LAKE PLACID — If you have an early-stage business idea, the Adirondack Community Foundation’s Adirondack Innovation Initiative wants to hear it.

The group is currently accepting idea submissions for its Adirondack Launch Pad. The program is meant to match people with new services, technological inventions, products or other business ideas to a network of mentors who can help them take those to the next step.

A2I Director Svetlana Filipson said it’s open to anyone who lives in or has a strong connection to the Adirondacks, with the idea that what is being pitched will be based in the park, and help the region’s economy grow and diversify. At the end of the day, Filipson said the Adirondack Launch Pad’s goal is to allow more people to live here full time with a good-paying job.

“We’re really trying to promote that entrepreneurship spirit in the Adirondacks,” she said. “With the idea that there could be more entrepreneurs, more startups, more businesses of different degrees to diversify our economy and to allow people to be here and then hopefully to grow and create more jobs.”

Filipson said this requires thinking outside the box, but that’s the Adirondack Launch Pad’s purpose. She said there’s already a fairly well-establised set of pitching programs whose primary purpose is to secure angel investors. Think of “Shark Tank” reality television show — someone who provides capital to a business, usually in exchange for convertible debt or an ownership stake in the company and its future potential profits. But those, at least the programs that offer heftier amounts of money, are geared toward ideas that are substantially developed.

On the other hand, Filipson said the Adirondack Launch Pad welcomes “back of the napkin” ideas, and these can be wide-ranging. A2I wants to foster ideas and find people at the very early stage and give them the resources to grow into a potentially thriving venture.

Ideas can be submitted via Google Form at tinyurl.com/2p9nb6c9. Those are due by Thursday, Oct. 30. From there, a panel of judges will choose the top five ideas, and invite the people behind them to a live, in-person pitch session in Lake Placid on Thursday, Nov. 20.

Filipson said submissions will be scored based on several factors, including those that seem the most promising and have the opportunity to grow, as well as on how innovative and unique the potential service or product would be.

“Give us your business idea, but then (we want) to hear, ‘Why is this unique? Why hasn’t this been done before? Or do you have a spin on something that could be done better?'” Filipson said.

She added that the idea’s potential community impact will also be considered. She said this fits in both the context of non-profit or for-profit ideas. Filipson suspects that most of the products will be geared toward a for-profit vision, but community impact would still be assessed on metrics such as how many decent-paying and sustainable jobs would be created through the venture, attracting and retaining people to the region and, ultimately, strengthening Adirondack communities.

Those chosen will be notified on Monday, Nov. 10 and will be offered an optional virtual session or a 30-minute one-on-one call to prepare their pitch. There will be cash prizes — $100 for the finalists invited to the in-person session, $500 for the runner-ups and $1,000 for the winner — though the money is a distant secondary benefit to the networking and mentorship that will be available to the finalists and continue after the pitch session, Filipson noted.

Over the past year, she has been working to build up an A2I network of Adirondack-based entrepreneurs, both active and retired, with a particular, but not exclusive, focus on the technology industry and tech-adjacent jobs.

“We have a lot of very impressive entrepreneurs, company founders and professionals who want to help our region,” she said. “They want to mentor the next generation of entrepreneurs.”

In growing the network over the past year, Filipson said company founders and successful innovaters who now call the region home told her they wished that they had mentors when their ideas were burgeoning that had direct ties to Adirondack communities. Now, having established success, they are hoping to provide that.

While still a struggle in some areas of the park, Filipson noted that broadband access has improved markedly over the past few years, and technological and remote work that was not possible a decade ago is now only feasible, but a reality for many she networks with — a sign of encouragement that the region’s economy can continue to diversify.

For more information about the Adirondack Launch Pad, and to ask any questions about the ideas submission process, visit tinyurl.com/uz8rb5mc.