Well, It’s somehow a risk. But if you know that the investment is in good hands and they got potential. Why not take the risk. It might be a great investment.
Thank you Jim, this is good to hear. In the sustainable building (real estate) sector, I used to host programs where practitioners would share “what went wrong” in a sustainability project that didn’t meet its intended goals. The complexity of meeting design, construction program, budget, and end-user goals can lead to failures. And practitioners can get better by learning from such experiences. How are you all capturing the value of “dead ends” or failed models from your portfolio of experience?
Couldn’t agree more. In my sector, sustainable tourism, I’m an expert. It’s been 20 years in the making, through in-destination management, mass tourism web dev, ecommerce and marketing and specialist tourism operations like safari, charity challenges and voluntourism. It’s been 20 years of skills building while the market catches up with purpose. I’ve done the spadework and got the potential, but am but young as a social enterprise. I still don’t think it’s quite there, but to compromise purpose for investment and ROI pressure takes the whole point away, and loses the USP. No real social enterprise wants to be like everyone else just with a socially enterprising name - that’s greenwash. Part of being that true social enterprise is to remain committed to the vision and focus. There’s other ways to survive on the side. In the meantime, I’ve always looking for the right type of support like ‘lenaemoss’ above as the day draws ever closer.
And if more leaders were open-minded to entrepreneurial ideas from their high-potential employees they could make the investment internally before the hi-po leaves the organization to succeed or fail on their own.
Many of those successful or failed entrepreneurs left their employer because nobody listened or nobody cared. Leaders need to keep an ear to the ground for out-of-the-box thinking and innovation and take some calculated risks that empower the workforce and build great organizations.
I agree that we need to fund more early stage entrepreneurs. The problem is that there is too much competition for too little funding. How many applicants does Draper Richard Kaplan Foundation get in a year? How many of those were deserving of funding, but were rejected due to the number of applicants? How do we support the ones that are deserving yet struggle with English being their second language or do not have the powerful linkedin connections that open doors?
“How do we support the ones that are deserving yet struggle with
English being their second language or do not have the powerful linkedin
connections that open doors?” Our firm Siembra Mobile Inc. has already created the platform and are in the process of providing it for free to K-12 in California. The investment community remains somewhat ethnocentric in its visualization of the problem set and how we can fix it. We found a model that is self sustainable, a significant addressable market that does not burden schools, students or their parents. We are attempting to make the case in front of investors in Palo Alto now and are looking for advocates.
Since there were 115 investments, can there be some sharing of the amount of monetary investment in “success” and “failure”? Then future investors could have expectations when they are committing financially? In addition, the social entrepreneur may need helpful ideas and other kinds of support besides money? What are ommponents factors and principles that are operative in this ecosystem?
Our firm’s story is supported by the treatise by Michael Porter on Shared Value, and the Shared Value Forum. From experience is to find a business model that utilizes a capital from the public sector that naturally achieves both the business objective and social objective. To prime the ecosystem for the model to work takes a up front investment with 10X returns within 5 years. That latter metric is standard for startup investment. Our experience is they won’t depart from that metric. The same principles exist as in a “normal” business. The Shared Value concept can be fleshed out to determine what business model can produce those financial returns.
COMMENTS
BY Charles Tsai
ON October 12, 2017 01:50 PM
Thanks, Jim, for this insight. We don’t often talk about the positive impact of “failed” organizations.
How do you determine who’s early-stage and who’s not? When are they no longer early-stage?
BY lenaemoss
ON October 13, 2017 08:43 AM
Well, It’s somehow a risk. But if you know that the investment is in good hands and they got potential. Why not take the risk. It might be a great investment.
https://www.intelifi.com/technology/emerge/
BY Grey Lee
ON October 14, 2017 12:34 PM
Thank you Jim, this is good to hear. In the sustainable building (real estate) sector, I used to host programs where practitioners would share “what went wrong” in a sustainability project that didn’t meet its intended goals. The complexity of meeting design, construction program, budget, and end-user goals can lead to failures. And practitioners can get better by learning from such experiences. How are you all capturing the value of “dead ends” or failed models from your portfolio of experience?
BY Vicky Smith
ON October 16, 2017 04:08 AM
Couldn’t agree more. In my sector, sustainable tourism, I’m an expert. It’s been 20 years in the making, through in-destination management, mass tourism web dev, ecommerce and marketing and specialist tourism operations like safari, charity challenges and voluntourism. It’s been 20 years of skills building while the market catches up with purpose. I’ve done the spadework and got the potential, but am but young as a social enterprise. I still don’t think it’s quite there, but to compromise purpose for investment and ROI pressure takes the whole point away, and loses the USP. No real social enterprise wants to be like everyone else just with a socially enterprising name - that’s greenwash. Part of being that true social enterprise is to remain committed to the vision and focus. There’s other ways to survive on the side. In the meantime, I’ve always looking for the right type of support like ‘lenaemoss’ above as the day draws ever closer.
BY Don Johnson/ManageYourStaff
ON October 16, 2017 02:22 PM
And if more leaders were open-minded to entrepreneurial ideas from their high-potential employees they could make the investment internally before the hi-po leaves the organization to succeed or fail on their own.
Many of those successful or failed entrepreneurs left their employer because nobody listened or nobody cared. Leaders need to keep an ear to the ground for out-of-the-box thinking and innovation and take some calculated risks that empower the workforce and build great organizations.
Good article!
BY Timothy M. Kral
ON October 18, 2017 10:58 AM
Working w/ Stanford and former HP execs on a highly transformative application disrupting the obsolete high school to college interface.
BY marypeters
ON October 18, 2017 09:39 PM
I agree that we need to fund more early stage entrepreneurs. The problem is that there is too much competition for too little funding. How many applicants does Draper Richard Kaplan Foundation get in a year? How many of those were deserving of funding, but were rejected due to the number of applicants? How do we support the ones that are deserving yet struggle with English being their second language or do not have the powerful linkedin connections that open doors?
BY Timothy M. Kral
ON October 19, 2017 09:16 AM
“How do we support the ones that are deserving yet struggle with
English being their second language or do not have the powerful linkedin
connections that open doors?” Our firm Siembra Mobile Inc. has already created the platform and are in the process of providing it for free to K-12 in California. The investment community remains somewhat ethnocentric in its visualization of the problem set and how we can fix it. We found a model that is self sustainable, a significant addressable market that does not burden schools, students or their parents. We are attempting to make the case in front of investors in Palo Alto now and are looking for advocates.
BY Paul poy
ON October 20, 2017 06:39 PM
Since there were 115 investments, can there be some sharing of the amount of monetary investment in “success” and “failure”? Then future investors could have expectations when they are committing financially? In addition, the social entrepreneur may need helpful ideas and other kinds of support besides money? What are ommponents factors and principles that are operative in this ecosystem?
BY Timothy M. Kral
ON October 21, 2017 10:07 AM
Our firm’s story is supported by the treatise by Michael Porter on Shared Value, and the Shared Value Forum. From experience is to find a business model that utilizes a capital from the public sector that naturally achieves both the business objective and social objective. To prime the ecosystem for the model to work takes a up front investment with 10X returns within 5 years. That latter metric is standard for startup investment. Our experience is they won’t depart from that metric. The same principles exist as in a “normal” business. The Shared Value concept can be fleshed out to determine what business model can produce those financial returns.