Sink or Swim Contest
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A Business Model Contest
Hosted by The Seasteading Institute
Sponsored by HumanIPO & Premium Advice
Table of Contents
Press Releases:
- The Seasteading Institute Launches "Sink Or Swim", the First Seasteading Business Plan Competition
- Judges Selected for TSI's Sink or Swim Business Plan Contest
The Seasteading Institute was founded by Patri Friedman and is funded by donors who aim to change the world in big ways. Seasteads are floating platforms that allow people to permanently settle the ocean. Seasteads will be located near large cities, but outside the territorial waters of any state. As such, commercial seastead customers can expect to see a legal and regulatory environment customized to fit their needs..
The Seasteading Institute is hosting a business model contest with $5,000 in prizes. We believe there are vast profit opportunities to be harnessed by businesses that choose to locate aboard commercial real estate on the water. For the purposes of this contest, entrants will assume their businesses will exist on a platform 25 miles off the coast of a large first-world city, such as Miami or Shanghai. Furthermore, entrants will assume that the legal and regulatory environment aboard a seastead is tailored toward the efficient functioning and operation of their particular business.
With this contest we intend to probe the legal and physical costs and benefits afforded to businesses aboard seasteads; especially regulatory and legal comparative advantages that cannot be easily reproduced on land. The business plans developed for this contest will serve as a compendium of ideas and research from which individuals and firms can draw inspiration for future commercial seastead businesses. Moreover, contestants will become part of a growing network of resourceful individuals interested in collaborating on seasteading ventures.
Out of the initial contestants, TSI will choose a small number of semi-finalists for review by our panel of judges. Winners’ business plans will get significant exposure to investors interested in seasteading businesses.
HumanIPO has made its social media platform available to contestants to assist in better developing their business models. HumanIPO facilitates the sharing of business models to a select community of entrepreneurs and investors for review and feedback.
- First Place: $2,500
- Second Place: $1,000
- HumanIPO community favorite:: $750
- Most creative: $375
- Best Seasteading PR: $375
In addition, all winners and semi-finalists will receive:
- Free admission to our next seasteading conference.
- An invitation to our exclusive new business network which includes investors, fellow entrepreneurs, and business professionals.
- Visibility and exposure on our site.
- Register with TSI by sending an email to sinkorswim@seasteading.org with your name or team name, company name, HumanIPO username, email, and your basic concept.
- Make a business model that includes the standard components of a business plan. A number of guides can be found around the Internet:
- Business abstract & pitch
- Market/Industry analysis & background
- Marketing plan
- Financial analysis
- Operational and logistical analysis
- Competitive advantages, market opportunities, strengths
- Risks, threats, weaknesses (and ways to mitigate these)
- Create an account with HumanIPO. Join the group “Sink or Swim B Plan Contest”. (Still working out a few details with HumanIPO, please check back here in the next few days for more info)
- Submit your draft onto HumanIPO by 11:59pm Oct 8th, 2010 (see draft notes under the submission guidelines)
- On December 5th, 2010 by 11:59pm Email the final version to sinkorswim@seasteading.org in PDF format with the subject line FINAL_[Plan name].
- TSI will select the best submissions as semi-finalists for review by our Panel of Judges between Dec 05 and Dec 08, 2010.
Students: Ask your professor how you can earn college credit by entering!
- There is no entry fee.
- Must be 18 years of age or older to submit a draft
- Entries must be submitted in English
- You must have a valid (non-PO Box) address where you can receive prize payment and will be required to complete full documentation in order to receive the prize
- Final judgment and discretion is solely held by The Seasteading Institute
- Seasteads present some atypical challenges in creating a business model. Keep the following in mind when working on your submission:
- Early-stage seasteads will have 50-200 people living aboard.
- Seasteads will be outside of territorial waters but within an Exclusive Economic Zone (>12nm, <200nm)
- For this contest, assume real estate aboard a seastead will lease for $25/ft2.
- If your proposed seastead-oriented business has specific operating costs (for example, energy or water usage) above and beyond what is normal for a land-based business, then it must be taken into account. For example, if you run a large server database, your power usage is likely to be significant and that power usage will be recognized as a cost of doing business. If participants feel these costs would be significant to their business models, it is strongly recommended that participants include these added costs in any preliminary financial estimates. For more information, refer to the chapter on infrastructure chapter of our online book Seasteading: A Practical Guide to Homesteading the High Seas.
- Submissions
- Draft submissions must be posted on HumanIPO, and participants registered with sinkorswim@seasteading.org by 11:59pm PST on October 8, 2010.
- No late submissions will be accepted, and incomplete submissions will be disqualified.
- Submissions can be from individuals or teams.
- The draft submissions posted by the draft due date of October 8, 2010 are not going to be seen by the semi-finalist selection comittee or by judges. You are only required to submit a draft by this date. The draft must include the structure and format of the final business plan. This cutoff will be enforced, if you have not submitted a draft by the draft due date your entry will not be considered valid for judgement at the end of the contest, please make sure to be keenly aware of this. Again, we will only be looking to see that you have followed the basic format of this contest. Your draft must be at least 2,000 words long and contain most of the basic sections of a business plan as described under “how to participate”. The draft will be checked internally by admin level staff. Neither TSI nor anyone looking at the drafts within the organization will share your draft or any portion of it without your permission.
- Final submission date is Dec 5. Final submissions must be made in PDF form to sinkorswim@seasteading.org by 11:59pm PST.
- Winners will be announced on Dec 20, 2010.
- Submissions must be no more than 4,000 words, not including the 1 page executive summary and the pitch, and no more than 14 pages including graphs, charts, and pictures, other visuals and everything else.
- All entries must be submitted under the Creative Commons Attribution license. This also means that TSI (or others) may use or modify your model, but they must give you credit for your work. By submitting a business plan to this contest either through HumanIPO or sinkorswim@seasteading.org you agree to abide by the terms of this license.
- Judging Criteria
- Submissions will be reviewed and judged according to the following criteria:
- Weighted Expected profit (risk adjusted). ("How profitable?")
- Clarity, organization, completeness of analysis ("How good is the plan?")
- Use of seastead-oriented competitive advantage ("How seastead-y?")
- Financial feasibility. ("How is it funded?")
- Externalities (such as noise pollution, public relations, etc.) imposed onto other businesses which may locate aboard the same seastead and to the overall seasteading movement.
- Other considerations – Judges will likely look for other criteria based on your specific type of business model and issues that influence it. Participants are encouraged to consider potential risks, externalities, and other industry-specific issues that would be important. Remember, judges are people too, so try to make your plan a pleasure to read (formatting and the proper visual representation of information are important!).
- Participants will only “win” one category, except for the HumanIPO community favorite category, thus, there will be either four or five winners depending on whether one of the prize winners from the other four categories also wins the community favorite prize.
- Submissions will be reviewed and judged according to the following criteria:
 John Chisholm Software Entrepreneur, Futurist |
 Jim Rutt Chair Santa Fe Institute, Former CEO Network Solutions |
 Dr. Mohammed Saeme Founder & CEO Saemed, International Medical Tourism & Maritime Health |
 Joe Lonsdale CEO Addepar, Co-Founder Palantir Technologies |
 Dr. Arnold Kling Economist, Entrepreneur, Blogger |
 Patri Friedman Exec Director & Founder of TSI |
 Brian Singerman Principle at Founders Fund, Developer of igoogle |
 Max Marty Head of Commercial Seasteading, MBA UM |
We owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the financial and in-kind sponsors whose contributions are making commercial seasteading a possibility.
Sponsorship Opportunities Still Available! We are open to additional sponsors to increase the prize pool. These sponsors will receive recognition when semifinalists and winners are publicized, which we expect to be the largest PR exposure of the contest.
Sponsors receive the following benefits:
- The opportunity to get into the seasteading business community on the ground floor, while the per-capita publicity cost equation is still favorable.
- Inclusion in our business summit and new business network, which will help you reap the benefits of exposure and networking in the future.
- Gain broad access to ideas and technology including those generated from TSI's research efforts
If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, we would love a chance to partner with you in expanding this prize pool and contest, please contact sinkorswim@seasteading.org.
Q. Where can I find more information about seasteading as a commercial endeavor?
A. We suggest referring to our book for a general overview of seasteading, especially the chapter on Business Models.
Q. Why must entries be under the Creative Commons Attribution license?
A. This allows us to use your model to publicize seasteading while giving you full credit for your work. In addition, it will probably be several years before there are a variety of seastead businesses. Until then, one of the most important things for the seasteading movement is inspiration and awareness; we feel community collaboration on seastead businesses (including remixing each others' models) is one of the best ways to achieve that.
Q. What is HumanIPO, what is your aim with it, and how does it contribute to my business plan?
A. HumanIPO is a collaborative web 2.0 platforms, which allows business plan writers to connect with others in creating and editing a business plan. Our goal is to encourage entrants to write their business plans in groups using feedback from their friends and the larger seasteading community. That said, the degree to which you use HumanIPO is entirely up to you. You’re not required to let anyone (except The Seasteading Institute) see or participate in the creation of your business plan.
Q. I have an idea that is totally off the wall, should I submit it?
A. We will consider any idea, no matter how unusual. However only submissions which explain how they will maximize the key judging criteria will make the first cut. Our panel of judges are well versed in business, entrepreneurship, economics, and a number of other related fields.
Q. How can I find more information?
A. You can contact us by email at sinkorswim@seasteading.org and join our Facebook Group.