New York’s first Impact Innovation Conference is Here!

By Shivani Singh

A Socent’s Experience at Impact Bazaar

I recently attended Impact Bazaar, the first of its kind by Impact Hub in New York City. I wasn’t sure what sort of conference I was signing up for, exactly. There wasn’t much information online and the event was scheduled to last over two months. But not only did I find the experience to be useful, engaging and fun, I also found it difficult to leave at the end of my two weeks there!

About Impact Hub NYC

Impact Hub NYC is a subsidiary of MissionHUB, the organization responsible for the hugely popular SOCAP series. Over time, MissionHUB has established Impact Hubs in San Francisco, Berkeley, New York, DC and Philadelphia, and they exist to “support social entrepreneurs and impact investors in building sustainable businesses that drive long-term social and environmental change.”

Impact Hub NYC is a certified B Corporation. It’s “a coworking & events space for a community of entrepreneurs, activists, creatives, and professionals taking action to drive positive social and environmental change.”

Impact Bazaar: The Event

Impact Hub NYC’s Impact Bazaar was well attended. There were organizations big and small, from around the country and a few from further away. It was a close and informal setting for the most part. And it was always cheerful. But what really set Impact Bazaar apart from other such conferences is the fact that it was so accessible. Admission was only $10/day and it bought access to most events, the work space, and good, fair-trade, coffee. Lunches, a range of ethically made products, and specialized engagements were available for sale.

Throughout the event, there were a variety of meetings, presentations and workshops by experienced, committed professionals. In general, there was this unmistakable sense of camaraderie. Everyone involved seemed genuinely dedicated to being helpful. Certainly, the opportunities for intimate networking were impressive.

My own favorite part of the conference was the people. I met (and learned much from) some great people at Impact Bazaar. These people were full of helpful expertise, contagious energy, and promise for the future we have the power to create, together.

What’s Next?

Since this was the first such conference, I can’t wait to see what the future holds. I suspect this will become an annual thing, where lessons learned along the way will be applied for bigger and better events. Over time, I have no doubt that more participants and impressive names will join the roster. What I’d love though, is for this unique, open and accessible culture of Impact Hub NYC’s to thrive.

-Shivani

Lessons from Impact Bazaar

Shivani just got back from the Impact Bazaar conference in New York, where PATHFINDER was invited to attend and connect with peers and leaders in the field.

She also attended a ton of seminars and lectures and learned a lot about social enterprises, startups and lots of other cool stuff!

Stay tuned for updates and lessons learned from the Impact Bazaar. In the meantime, you can read more about the conference here!

 

PATHFINDER Makes Exciting Progress!

map PATHFINDER
Our website alone has reached hundreds of people from around the world!

WE’VE been operational for about nine months now.

And we’ve come a long way. In addition to the many entrepreneurial tasks of setting up a new business, we’ve had lots of training in relevant subjects ranging from marketing to investor relations and development finance. We’ve had discussions with various experts, all of whom were incredibly helpful, positive and encouraging. We’ve begun partnering with impressive people and organizations. We’ve been published a lot and interest continues to grow steadily.

We’ve even received feedback from Ashoka’s Changemakers, noting our strengths to be our “Idea Originality, Team, and Understanding of Marketplace”. Their experts assessed that we have “good aspiration and an interesting idea”, and “a great ambition with this endeavor.”

We’ve often heard people remark that aside from our compelling work, we have an undeniable passion, infectious energy, and that we seem to be well ahead of the curve.

Based on our progress markers, our R&D, and on our outreach, it seems like we are on the right track; that’s all the motivation we need to continue to strive towards game-changing success!

What we’re up to NOW

Shivani is currently in New York City, where PATHFINDER was invited to participate in the Impact Bazaar. She’ll be meeting with experts, investors and academics alike. If any of you are in the area and want to connect, give her a shout out here.

Jess is currently completing the World Bank’s course, ‘Financing for Development’, that we were invited to attend with professionals from nearly 200 countries around the world. This unique course focuses on the United Nation’s new Sustainable Development Goals, and what’s required to achieve them.

And finally, PATHFINDER is proud to announce a cool, new pilot project: Agri-Cycle from Namibia. Agri-Cycle is an agribusiness startup run by three Namibians who have an excellent, locally-sourced, sustainable and scalable plan to convert organic waste into potent protein to use as fodder and such, 100% of which is currently imported. There are actually several national and regional uses for their model which we will introduce on our website soon. With the inclusion of this project, PATHFINDER now has a portfolio to help launch profitable local businesses in Nepal, India and Namibia, covering the social sectors of education, economic independence, equality, sanitation, agriculture and the environment. That’s a portfolio of work we cannot wait to get started on!

What’s NEXT

We are at the leading end of a great movement. There is so much potential in what we have planned through our pilot projects. Many people can be employed in their own communities. Many great problems can be solved through existing creative, sustainable and scalable solutions. Resources can be connected to requirements. Powerful partnerships can be formed for compelling, profitable work around the world. And these powerful teams will slowly change the way the world comes together.

But first, WE NEED YOU. We are featured on Fundable (by Startups.co) as their first ever social enterprise! Our services are also detailed here; have a look and help spread our message! Let’s come together and do something amazing.

Let’s change the world together!

 

How We Began a Social Enterprise Against All Odds

By Shivani Singh

JessAndI_Fotor

Starting a Social Enterprise

It’s been about 8 months since Jess and I created PATHFINDER. One of our goals is to record and analyze everything we learn so that we may be of service to others. I think I’d like my first journal entry to be particularly personal. So this piece is about us: two passionate women committed to being successful amidst special circumstances.

Everything about this organization has been unique. Not only is our work innovative, but also the way we have executed our business is singular. We understand that charting our own path is bound to create exceptional situations and we’ve progressed in spite of it.

But, how do we make it work?

Since the start of PATHFINDER, Jess and I have not been in the same room once. In fact, we haven’t seen each other in a few years. Jess lives in France. I’ve been nomadic for a year and a half while awaiting a resolution to my persistent immigration woes. I’ve been traveling various countries (and time zones). So, all our work has been online. All our discussions are conducted via phone and text, and we are in contact every day as per convenience. Our predictable geographical challenges have been surprisingly nonexistent. People often remark at how strong we are as a team and how far we’ve come in little time.

When we started this business, Jess was in her third trimester with her first child. In spite of my insisting otherwise, she barely took a couple of weeks off work before she was back online, at her desk, baby cooing happily in lap. She wouldn’t have it any other way, she said. She gets to raise her son and work on what she loves, all while keeping her own schedule. In my yet-childless opinion, of course, she is a beast.

And then we’ve faced the challenges all other entrepreneurs face. We’ve been working hard to develop credibility, we have more work than we have resources, and we’ve earned no income (yet). Furthermore, social entrepreneurship is a relatively new field and particularly unknown. The potential in our work resonates with many, but selling it, in spite of all the promise, is much tougher than selling a reliable new tech toy.

That said, we’ve loved every bit of it… Well, maybe some bits more than others (see above).

Go for it anyway

Looking back now, I think we worried about our circumstances for no more than a few minutes on a couple of calls at the start. For one thing, we didn’t have the time to agonize. It didn’t take long for us to find our rhythm and I’m proud to say that it works fantastically for us. We knew we wanted to work with each other, we knew PATHFINDER is where we belong and so, we did what we had to. Besides, there are bigger, scarier challenges to overcome on the entrepreneur’s path to success. We’ve always found ourselves focusing our energy on creating results we can be proud of.

I recognize that circumstances differ for everyone, as do people’s ways of managing them. Certainly, people themselves are excitingly diverse. But a few well-known lessons stand out for us in particular:

1. Everybody is afraid. One of our most successful tools to overcome fear has been to focus on what we can control, and not worry about what we cannot. Indeed, when either of us (me) is having the occasional freak-out, the other reminds us of this (thanks, Jess!)

2. Work hard and smart. Do what needs to be done, and do it well. Learn lessons along the way. Evolve. Nobody has all the answers at the get-go but if you are committed to becoming the best, do what it takes to get there.

3. Dig deep. Using my own life as an example, I say this especially to you, ladies: you’d be amazed at what you’re capable of!

The bottom line

And I say this with conviction: you’ve got this! The world needs more people like us. You can be a nomadic immigrant or a new mother. You can be a young woman amidst distant influential men. You can disagree with the status quo. You can challenge the system(s). You can find your own creative solutions to everything you consider an obstacle. The point is, if you truly believe that you can make the world a better place by setting up your own social enterprise, chances are you are absolutely right.

-Shivani

Social Enterprises 101

By Jessica van Thiel

There’s a lot of chatter these days about Social Enterprises (#socents), a relatively new way of doing business, that we believe is a ‘movement’ in the entrepreneurial world. It seems millennials (in general) are the driving force behind the trend that’s resonating with all generations and revolutionizing the way people do business. Because ‘socents’ are fairly recent, there is little research about their successes, failures, and what makes them tick.

As with all new things, people are following social enterprises to see if it is indeed a successful and revolutionary new way of doing business or if it’s just the trend of the moment.

Social Enterprises: what are they?

Social entrepreneurship, according to Harvard Business Review, “has emerged over the past several decades as a way to identify and bring about potentially transformative and societal change.”

Social Enterprise Council of Canada describes social enterprises as– “businesses owned by non-profit organizations that are directly involved in the production and/or selling of goods and services for the blended purpose of generating income and achieving social, cultural, and/or environmental aims.”

The main identifying characteristic of social enterprises is that they are businesses which have a greater purpose and in general aim to ‘do good’ while making a profit.

Social Enterprises: key challenges

The first and most significant challenge of a social enterprise is that it is not an easy way to raise revenue. Most socents take years before they break even, let alone start generating funds. Long term commitment and subsidizing are essential and are hard to find. That’s why a common way of seeking funds is through crowdfunding campaigns such as IndieGogo or PinUp.

But even then, nothing is certain, and balancing a social enterprise’s social and financial priorities is extremely challenging.

The second challenge we’ve observed is the difficulty of selling a new idea. In most cases the idea has not been proven to be successful yet, and is therefore not free of risk even though it may hold great potential. It’s difficult to ‘pitch’ an idea that hasn’t yet proven results; and it’s next to impossible to deploy on the idea without the money to do so. It’s a bit of a ‘chicken before the egg’ dilemma and it can be one of the most frustrating aspects of starting a social enterprise.

As explained by Sarita Douglas of Demand Media, “A social enterprise faces the same issues that any traditional business faces in its growth and operations. But social entrepreneurs also face unique challenges in delivering the social value, social returns or social impact of the enterprise in addition to commercial value”.

Benefits: success is possible

In order to succeed, social enterprises must comply with both social goals and significant financial constraints. The initiative must be financial sustainable, otherwise the project will require a constant flow of subsidies, charity and donations that traditional non-profit organizations heavily rely on; that are, in nature, unsustainable and difficult to secure.

Many social enterprises maximize their impact through collaboration, co-operation and social innovation. They tackle traditional business problems in a different way; and scale of business doesn’t necessarily equal scale of impact.

One common practice among social entrepreneurs is to share ideas with peers. For us, building relationships and networks to maximize impact has been essential. Rather than worrying about competitors, we’ve taken on the strategy of sharing information and connecting with our peers in the effort to gain insight, industry ‘best practices’, and future contacts.

We recommend brainstorming with experts and contributors to help find solutions to common industry problems. Simply put, the more people are inspired and join your “movement”, the more likely others will take notice and in turn, make resources available.

Much work is yet to be done to discover all of the benefits of running socially responsible and economically sustainable organizations. The bottom line is this: a social enterprise is a business. It needs to be run by professionals with commercial experience who understands financial planning, scaling and growth as well as social issues.

References:

Social Enterprise Canada
http://www.socialenterprisecanada.ca/en/learn/nav/whatdotheysellmakeanddo.html

Social Enterprise Council of Canada
http://www.socialenterprisecanada.ca/learn/nav/whatisasocialenterprise.html#sthash.yi6uhiPC.dpuf

Social Enterprise UK
http://www.socialenterprise.org.uk/blog/the-challenges-of-scaling-up-social-enterprises/

Management Study Guide
http://www.managementstudyguide.com/social-enterprises-advantages.htm

Harvard Business Review
https://hbr.org/2015/05/two-keys-to-sustainable-social-enterprise

An Influential Impact Investor Offers Advice for New Social Entrepreneurs

By Shivani Singh

Advice for a new Social Enterprise

“I have committed to being as helpful as I can”, is why Mr. Solomon took a call with me. He had responded immediately. He agreed to share some expertise with this new social entrepreneur, a follower from Twitter.

Joel Solomon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had been researching, studying and interviewing for our new social enterprise, PATHFINDER, when I met Mr. Solomon. I was fortunate enough to have spoken with a few successful people, each of whom had been so kind. While every conversation had been educational, I found increasingly, that “social enterprise” and “impact investing” etc. are rather specialized concepts. The idea of using business as a force for good has only gained traction over the past few decades. Expertise remains concentrated among those who have spent years working in the industry themselves.

Joel Solomon co-founded and runs Renewal, “a collection of organizations that utilized the powerful tools of business and philanthropy in support of long-term societal solutions.” Mr. Solomon, himself a successful private financier, has affected several socially viable operations. He has empowered many people through his work and commitment to a better world. Our conversation turned out to be as targeted and helpful as I imagined it might be.

I had 30 minutes on the phone. The question was as follows:

“What advice would you offer a brand new social enterprise? Please focus on how to attract attention and funds.”

Mr. Solomon spoke of 3 keys areas he believes to be critical to building a brand and raising funds. Master these, and a social enterprise is well on its way to legitimacy, perhaps even success:

1. Access, which referrers to one’s own network distribution. How many contacts can introduce one to money, or to events and circumstances that boast money?

2. Knowledge, about where the money is. There are specific institutions that offer seed capital, such as incubators and venture capitalists. There are organizations that promote equity crowdfunding. There are showcases one can participate in, for admittance to a particular audience and network. And then there are wealthy individuals who are looking for causes to get involved with. One needs to search hard, find these organizations, and work with them.

3. Lists, of potential bridges to private money. The goal is to maneuver oneself into situations where there is wealth aplenty. Know that building and executing these lists may be tough, as the exercise challenges one to step out of one’s bubble of comfort. How best does one get to, and represent oneself in a situation of power and wealth? What might hold one back? The intention is to capture as much stage and glory as one can while of course, championing the cause.

And of course, finally there is the “art of engagement”. Mr. Solomon briefly summarized characteristics of successful people everywhere, such as intelligence, strategy, personality, presentation, being realistic etc. The better known attributes of prosperous entrepreneurs play a crucial role as well.

35 million people comprise the wealthiest 10% of the United States and Canada, combined. “This means that 1 in 10 people have money here”, said Mr. Solomon. The rise in private money for business ventures with social impact, corresponds with a decline in public investment due to the decreasing reach of government. For those setting out to run socially sound businesses, its helpful to know that not only are there plenty of funds, but also, this is a rapidly developing trend.

Social Entrepreneurship is a powerful new movement (as I see it); one that allows people everywhere to take charge instead of relying on bloated bureaucracies and corruptible governing bodies. There will be several successful models of engagement over time. The best models will generate victorious public-private partnerships.

Much yet remains to be seen, learned and studied about this industry. But what we have set out to do is good. We will stay the course, build expertise and develop credibility. Hopefully, we will succeed and change many lives for the better. In any case, a few years from now, we will look back and remember our first supporters and advisers.

-Shivani

First Social Enterprise on Fundable!

Social Enterprise on Fundable

We’re proud to announce that PATHFINDER is the First Social Enterprise on the equity crowdfunding platform, Fundable. Check out our campaign and do share our story with your friends and networks!

Check out this successful example of a market-based solution to poverty

The One Acre Fund is a successful example of a market-based solution to poverty. Like us at PATHFINDER, they believe in enabling people so that these people may bring themselves out of poverty, and eventually thrive. Check out what they’re doing  here.

Enabling not aiding: a solution to the non-profit brain drain

By Jessica van Thiel

We are different from most consultancies in the way that our model operates. Our intention is to enable social entrepreneurs by providing them with the resources and funding they need to be able to focus entirely on their organizations and causes; because the current model that most non-profit organizations use is just not sustainable.

Too often professionals with a great deal of expertise and education are expected to work for very little or on a voluntary bases (in many cases). This of course is not sustainable and the result is a high turnover of staff, the abandonment of projects and in many cases the closure of the organization.

We aim to prove that our innovative model of operations will address these greatest known industry shortcomings and will tackle them head on by enabling (not aiding) promising local social entrepreneurs and by engaging only sustainable and scalable operations.

By the end of 2016, our objective is to make great strides. The direct impact will be seen at the ‘grass roots’ level through our pilot projects. Supporting the education of school children in Nepal, and the creation of jobs for rural women in India will be the tangible results seen right from the start.

However, raising funds is tough and raising funds where it is unlikely to make a massive return on investment right away, or where there isn’t a cool new gadget to grab, is even tougher. We are a social enterprise and “social entrepreneurship” is a relatively new, developing trend.

Much work is yet to be done to discover the amazing benefits of running socially responsible and economically sustainable organizations. But at PATHFINDER we are confident that over time, our model will prove to be successful and demonstrating of enormous potential!

-Jess