BridgeGate’s Clean Technology Practice Director Samantha Simonnet places the Director of Development at Clean Tech Open

Monday, July 13, 2009 -

With regional judging of the 262 entrants that submitted entries for the 2009 Clean Tech Open (www.cleantechopen.com) completed, 73 teams that made it through to the semifinals now begin a comprehensive and rigorous educational curriculum that spans all aspects of their nascent businesses. Each team is assigned a business mentor from the Clean Tech Open’s pool of expert volunteers, who will guide and coach his or her team through a series of educational programs that start now and take them through to final judging in November. The complete list of 2009 semifinalists is available here.

“Summer of learning” connects entrepreneurs with spectrum of business expertise

In addition to the talented mentor assigned to each clean tech startup, teams are given one-on-one consulting with specialists, an intensive business boot camp for all semifinalists from all regions (dubbed the Clean Tech Open Accelerator, which starts on July 17), plus access to numerous supporting events, training and materials. The objective: to hone each team’s business plan and investor pitch, which they will present to professional investors and experts.

“We’re pleased to see competitors from so many other States at this weekend’s Clean Tech Open Accelerator,” said Rex Northen, executive director of the Clean Tech Open. “This is the first time we’ve had the chance to connect our venture capital network and corporate sponsors with teams from regional competitions. The Accelerator is much more than a training program: this weekend we’ll have hundreds of bright technologists, inventors, entrepreneurs, investors and corporate executives from around the country working together – we’re expecting a very special dynamic and outstanding long-term results for everyone involved.”

A national business plan competition that creates clean tech jobs

For the first time, the Clean Tech Open takes place in three regions: California; the Rocky Mountain region, including Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming; and the Pacific Northwest, including Washington, Oregon and Idaho. The National Awards —the “Academy Awards of Clean Tech”— takes place in November. All told, the 2009 Clean Tech Open competition offers more than $1 million in total prizes, and with its “100K Jobs Challenge” aims to create 100,000 green-collar jobs in America by the end of 2015.