About the Event

The Hirshberg Entrepreneurship Institute is a high impact 2-day boot camp conceived by Gary Hirshberg in 1998 based on his experience leading Stonyfield Farm from its start as a 7-cow operation in 1983 to its current nearly $400MM annual sales level. 18 Institutes have served hundreds of entrepreneurs across numerous business sectors in CA, CO, MA, NH, NY and abroad in Toronto, Vancouver, and Auckland, NZ under various names including the Stonyfield Entrepreneurship Institute and the Social Venture Institute.

By offering a highly interactive, intimate venue for networking, storytelling, and problem-solving, the Institute offers a safe, stimulating environment for hundreds of for-profit and not-for-profit entrepreneurs to learn about financing, marketing, organizational challenges, finding personal balance, managing change, and the many other areas that are fundamental to growing an enterprise. The “case” method approach ensures a practical and grounded “real world” experience. Participants take home a wealth of pragmatic and useful ideas and strategies that can be immediately put to work in a growing enterprise.

98% of participants have rated the Institute as either excellent or very good in terms of:

  • Applicability of sessions to their work
  • Overall knowledge and experience of panelists
  • Fulfillment of learning expectations
  • Introduction of innovative business strategies
  • Interaction and learning from participants
  • Access to new contacts and networks

Recordings

To view the video recordings from our recent HEI Online program, visit our schedule page. Videos are linked under the timeframe during which they were recorded. You can also find them on our YouTube page, along with many other helpful recordings.

Location

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our HEI event previously scheduled to take place in Boulder, CO will now be held remotely. You can register for this event by purchasing your ticket through the link below.

Speakers

Learn more about the great speakers we’ve got lined up.

Case Studies

Got a question or challenge about how best to structure your business, secure capital or position your brand for success? Over the course of two finance/business sessions and two marketing/brand positioning sessions, 8 entrepreneurs will have the chance to get personalized, cutting edge advice from a group of world-class experts.

This is a fantastic opportunity to receive insights and advice from CEOs and Founders who guide hundreds of millions of dollars of businesses from start-up to Fortune 500. And if you are not ready to submit your own pitch, we guarantee that you will receive fantastic insights and ideas from watching and hearing these live cases.

The timeframe for submitting case studies has passed.

Fundraising Pitches to Investors

Raising money is key to any growing company. And now is a particularly good time for healthy brands to pitch for investment with the stock market in tumult and with the health and green sectors booming. Last year’s HEI pitching day resulted in some serious and successful raises, and this year promises to be even better – we will have over 30 investors on-line via Zoom listening to your pitch. We have 13 openings and want one of them to be you! And if you are not ready to submit your pitch, this is a great opportunity for you to watch and learn from both those who are and also from the investors’ questions and responses. Don’t miss this valuable day.

If you’d like to pitch to our panel of angel, institutional, and venture investors during the online event, download and complete a pitch application form. Applicants must be registered to attend.

The window for submitting pitches has closed.

Pricing

Thanks to the generous support of our Gold Sponsors (Bank of America, the Giannuzzi Group, New Hope Network, and Whipstitch Capital), we have been able to mark down the cost of this year’s virtual HEI to $50 per person! Check out the Program and see for yourself the extraordinary level of experience and expertise gathered to address real, current businesses’ challenges.