Social Entrepreneure Resources

The following is some great stuff from the folks at Case regarding social enterprise and entrepreneurs.  

 

March 2016 Newsletter

Launching Your Social Venture Starting a venture is hard. Starting a social venture can be even harder. As Sally Osberg, President and CEO of the Skoll Foundation, once said during a visit to Fuqua, “Social entrepreneurs are to entrepreneurs what Ginger Rogers was to Fred Astaire – they have to do everything entrepreneurs do, except backwards and in high heels.”     Every entrepreneur has to have a better idea, process, product, or service, a way to get that idea to market, build and fund their venture, etc.  But social entrepreneurs also have to face market failures, double or triple bottom-lines, complicated ecosystems and multi-sector partnerships with differing incentives, and more.    At CASE we spend a lot of time thinking through these issues and through our collaborations see what works and what doesn’t when launching a social venture.  So, this month, we've gathered a collection of articles to help you move towards success when launching your own social venture:   CASE Executive in Residence Alden Zecha looks at selecting and reaching stakeholders when tackling big challenges such as poverty and global health. Sasha Dichter, Acumen’s Chief Innovation Officer, and CASE’s Cathy Clark discuss overcoming funding challenges for social entrepreneurs. Anne Steptoe, a current CASE student launching a social venture, provides her tips from the trenches, and more.    From raising capital to having the right team by your side, launching a social venture is hard work but we hope these insights will help you move in the right direction.     Erin Worsham (@erinworsham) Executive Director, CASE

3 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Launching a Social Venture CASE Executive-in-Residence Alden Zecha looks at three questions you should be asking yourself before launching a social venture. Who are you serving? Directly or indirectly? How are you defining success? He reflects on his own experience launching multiple ventures and how those questions have been critical to success. Read more. MedServe: From CASE Launch Pad Winner to Launch CASE Launch Pad recipient Anne Steptoe is busy launching MedServe, an organization connecting recent college graduates with rural clinics in North Carolina using a Teach for America-style fellowship model. As MedServe accepts applications for their first cohort of fellows, Anne reflects on her four tips from the trenches for surviving (and thriving!) in the social venture start-up phase. Read more. Bridging the Pioneer Gap Between Good Idea and Investable Deal "...the 'pioneer gap' stops many promising social enterprises in their tracks. And that narrows the pipeline of deals for later stage investors — and the potential for progress against urgent challenges."  Cathy Clark talks with Impact Alpha on how the transition stage from grant funders to seed stage investors can be bridged to allow more promising social ventures to receive the capital they need to take off and become successful. Listen to the podcast now. What Else We're Reading Now Social entrepreneurship is not all about new ideas and founding new ventures. We believe strongly at CASE – and train our students accordingly – to take roles in the private, nonprofit and government sectors where they can scale impact through existing solutions. Two recent articles that resonate with our thinking include:    Ideas Help No One on a Shelf. Take Them to The World: “So don’t invent something new. If you want to make a contribution, choose one of those ideas – and spread it,” Tina Rosenberg, NY Times.   Tackling Heropreneurship: “We also need people to join and help grow those start-ups, as well as people to take roles in more traditional businesses, governments, and organizations to help transform them from the inside,” Daniela Papi-Thornton, SSIR.