Archive for February, 2010

Social enterprises are all over India – my adopted home, on and off, for the past three and a half years. But not many people know social enterprises exist because they are not very good at publicizing their work. A bigger problem, perhaps, is that maybe even they don’t always know they exist. As we see time and time again in our conversations, entrepreneurs creating social impact do not always identify themselves as social entrepreneurs.

But this is changing, partly due to the fact that conferences are popping up all over the globe that either focus solely on social entrepreneurship or have sessions/tracks devoted to it. But to my mind, America is still the center of the social enterprise movement. Social enterprise is booming in America, springing to life in San Francisco, New York, Boulder, and Austin.

And Austin, Texas, is where you can find us as a Media Partner for RISE 2010 – a Relationship & Information Series for Entrepreneurs – taking place from March 1 – 5.

In its fourth year, RISE is an annual conference series dedicated to providing a free forum for entrepreneurs to connect and exchange ideas that inspire the entrepreneurial spirit. It is truly for, by, and about entrepreneurs (and expected to draw more than 2,500 entrepreneurs to participate in more than 150 sessions).

Inspired by SXSW, RISE takes place in concurrent sessions created and produced by local entrepreneurs in venues around Greater Austin Intimate. Sessions are free, independently organized, peer-led, limited to 25 participants, and represent a range of topics of interest to entrepreneurs of all sizes in all industries. Lindsay Clinton, our Managing Editor, will be hosting a session on Tuesday morning (March 2) as part of the Social Entrepreneurship track.

Highlights of the 2010 conference:

• Keynotes by Red McCombs and Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS Shoes
• RISE high – Annual business plan competition for area high school students
• RISE Fast Pitch – Early-stage entrepreneurs deliver 60-second pitches to a panel of venture capitalists, angel investors and experienced executives and entrepreneurs
• RISE 2010 will be carbon neutral thanks to Sponsor Green Mountain Energy

We can’t wait!

The title of the cover story of the March 6, 2010 edition of Outlook Business, a leading business magazine in India: “The New Colours of Venture Capital.” And the tagline: “A new breed of VC funds is looking to invest in social enterprises that deliver developmental benefits, AND, generate decent financial returns.”

So, why is this important? Why do we care? Since the magazine is sitting on thousands of newsstands across India, being read by close to 180,000 people, a whole new segment of Indian society has now heard the term “social enterprise.” This is a good thing, a very good thing. While they may not know exactly what a social enterprise is, at least their interest has been piqued.

And then there is the current issue of Fast Company (March 2010), which highlights The World’s Most Innovative Companies (Facebook is Number 1). In a new 2010 avatar, Fast Company breaks down the list into “Top 10 by Industry.” Interestingly, India and China are separate categories (because they are “industries!”). The great news – four of the top 10 most innovative companies in India are standalone social enterprises or have socially entrepreneurial initiatives. This is not to mention the fact that numerous social enterprises are on Fast Company’s list of “All Stars.”

• Number two, VNL, was founded in 2004, and it “reverse-engineers telecom for the rural poor with solar-powered base stations that can be assembled onto a village home’s rooftop by anybody and operational with mobile service within six hours.”
• Number four, the Godrej Group, “crowdsourced rural villages for design input on its small, affordable ChotuKool refrigerator.”
• Number five, Narayana Hrudayalaya (the No. 3 company on last year’s list for India), honored for its low-cost, high-quality heart surgeries is now “working to extend its clinical expertise to cancer with the launch of Biocon, a 1,400-bed facility providing treatment for head-and-neck, breast, and cervical cancers. Also, last year’s Integrated Telemedicine Project aims to extend the hospital’s health-care reach to all 53 African countries through fiber-optic networks and satellite.”
• Number 8, A Little World, “is transforming the burgeoning mobile-payments sector with innovations that connect rural India to mainstream financial institutions. Its 2003 incubation of Mchek, a mobile-to-mobile payment platform, was later adopted by the state of India and Airtel before it was spun off into a stand-alone business three years later. More recently, its Zero platform, a technology that turns a smartphone, lockbox, and fingerprint scanner into a portable bank branch, aspires to integrate the unbanked masses in rural India.” Disclaimer: A Little World won the Sankalp 2009 High Impact Award for Highly Scalable Models.

This is all interesting to think about. Why were these social enterprises chosen? Are they truly the most innovative companies in the country? Or was it something else? Maybe it’s the tipping point we’ve all been waiting for – more than just social enterprise cronies now looking for a new breed of business, it’s almost a movement that incorporates “social” into its core competency, signaling a new brand of capitalism.

Photo Courtesy Outlook Business

Monday, February 15, 2010 – Friday, February 19, 2010

For the second week running, the Twitter “Social Enterprise of the Day” focused on organizations that were 2010 Tech Pioneers at the World Economic Forum in Davos. From green construction to solar power and cardiovascular innovations to monitoring patients 24X7, these enterprises are truly innovative.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Social Enterprise of the Day – Serious Materials

According to Serious Materials, the “built environment” is responsible for 52% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide – compared to only 9% for cars and light trucks. Working on reducing the harm caused by these gases as well as creating green collar jobs, Serious Materials develops and manufactures sustainable green building materials that dramatically reduce the impact of the “built environment” on the climate. The company develops and manufactures energy-saving building materials such as EcoRock – an environmentally friendly drywall, QuietRock – a soundproof drywall, and SeriousWindows – energy saving glass windows.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Social Enterprise of the Day – Energy Innovations

Energy Innovations’ mission is to deliver cost-effective, grid-competitive solar electric power. With a strategy to exceed the cost-effectiveness of existing solar power systems through innovations in both the collection of solar energy and the generation of electrical power from it, Energy Innovations has developed products such as the Sunflower, a highly concentrated photovoltaic (HCPV) system that produces cost-competitive solar power while reducing installation and maintenance costs.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Social Enterprise of the Day – Boston Power

“Boston-Power takes its environmental responsibility seriously,” says Boston-Power Founder and CEO Dr. Christina Lampe-Onnerud.  Fueled by the unwavering mission of bringing dependable power to everyday applications, Boston Power has created a next-generation lithium-ion battery technology platform that offers energy storage and portable batteries for notebook computers, PDAs, and mobile phones. Leveraging insights by researchers over the last 30 years and lessons learned from the commercialization of lithium-ion solutions, their batteries deliver on the promise of long life, mobility, safety, and environmental sustainability.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Social Enterprise of the Day – Vihaan Networks Ltd. (VNL)

“Microtelecom for the next billion mobile users.” Vihaan Networks Limited (VNL) manufactures and markets telecom equipment for mobile operators focusing on rural markets. The company offers WorldGSM – a solar powered mobile network for delivering mobile services to rural markets. VNL also provides market sizing and scoping, business consulting, and network designing, deployment, operations management, and maintenance services.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Social Enterprise of the Day – Corventis

Offering unprecedented, anytime-anywhere visibility into a patient’s health status, Corventis is a pioneer in wireless cardiovascular solutions, focused on advancing digital healthcare through the confluence of medical devices, telecommunications, and information technologies. Their goal is to usher in a new era of personalized patient care with patient and physician-friendly solutions that wirelessly connect clinicians and patients, provide unprecedented visibility into patients’ health status, deliver  actionable information for detection, prevention, and treatment, enable secure access to data anywhere across the globe, and generate significant cost savings throughout the healthcare system.

We are happy to have teamed up as a media partner with the Social Enterprise Conference at Harvard University, February 27-28, 2010. As part of the partnership, Jacob Donnelly, Co-Chair of the Social Enterprise Conference and a joint degree student at the Harvard Business School and the Harvard Kennedy School, has been kind enough to contribute to our blog.

Act I:

December 2005:  Rangoon, Burma (Myanmar)

“Why, despite the horrible suffering you’ve had to endure and knowing that for the rest of your life you will have to live in secrecy, do you continue to stay in Burma and remain active in the democracy movement?” I asked. Without a moment of hesitation – no glance to the ceiling to collect his thoughts or even a slight pause to take a deep breath – he looked straight into my eyes and in broken English said, “What else would I do?”

In truth, that is all he really needed to say. Those words revealed everything this young opposition leader and former political prisoner was feeling regarding his country, his family, and his place in this world. Ko Htay Kywe only needed those five simple words to change my life, forever.

This conversation – with a leader of the underground democracy movement during my first trip to the military-ruled country of Burma (Myanmar) – illustrates my inspiration for social enterprise. After meeting Ko Htay Kywe and others, I had to help, but the question was how?

Act II:

October 2007: Los Angeles, CA

With a good friend, we launched a non-profit that would seek to solve the human rights issues in Burma from a grassroots perspective. We had some great success, including an entire pro-bono branding campaign from amazing individuals at TBWA\CHIAT\DAY and a launch event in Thailand with the Black Eyed Peas, who played this song for us. However, the model we originally started building was not sustainable. We were fueled entirely by donations and when one of our major contributors started having personal difficulties, after a time, it became difficult to continue. We needed a new model.

Act III:

February 2010: Cambridge, MA

This search has landed me back in graduate school, studying at the intersection of business and government and learning new skills in strategy, economics, finance, and marketing. The search has also grown, not for developing a new business model, but rather searching for opportunities where I can make service a part of my everyday life.

I’m inspired by companies such as Jeff Skoll’s Participant Media and the accomplishments of Ray Chambers’ Malaria No More. We ourselves have even started a film to highlight the courage in Burma, interviewing individuals from around the world who are working to free imprisoned Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Over the past year we have witnessed a shift in the dialogue concerning economic development, sustainability, governance, and service. Even more important, and what has become clear from events that have unfolded, is that the world, now more than ever, needs entrepreneurial solutions and the leaders who develop them. We need leaders who can use their talents in the public, private, and non-profit sectors to identify opportunities and develop innovative, cross-sectoral approaches to address critical social issues.

The world needs social entrepreneurs. Are we ready for the challenge?

Credits:

Now into its 11th year, the Social Enterprise Conference at Harvard University annually brings together over  1,200 young professionals and practitioners to discuss, learn from, and be inspired by, stories of social change. Join the movement at www.socialenterpriseconference.org and follow the action on Twitter @harvard_secon

Jacob Donnelly, Co-Chair of the Social Enterprise Conference, is a joint degree student at the Harvard Business School and the Harvard Kennedy School.

Why is it that infrastructure gets short-shrift in development conversations? It isn’t sexy. It isn’t hot. It isn’t in vogue. In a sense, it is overwhelming in terms of the scale of the problem. And perhaps even more overwhelming is that to get anything accomplished in terms of infrastructure development, you need to work with the government, a daunting task in many developing nations.

But, if a country doesn’t have good (or at least sufficient) infrastructure, how can it develop? If you don’t have a national road network, a national train system, sufficient airport infrastructure, or functioning ports, how can you move goods from “farm to market” and then from domestic market to international market? If you don’t have consistent electricity, how can you perform surgery? If you don’t have clean water, how can you prevent illnesses in newborns? If you don’t have proper sanitation facilities, how can you ensure that girls stay in school?

Let’s look at roads, for instance, a key element to any country’s infrastructure and integral to delivery of products and services. With the sorry state of most roads on the African continent, when a health emergency arises, it is virtually impossible to get to the hospital. And what if it is a more minor incident that requires sending samples to the hospital and then returning again to the hospital to pick up the results? Again, a huge expenditure, in terms of both time and money.

The organization Riders for Health, operating in eight sub-Saharan African countries, is a health solution provider, yes, but it is also a solution to serious infrastructure woes. Striving to transform health delivery in Africa, Riders for Health aims for all health workers to “have access to reliable transportation so they can reach the most isolated people with regular and predictable health care.” When Andrea and Barry Coleman, the founders, saw graveyards of motorcycles all around the continent, they decided to do something. Why not ensure that these motorcycles lived longer? So they began to train local health workers in simple checks and preventative maintenance, keeping the motorcycles on the road for a longer life. Now, Riders for Health is using motorcycles to do the work normally reserved for serious medical vehicles – both cars and ambulances – and as a tool to circumvent a lack of proper infrastructure. Voila. They have created a courier system for medical samples in rural African villages. » Continue reading “Is Infrastructure Sexy? It Should Be”

Marketing is a controversial topic. To the outside world, you want to represent your best possible self. We do it all the time, in our professional as well as in our personal incarnations. More often than not, though, we are not telling the whole truth; our representation of what we are marketing is colored in a certain way. Oh, the difference between perception and reality!

This sad truth befell the social enterprise superstar, Kiva, this fall. Upon careful inspection, it was confirmed that Kiva was not representing itself in a true light. Kiva promoted itself as a link between small individual lenders and small individual borrowers. But David Roodman, of the Center for Global Development, exposed that lenders were not actually making direct loans. The borrowers already had loans from microfinance institutions by the time their pictures were posted on Kiva’s website. Thus, the direct person-to person connection that Kiva offered was an illusion.

When this happens, though, it really matters how you clean up the mess you have created. And Kiva did it with the utmost dignity. Kiva may have erred in its self-representation, but at the end of the day, they handled the criticism admirably. They have changed their communication to improve clarity for donors and have taken a proactive approach to rebuild trust with lenders. Overall, this has been an important learning experience, about trust and about life.

But, looking forward, what will 2010 bring in terms of transparency of marketing for social enterprises? Will we see more social enterprises crash and rise stronger than ever? Or will they crash and burn, fading from our memory?

For this issue’s installment of Juxtapose, we thought it timely and pertinent to highlight exactly how transparent Kiva has become, and to compare it to a new social enterprise star working with a similar model, Vittana. Obviously, there is much to learn here – the old master (ok, Kiva is only four years old) leading the young neophyte. » Continue reading “Storytelling: Tall Tales on Online Platforms?”

Monday, February 8, 2010 – Friday, February 12, 2010

The World Economic Forum in Davos attracts worldwide attention from not only global political leaders, but also from leaders in industry, academia, and the social development space. Since 2000, the World Economic Forum—with the help of a jury of experts—has chosen anywhere from 25 to 50 companies that it judges will have a big impact on the world. This year, the World Economic Forum chose 26 Tech Pioneers offering new technologies or business models that could advance the global economy and have a positive impact on peoples’ lives. Last week, we featured five of these organizations on Twitter “Social Enterprise of the Day,” and we will feature another five this week. So stay tuned!

Monday, February 8, 2010

Social Enterprise of the Day – Recycla

Recycla Chile S.A. is an E-waste (computers, printers, cell phones, scanners, calculators, etc.) recycling company in Chile, carrying out an environmentally responsible recycling process. The service that RECYCLA offers is based on the fact that electronic leftovers present dangerous repercussions for the environment and for public health. RECYCLA’s treatment consists of recycling reusable raw materials, as well as correctly handling the resulting solid remainders (e-scrap). In the case of recycling, RECYCLA disarms the equipment by extracting and separating the raw materials, so that they can be later transformed and reused. In the case of strategic asset destruction, RECYCLA guarantees their complete destruction through the use of specialized machines. The materials that cannot feasibly be reused such as batteries or computer screens are treated in a hazardous waste treatment centerthat is certified to treat such materials.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Social Enterprise of the Day – Ecotact

Ecotact is a Nairobi-based company that aims to improve the urban landscape for low-income communities through environmentally responsible projects in sanitation and housing. As part of their highly acclaimed and successful Ikotoilet project, Ecotact builds and operates high-quality, public, pay-per-use toilet and shower facilities on public land in urban centers. Ecotact uses a build-operate-transfer model of public-private partnership, entering into long-term contracts with municipalities to secure use of public lands.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Social Enterprise of the Day – Sekem World

SEKEM, meaning “vitality,” is an Egyptian initiative that aims to meet today’s challenges of sustainable human development by contributing toward comprehensive advancement of the individual, the community, and the environment. The Sekem initiative is a 750-acre farm that grows biodynamic produce, medicinal plants, and cotton; produces food and herbal food supplements; manufactures organic cotton clothes for babies; and much more. At the same time, it supports the cultural development and health of its employees and their families while raising consciousness in the entire region. Through the application of biodynamic agriculture methods; providing services; manufacturing a variety of products that conform to the highest quality standards; and, marketing and distributing them in partnership with farmers, producers, vendors, and consumers, Sekem aims to contribute to the comprehensive development of the individual, society, and environment.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Social Enterprise of the Day – Waste Concern

The Waste Concern Group was formed to achieve a common vision to contribute toward waste recycling, environmental improvement, renewable energy, poverty reduction through job creation, and sustainable development in Bangladesh. The group, through its enterprise, aims to improve the environment by promoting waste recycling activities in Bangladesh, conducting research and experiments regarding solid waste management, recycling, involving itself in clinical and hazardous waste management, treating waste water, and promoting organic farming. The group also develops community-private sector-municipal partnerships geared towards the improvement of the urban environment and creates job opportunities by promoting the recycling of waste. The Waste Concern Group works with government agencies, the private sector, international agencies, and different communities to spread and implement its mission as widely as possible.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Social Enterprise of the Day – Epuramat

Epuramat S.A. is a cleantech company based in Luxembourg, supplying efficient stationary and mobile wastewater treatment systems that promise to revolutionize waste water treatment around the world—helping the United Nations meet its goal to give 2 billion additional people access to clean water and sanitary facilities in the coming years. The core component of all Epuramat treatment systems is the Extreme Separator (ExSep), an efficient primary treatment plant module. The ExSep makes it possible to almost completely separate solid matter from different types of wastewater, setting Epuramat well apart from other treatment system suppliers.

Beyond Profit Guest Blogger, Venkat Subramanian, reports.

With social investing catching the attention the world over, and interest around green tech and bottom of the pyramid (BOP) engagements, there is a sudden frenzy in the social sector. Though we welcome this (much needed) attention, we only hope and pray that this is not just a temporary fad but a more conscious shift in the global investment and business outlook.

Many investors have expressed anguish about their inability to find suitable entrepreneurs and ventures. Most such ventures seem to mistrust such investors and don’t seem to be very open. Having shifted from corporate life with exposure to various aspects of conventional business and funding to this socially entrepreneurial sector recently in past few years, we thought we would put together a simple guideline, to set out expectations to a newbie Angel/VC/PE interested in the social sector from the entrepreneur’s perspective.

1) Social entrepreneurs are FIRE fighters, not flame throwers.

Social entrepreneurs are problem solvers of a very high degree – they take on issues that often cannot be handled by even the government and corporate sector. Their key drivers are a passion to solve a burning issue, creating better life for the people they serve and building a business model from the heart rather than the bank balance.

Typical VCs and Angels are often used to the yoyo lives of dot.com vaporwares, Enron-style scamwares, and Satyam-style scandalwares. Driven by quick exits and the “next big bling bling,” they often don’t see eye to eye with the above bunch.

What they need is some real soul searching. Before you talk balance sheets and cash flows and 10x multiples, please look inside and confirm if you, Mr. Social VC, really DO HAVE the HEART to solve problems of poverty, urban divides, etc.

2) Social entrepreneurs don’t exit, they EXIST. » Continue reading “Social Investing: A Primer for Newbie Fund Managers”

We were happy to have teamed up as a media partner with Professor Madhukar Shukla and XLRI Jamshedpur for their 2nd National Working Conference on Social Entrepreneurship. Vikram Balakrishna of Sattva, a new social enterprise in the business of creating and sharing knowledge aimed at social development through research, media, and consulting, shares his thoughts on the conference.

There is plenty of activity in the Indian developmental sector – but many individuals and organizations are operating in silos. The 2nd National Working Conference on Social Entrepreneurship at XLRI in Jamshedpur, India enabled people working towards a common theme to get out of the flat, panel-centric model and into working groups to truly dissect issues. Professor Madhukar Shukla and his team deserve thanks for conceptualizing and successfully executing a “thinking man’s conference,” which encouraged intensive discussion and the sharing of stories in order to create collaborative solutions.

The working groups focused on employment and livelihood, grassroots innovations, financial inclusion, education, market linkages, health and hygiene, and access to technology. In the session on grassroots innovation, focused on rural entrepreneurship, the discussion gave rise to a concrete (and very interesting) definition of a “grassroot entrepreneur” – one who can identify the gap in the existing system and bridge the gap with innovative ideas that will add value to society by leveraging the many available skill sets in rural areas. Why was this particularly interesting? This definition, which was so close to the existing definition, arose through the collective thinking of conference participants, many of whom had no experience in the field. Seems they were headed in the right direction! » Continue reading ““A Thinking Man’s Conference””

Beyond Profit Guest Blogger, Venkat Subramanian, reports.

First, this is NOT an article advising a budding entrepreneur on “how to approach a VC or how to write a business plan.” There are enough websites and magazine articles that have literally beaten that subject to death. On the contrary, this is an article based on our own experiences and (mis)adventures over the past several months in trying to raise funds for our startup firm, eFarm. One, this is meant for entrepreneurs who want to know what to “expect” during the “funding hunt.” Second, this is meant as a guide for investors on how to approach an entrepreneur. Yes, you DID read me right – it is high time the INVESTORS attend some workshops, read articles, and try to learn how to “pitch” to a potential entrepreneur. Because as they say, a one sided relationship is often a dead end. If you want us to do the mating dance, make sure you know some steps as well!

One reason I presume such articles or talks from an entrepreneur’s perspective are a rarity is probably because they don’t want to antagonize a community that they see as the only source of funding for their growth. As a result, much of the pain and horror stories of dealing with funders never come to light, which we feel is a great injustice to other entrepreneurs who may end up barking up the wrong tree, all over again. Second, none of the investor conferences ever invite an entrepreneur to speak about his experiences in fund raising!

So, for entrepreneurs – this article helps you to stay informed and avoid the jerks. And for investors – what goes around, comes around! The names may have been changed to protect people’s identity. But what the heck, it’s a small world… for people in the community, you can pretty well read between the lines. As usual, bouquets and brickbats are welcome.

The Business Plan

Like all newbie startups, we too started with a simple, neat 5 slide presentation that explained what our vision and business model was. Though our key focus groups and customers all “got it,” unfortunately when we started discussing this with investors, they all wanted more details and in “standard templates.” Though it did add a lot of structure to our business plan, it also added some 50+ slides and a whopping 20Mb size to the deck, which could no longer be emailed to anyone! So, we ended up having to upload our business plans and financial plans all on the net.

And NOW, we have people asking us “Why have you put it up on the net? Can you email us a shorter version?”

Lesson learned: A plan is just a plan – it is the execution that makes all the difference! And no template can capture that. For people interested in seeing our current business plans, check it out here. You can also catch all our early versions, just for kicks, on our SlideShare page. » Continue reading “Experiences in Raising Funds for My Startup”