We are looking for grassroots innovations from across Bangladesh to feature at Future Startup. If you are working on a grassroots innovation or know someone or some organization working on one, please let us know by filling out this form.
The selected innovations will receive several benefits: 1) extensive coverage from Future Startup, such as feature articles and interviews 2) access to Future Startup's network on request 3) we plan to connect selected innovations with incubators, mentors, and other opportunities in the future.
What do we mean by Grassroots Innovations?
- Grassroots innovations are ideas, products, services, processes/practices, community initiative models, or methods that address a local problem, needs, or a development challenge in a new or more effective way by using local resources.
- One defining feature is that these innovations are usually created by people or communities who are affected by the problems themselves, which makes them more likely to find meaningful solutions.
- We expect that these innovations can address social/market/developmental challenges in ways that traditional top-down solutions may not. We appreciate it if a grassroots innovation has the potential for scalability and can be replicated but it is not a must-have criteria.
However, we don’t suggest an exact definition for grassroots innovations. We are looking for all kinds of ideas and initiatives. An initiative can be:
- For-profit business
- Non-profit
- Community, or individual initiatives
Similarly, we are sector agnostics. Ideas can come from any sector including but not limited to:
- Agriculture, from farming to machinery
- Water, Sanitation, Hygiene (WASH)
- Engineering
- Healthcare including Women's Health
- Education
- Tourism
- Employment
- Culture
- Community development, etc.
- Climate change
- Livelihood
- Local problem solving
- Any other initiatives and solutions addressing local development challenges anywhere in Bangladesh
Why You Should Care
- Our stories are read by the most important people in the business and technology ecosystem in Bangladesh, the likes of entrepreneurs, investors, founders, policymakers, and people with deep curiosities in business and technology who can make a difference for your business.
- Our stories almost 70% of the time get followed up by further media coverage from mainstream newspapers like DS, TBS, and DT.
- We give you a chance to reach out to early adopters and the most influential, affluent, tech-savvy but notoriously difficult-to-reach content consumers in Bangladesh.
- Our stories can bring opportunities from stakeholders and the market such as incubators, investors, supporters, etc.
Deadline
We have extended the deadline and are accepting submissions on a rolling basis until March 10th, 2024. However, we will select initiatives on a rolling basis, so please submit your initiative as early as you can.
How to Apply
If you are working on a grassroots innovation or know of any grassroots innovations in your community, please share them with us using the form below. We will get back all selected ideas by 10 March 2024. Please note that only shortlisted submissions will be invited to participate in the following rounds.
For queries: For any questions, help, or partnership queries please email us at info@futurestartup.com
