Aspiring entrepreneurs near BlueOval City in West Tennessee will soon have a unique opportunity to receive funding and guidance for their business ideas.

The Ford Motor Company Fund is announcing a first-of-its-kind Idea Accelerator Program designed make their entrepreneurship dreams a reality. Residents in Haywood, Fayette, Tipton, Lauderdale, Shelby and Madison counties with a creative idea for solving a challenge facing their communities can submit applications – with no business plan or pitch deck required.

Read more below. 

Heartland Forward, Builders + Backers, the CO, Epicenter Memphis, and Ford Motor Company Fund, are proud to announce the opening of applications for 20 West Tennessee residents to access training, resources, and up to $5,000 to help them turn ideas into potential businesses or ventures. Anyone in Fayette, Hardeman, Haywood, Lauderdale, Madison, Shelby, and Tipton counties with a creative and unexpected idea for solving a problem facing their community is encouraged to apply.

Heartland Forward’s groundbreaking Community Growth Program and Toolkit (CGPT) and the first-of-its-kind Idea Accelerator Program powered by Builders + Backers are designed to make it easy for anyone to experiment with entrepreneurship. Applicants are not required to submit a business plan or have a pitch deck for their idea. This new cohort of 20 Builders is part of Heartland Forward’s commitment to supporting 1,000 Builders across the heartland by 2023.

“Problem solving with an entrepreneurial mindset will be key to rebuilding our post-COVID local economies, and our Community Growth Program and Toolkit has already proven to be a successful, meaningful way to accelerate the entrepreneurial thinking needed to help our communities thrive,” said Ross DeVol, president and CEO of Heartland Forward. “We’re thrilled to be bringing this program to West Tennessee as part of our commitment to support 1,000 Builders across the American Heartland by 2023. We’re confident this next cohort of Builders will have the innovative thinking and ideas to create real change in their communities, and we look forward to seeing what they can accomplish in the months and years to come.”

Those interested can apply here. The application deadline is Monday, December 12, 2022. Residents with the most promising and innovative ideas will be selected to participate in a two-month long virtual program starting on January 12, 2023.

“Entrepreneurship is seeing a problem that exists and experimenting with a solution to address it,” said Donna Harris, CEO of Builders + Backers. "Millions of Americans see problems and solutions everyday while driving our kids to school, shopping online or waiting on hold to speak to a doctor. And we say, 'someone should fix this or build that.' Unfortunately, that's where millions of ideas end. We're excited to partner with Heartland Forward and the Ford Motor Company Fund to help get 20 of these ideas in West Tennessee from concept to action."

“Ford is a committed partner to our new neighbors in West Tennessee and we are thrilled to be working with Heartland Forward to invest in the region,” said Ford Motor Company Fund economic mobility director, Mike Schmidt. “We believe in building pathways with people who have historically had limited opportunities for business development and ownership through access to capital and training. Through these new partnerships we hope to help bring aspiring entrepreneurs’ dreams to life.”

At the heart of the CGPT are the Builders + Backers four program pillars, designed to mobilize and equip Builders through:

• Idea Accelerator: This cohort-based program combines a 45-day Builder Bootcamp to teach participants how to put ideas into action, followed by 45 days of actively executing their ideas through a single experiment.
• Pebble Fund: All of the Builders are supported by a $5,000 Pebble Grant to test their ideas. Participants are mentored by Master Builders throughout the program.
• Storytelling: A comprehensive media program that curates, captures and distributes stories of Buildership™, both from within the programs and in communities everywhere. Through video, written stories, social media and media partnerships, the program inspires people to become Builders.
• Buildership™ Workshops: Workshops and other events introduce people to the ideas of Buildership™ and demonstrate that anyone can generate creative solutions through entrepreneurial experimentation that contribute to the sustainability of communities.

The program was first piloted in Tulsa, Oklahoma and Oxford, Mississippi in summer 2021, and since, there have been nearly 415 Builders across 15 cities. To learn more about The Builders, see here.