible value to our raw ingredients in Ecuador, leaving greater benefits in the country before final production of consumer beverages in the US, while lowering our costs and giving consumers the knowledge that their purchase is going as far as it possible to support Ecuadorian communities.

H&F Contracting Services is a disaster relief company that specializes in debris removal in the aftermath of natural disasters of every kind. H&F seeks to change the culture that exists in the government contracting industry by taking an honest, considerate, and transparent approach to providing emergency services to families and businesses that are tragically affected each year by natural disasters. H&F approaches each disaster relief contract as an opportunity to help people in need, and this is the motivating factor behind our business model.

SolarCycle began in 2008 in response to the staggering environmental damage and negative health effects caused by contaminated drinking water and indoor air pollution in the developing world. Seeking to address this issue with locally-available, low-cost materials,SolarCycle's founders, John Tilleman and Drew Durbin, looked to trash. Mr. Tilleman and Mr. Durbin have designed a revolutionary material made from used plastic bags and the aluminized interior of chip bags, which will replace virgin plastics and mirrors in solar concentrating applications. Using this upcycled manufacturing process, SolarCycle produces the most durable, sustainable, and financially accessible solar cookers and water pasteurizers on the market and turns an urban trash problem into a potential solution for diarrheal illnesses and respiratory diseases.