Defrag Blog

I’m overjoyed to be able to finally announce something we’ve been working on for a while: The Kauffman Foundation Entrepreneur Scholarship for Defrag.

If you’re not familiar with the Kauffman Foundation, this blurb might help:

“The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation was established in the mid-1960s by the late entrepreneur and philanthropist Ewing Marion Kauffman. Based in Kansas City, Missouri, the Kauffman Foundation is among the thirty largest foundations in the United States with an asset base of approximately $2 billion.

Our vision is to foster a society of economically independent individuals who are engaged citizens, contributing to the improvement of their communities. In service of this vision, and in keeping with our founder’s wishes, we focus our grant making and operations on two areas: advancing entrepreneurship and improving the education of children and youth. We carry out our mission through four programmatic areas: Entrepreneurship, Advancing Innovation, Education, and Research and Policy.”

Accordingly, The Kauffman Foundation is going to sponsor fifteen (15) entrepreneur scholarships for Defrag — where the scholarship is a fully paid for conference pass to the conference (i.e., the entrepreneur just needs to get there and find a place to sleep; we’ll feed ‘em for 2 days).

To apply for the sponsorships, you must be A) a technology startup/entrepreneur with a currently operating company (even if it’s just you and your dog; but it should be what you *do*, not a side project) and B) pre-Series A funding. In other words, we want to help those that might not otherwise have a chance to attend Defrag, attend Defrag.

Here’s what you need to do: Send me an email (enorlin AT mac.com) with your name, company website, and a 100 word (no more) explanation of why you should be at Defrag.

We’ll announce the scholarship recipients in a couple of weeks.

Updated: I’d be remiss if I didn’t publicly thank Paul Kedrosky for his help in making this happen. From day 1 of starting Defrag, Paul has generously donated his time, energy and considerable brainpower to helping us succeed. And beyond that, he’s really frickin’ good on stage. Now, we get to add that he has helped facilitate a new relationship that will benefit a bunch of entrepreneurs. So, a big hearty “thank you” to Paul!