Use your napkin to mop up some venture capital..or if you are over 35, maybe mop up your tears.

This notice came across the email transom today and I was pretty psyched about the opportunity till I noticed that it was limited to women age 35 or under...or at least each team submitting an idea had to have a woman 35 or under as a member. And the teams could actually be headed up by men, as long as at least half the team members were woman 35 or under. I read through the comments and saw that I was not the only person who was surprised that this opportunity was exclusionary. After reading Alison Bradley's comment, I was inspired to add my own $0.02:

I couldn’t agree with Alison Bradley more! At 35 I was still trying out new paths and it took till I was 40 to integrate it into a world-changing idea. I had the opportunity to meet Hillary Clinton last week and am on track to get the message to Oprah. Venture capital is great, but the community capital fund you build as you get older is what is needed to truly activate sustainable visions. I’m sure you’ll have many unique and fundable concepts sent in for this contest, however, I think you are sending a negative message to women everywhere when you tell them to get it done while you’re young because nobody will pay attention to you later.

To their credit, the editors of the site posted my comment and took the time to explain their philosophy. I am very glad that this site is available to the "next generation" of female entrepreneurs. I hope they find the support they need to grow their visions. However, as I posted in my comment, I encourage all of you to grow your personal community capital as you move down your path. Remember, soon you too will be over 35.

All that being said, I still think it's a great concept and I hope that a woman with an old soul wins. And, as Henry Miller said, “All that matters is that the miraculous becomes the norm.”
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Women 2.0 Napkin Business Challenge Eligibility and Rules

The business plan must represent the original work of members of the team. You can submit as many business ideas on napkins as you want. You may have a team of up to four individuals. At least half of the team must be female and at least half of the team must be under 35; else the majority shareholder must be a woman and under 35. This is a Women 2.0 and Entrepreneur27 production afterall.

We are accepting business ideas that are in concept stage or in beta launch only. The competition is for new, independent ventures in the seed, start-up, or early stage. Generally excluded are the following: buy-outs, expansions of existing companies, real estate syndications, tax shelters, franchises, licensing agreements for distribution in a different geographical area, and spin-outs from existing corporations. As if you’d be silly enough to submit that anyway.