The weekly wrap: The top 10 social entrepreneurship stories from the week that went by
Image credit: masoninnovation.orgOur weekly wrap brings you the most interesting and engrossing stories from the world of social entrepreneurship. This week contains stories of how women entrepreneurs can pitch to all-male VC team, how to start a social enterprise on a shoestring budget, top TED talk on social entrepreneurship and a new crowdfunding startup that is aiming to solve the problem of health, hunger and human rights.
Enjoy the read.
1) A social enterprise for the slums:
This year’s Hult Prize’s theme is tackling the problem of food security among urban slum populations. 10,000 teams have applied for the $1 million prize. Here’s tale of one of the finalists.
2) Government has a huge role to play in the future of Indian social entrepreneurship:
If social entrepreneurship in India needs to flourish government will have to play an important role. Here’s how to make the government your ally.
3) Meet the Haryana farmer who has outdone Warren Buffett:
Kapoor Singh, a Haryana farmer, multiplied his investment ten times in two years when he sold his buffalo, Luxmi, to Rajiv Sarpanch, a farmer from Andhra Pradesh, for Rs 25 lakh. With this money, he can either buy more than 800 grams of gold, over 850 shares of a resurgent Infosys, a 2BHK house in Wave City, Ghaziabad, an Audi Q3S, or go on Thomas Cook’s 14-night, 15-day European Extravaganza tour with ten other friends.
4) Strapped for cash? Here’s how you start a social enterprise with little or no cash:
Read about the Living Furniture Project, and how a social entrepreneur secured three premises rent-free for the first six months, convinced a leading industry brand to give him thousands of pounds worth of tools, asked photographers, website developers, film-makers and PR agencies to help launch a marketing campaign, and even managed to exhibit some of the UK’s largest furniture trade shows at no cost.
5) Top 11 TED talks on how the power of social entrepreneurship is changing the world:
TED talks are inspiring, often spurring people to action, who are looking to change the world. While there are many top 10 or top 20 lists of most inspiring TED talks ever, there aren’t many that singles out individuals who have had enduring social impact through their work. We took our time to scour through many TED talks and handpick these 11 videos that highlight social entrepreneurs, academics and practitioners who have had a profound impact in the world of social entrepreneurship.
6) Making computers affordable for the masses:
Computer literacy can go a long way in developing a nation like India. In a country of more than 1.3 billion, extending the power of a computer to the masses holds a lot of promise. And this is the intention with which ReNew was started back in 2009 by Mukund BS.
7) As a women entrepreneur how do you pitch to a room full of make VCs?
These are some significant hurdles to overcome and tend to intimidate many young women. So how do you get funded? Apart from having a good idea and team to begin with, here are five things you should do as a female founder to pitch successfully.
8) Crowdfunding takes on hunger, health and human rights:
Kickstarter meets Kiva meets TOMS: That’s the idea behind a soon-to-be launched social enterprise and crowdfunding web site by the name of Reciprocity & Co.
9) Welcome to Capitalism 2.0 and understand why the growing income gap is behind it:
There is something in the air. Collaborative working spaces, social innovation, crowdsourcing and crowdfunding, impact investing, social impact bonds, venture-philanthropy, social enterprises, triple-bottom lines, social return on investment and social entrepreneurship are all on the rise.
10) What’s preventing impact investing from moving to the next level?
The strategy of investing for both financial and social returns is getting more popular, but even experts have trouble agreeing on a definition. One thing is clear: Investors need to be comfortable with risk.