Thank you for highlighting some of the next models for social startups and community development. The inherent challenge in unearthing and supporting early stage efforts – either those that have yet to demonstrate proof of concept or others that have not been able to grow beyond this stage – highlights the inherent problem in developing a more robust and efficient social entrepreneurship ecosystem and pipeline. While major social startup investors focus on projects that can scale in growth, the ecosystem does not appear to efficiently develop the social entrepreneurship talent before it reaches the scaling growth stage. To use an American sports analogy: we have developed the major league level but haven’t designed a coordinated farm system.
The pre-proof of concept and early stage social entrepreneurs do indeed “need a sort of social incubation” but also the financial assistance to allow them to focus full time on their efforts and professional assistance from other experts to help guide —a period of time to test out and adapt their ideas to solve local problems in the contexts where the problems actually occur. The incubators and funders highlighted a positive development in developing the social entrepreneurship farm system. I would hope and encourage those enablers to build the means by which shared experiences and lessons can be passed between local communities (e.g., a community of practice) in order to further realize an efficient social entrepreneurship ecosystem and pipeline.
COMMENTS
BY Adin Miller
ON July 17, 2015 11:05 AM
Thank you for highlighting some of the next models for social startups and community development. The inherent challenge in unearthing and supporting early stage efforts – either those that have yet to demonstrate proof of concept or others that have not been able to grow beyond this stage – highlights the inherent problem in developing a more robust and efficient social entrepreneurship ecosystem and pipeline. While major social startup investors focus on projects that can scale in growth, the ecosystem does not appear to efficiently develop the social entrepreneurship talent before it reaches the scaling growth stage. To use an American sports analogy: we have developed the major league level but haven’t designed a coordinated farm system.
The pre-proof of concept and early stage social entrepreneurs do indeed “need a sort of social incubation” but also the financial assistance to allow them to focus full time on their efforts and professional assistance from other experts to help guide —a period of time to test out and adapt their ideas to solve local problems in the contexts where the problems actually occur. The incubators and funders highlighted a positive development in developing the social entrepreneurship farm system. I would hope and encourage those enablers to build the means by which shared experiences and lessons can be passed between local communities (e.g., a community of practice) in order to further realize an efficient social entrepreneurship ecosystem and pipeline.