Inclusive Entrepreneurship

Can the Bounty of Thanksgiving be Year-Round?

Posted on by Case Foundation

During the Thanksgiving holiday, many use the week to put their gratitude into action — volunteering, donating to their favorite causes and welcoming others in their homes for a bountiful meal and good company. For many, this includes gathering in our communities to prepare and pass out food to those who are less fortunate. This is certainly an effort worth applauding, as nearly 50 million Americans — including 16 million children — in the United States struggle with hunger. Food insecurity is indeed a national problem, but it disproportionately affects communities in large cities.

This leads me to wonder—how do we ensure that these philanthropic efforts around the holidays are not the only steps we are taking toward helping the vulnerable, but that we are instead building a network and food systems that provide good food for those that do not have access to fairly priced, healthy foods, year-round?

One of our core pillars at the Case Foundation is unleashing the power of entrepreneurship to address significant social challenges — and I believe that a business approach to addressing food insecurity in our country holds huge potential. Specifically, developing more urban farms in communities that don’t have easy access to fresh, affordable produce can offer a steady supply of fruits and vegetables throughout the year. Urban farms can leverage unused, often unsightly places within cities, thereby maximizing both the business and social good case. To be clear, what I am suggesting is not a community garden — these would be for-profit companies operating a business in areas of town that are currently lacking access to fresh and sustainable foods.

This admittedly isn’t an easy solution. Today, the barriers to entry might be too great for even a motivated entrepreneur to get started. Being a farmer is hard work and modern day agriculture has its own set of unique challenges. For example, the cost of land and access to electricity and water, fundamental needs when farming, can be prohibitive.

As citizens however, there are a number of things we can do to help make this a reality.

  • For one, we can encourage public/private partnerships between city governments and individuals or companies who want to create an urban farm.
  • Additionally, cities could provide under utilized land and create zoning laws that would allow for the farm’s food to be sold right on the premises. This would not only create more financial upside for the farmers, but could increase access and exposure to “where food comes from” for the customers.
  • City governments can not only help promote and encourage citizens to visit and purchase food, they can also become customers of the farms for some of their own food needs — including for public school meals, giving kids access to both healthy and truly local foods.
  • To help ease the barriers to entry for farmers, cities can also provide desirable financial assistance in the form of rebates, grants, tax breaks and more to help make starting up and running an urban farm less of a burden. The goal here would not be for cities to entirely finance urban farms, but for cities to be catalysts early on to get businesses that provide long-term benefits for their community up and running. The upfront capital is tough for new farmers, but once these farms are working, they can pursue more traditional forms of financing that will allow them to provide fairly priced, healthy foods all year.

This holiday season, let’s keep up the tradition of showing our gratitude by giving back, and giving others the opportunity to enjoy the bounty of a Thanksgiving meal. But let’s also think about what we can do to create a long-term, sustainable solution — unleashing the power of entrepreneurship — to make sure that all people have access to quality, healthy and sustainable foods year-round.

The Myth of Isolation

Posted on by Case Foundation

The Myth of Isolation is the second post in the Case Foundation’s Myth of the Entrepreneur series. This series is intended to intentionally examine, and change, the stories our culture tells about entrepreneurship. For more information on the Case Foundation’s approach to the Myth series and Inclusive Entrepreneurship, please check out our introductory piece. We encourage you to join the conversation using #Ent4All on Twitter.

The Myth of the Entrepreneur series is based on research conducted by Michael Chodos, former fellow with the Case Foundation and currently at the Beeck Center for Social Impact & Innovation at Georgetown University, with contributions from Aaron Coleman, former Case Foundation intern.

In our first deep dive into prevalent entrepreneurship myths in our culture, we’d like to tackle one of the biggest of them all – that all successful companies emerge from some solitary “moment of inspiration” in some solitary place. The idioms and the imagery – “light bulb moments” and garages where “it all started” – are deeply seeded in the narrative of what it takes to be an entrepreneur. Take a minute and think about the classic tales. It was in the garage that Steve Jobs invented the personal computer. It was in his basement that Alexander Graham Bell uttered those famous lines upon inventing the phone, “Watson, come here! I want to see you!” And Isaac Singer toiled away alone as he built the sewing machine from scratch.

All white men. All idolized for their solitary contributions to society. And all seen as having a stroke of genius while working by themselves in complete isolation. In our nation’s version of entrepreneur mythology, this magic takes place in the garage where the lone inventor works.

This myth is not only talked about in entrepreneurship circles, but even marketers have started using the “great things happen in a garage” sentiment to sell products. For a good example of this, watch the Cadillac ad below:

But it turns out the myths of the garage inventions and the lone inventors are more fiction than fact. Steve Jobs didn’t invent the personal computer in his garage – nor did he start Apple alone. Steve Wozniak pulled the first Apple computer together by tinkering with circuit boards along with a group of friends at the “Homebrew” computer club run out of a bicycle shop in Palo Alto; Jobs convinced him they could sell it.

And what we don’t hear about Bell’s invention of the telephone is that he built his version of the first telephone based on decades of similar designs from others. There was a wealth of knowledge and work on behalf of other brilliant individuals that contributed to Bell’s truly remarkable invention that altered humanities communication forever.

Singer has a similar entrepreneur experience with the invention of his sewing machine. While he’s credited with the invention, he built his work off of decades of incremental inventions by other engineers and designers. At least eighty patents for designs and working machines existed before his first patent was filed. In fact, he was successfully sued for infringing oth­ers’ patented designs.

This “teamwork disguised as individual successes” phenomenon is rarely talked about in mainstream entrepreneurship stories. It leads us to idolize the individual instead of analyzing the team and process that made the idea come to fruition. Steve Johnson, in his book How We Got to Now, takes a deep dive into six innovations that were highly collaborative and involved in how they developed. He discusses inventors like Bell and Thomas Edison, who we think of as lone innovators who had a stroke of genius, and breaks down the real life process that led to inventions that changed the course of history. Thomas Edison gets the credit for inventing the light bulb, but his “light bulb moment” was actually a much more common iterative process of building off the successes and failures of others in the space.

Entrepreneurship requires work, drive and guts; however, what these four changemakers’ stories reveal is that developing the idea and building the product or service requires the knowledge and contribution of both present and historical peers and networks. It requires the diversity of ideas and perspectives of many pioneering men and women who come together to build on both past and current work, while creating a support system that uplifts an entrepreneur and propels a business.

As research shows, the most successful ventures involve teamwork. A 2013 report published in the Harvard Business School Review (HBR) found that companies with leaders who possess both inherent diversity (gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation) and acquired diversity (robust and varied business and life experiences) were, “45 percent more likely to report that their firm’s market share grew over the previous year and 70 percent more likely to report that the firm captured a new market.” And HBR isn’t alone. Forbes, McKinsey and Company and Scientific American have all published articles and studies that reinforce the theory that greater inclusivity breeds innovation and growth. When we look at the historical facts of great innovations like Apple and the telephone, we see that their success was based on teams. And we see that diverse teams produce greater returns for their investors.

So why do we keep lifting up tales of solitary entrepreneurs from privileged backgrounds working in suburban garages as the ones to emulate? And why do we hold so dear to the idea of lone rangers having singular moments of discovery?

The history and the future of entrepreneurship are full of interesting and diverse characters and stories of great teamwork – and much more interesting than the myths and the models that continue to dominate the narrative. The most powerful ideas are really borne out of a “village”, more than they are happened upon in a rare “aha moment” by a single entrepreneur working in the isolation of their garage, dorm room or basement. Changing that narrative to better reflect reality has the potential to actually make it a reality for more people, in more places, from more backgrounds.

Join the conversation on Twitter at #Ent4All and be sure to check out the full Myth of the Entrepreneur series!

Meet the Entrepreneurs of Women’s Venture Xchange – Africa

Posted on by Case Foundation

Earlier this summer, the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN) kicked off to a new mentorship and exchange program for high-growth women entrepreneurs based in Africa called the Women’s Venture Xchange-Africa (WVXA). Run in partnership with the Case Foundation, the Mara Foundation and the U.S. Department of State, the inaugural cohort of four women entrepreneurs convened in Nairobi, Kenya this week to begin their month-long mentorship. (To learn more about the WVXA, check out Sheila Herrling’s blog post, Women’s Venture Xchange-Africa: Expanding Women-led Businesses in Africa.)

As we wrap up our weeklong celebration of entrepreneurship in all communities—including women, people of color and those who are using business as a source for good—we are excited to introduce you to this cohort of four exceptionally talented women!!


Hyasintha Ntuyeko – Kasole Secrets
Hyasintha NtuyekoHyasintha Ntuyeko knew at a very young age that she wanted to be an entrepreneur. In 2013, fresh from university, she founded Kasole Secrets Company, Ltd. Kasole’s organically manufactured sanitary napkins, Glory, are disrupting the industry in Tanzania. Hyasintha’s desire and determination to succeed in her new career is an inspiration to many and duly recognized – she is a Tanzania Young Professionals Trail Blazer, an award given to individuals who demonstrate exceptional leadership skills in difficult circumstances, and a Mandela Washington Fellow.


Nobukhosi Ndlovu – Caudliss Trading T/A Nutrie Foods
Nobukhosi NdlovuPrior to launching her own company, Caudliss Trading T/A Nutrie Foods, Nobukhosi Ndlovu worked as a Human Resources Consultant. She started Nutrie Foods with a mission – satisfy the Zimbabwean market’s domestic consumption requirements through efficient, effective manufacturing technologies and dedicated staff. Nutrie Foods manufactures and packages peanut butter, kapenta fish and salt. However, their ambitions don’t stop there; in the next two years they will begin manufacturing and distributing scouring powder, jam, cooking oil and fruit, with plans for greater expansion over the next five years.

Nobuskhosi aspires to lead a corporation that is a dominant player in the manufacturing and distribution of household products in Zimbabwe and beyond. Her team values the quality of its products, the innovative nature of their business model and the excellent customer experience they provide.

Linda Mukangoga – Haute Baso
Linda MukangogaLinda Mukangoga is one of two young female Rwandan designers who founded Haute Baso. Linda was born in Washington, DC, to Rwandan parents. Linda spent time between the US and Rwanda and finally settled permanently in Rwanda to work for Gahaya Links, a company that trains rural women in the production of artisanal crafts for international markets. After participating in the design and distribution of pieces that were carried in large, international retail chains including Anthropologie and Macy’s, Linda was empowered by the belief that there is a market to showcase Rwanda globally while creating employment opportunities for the girls she works with. From this belief, Haute Baso was born – a Rwandan ethical fashion brand.


Annet Ayamba – Your Choice Agro Processors
Annet AyambaAnnet Ayamba is from Kampala, Uganda and holds a Bachelors of Art in Education from Makerere University. Annet founded Your Choice Agro Processors in 2000 with just $200, and has since accelerated the company’s growth and market share, becoming the head of a leading agriculture processor in Uganda. Your Choice Agro Processors produces millet, cassava, maize, honey, rice and soybeans. Annet’s five-year plan includes expansion regionally with a focus on Kenya and internationally with increased global sales.

 

At the Case Foundation, we are excited to play a part in this pilot program that aims to unleash the promise of great entrepreneurs around the globe, and are particularly thrilled to introduce you to each of these high-potential entrepreneurs who represent diverse African cultures and budding industries. We hope you will join us in supporting and following the journey of the fearless entrepreneurs!

 

Entrepreneurs + Toilets: A Matchup that Won’t Go Down the Drain

Posted on by Case Foundation

This week at the Case Foundation, we’ve been celebrating entrepreneurs — their role as innovators, job creators and the heart of economic growth — as part of National Entrepreneurship Month and Global Entrepreneurship Week.

It just so happens that within this busy week falls another day that is close to our heart — World Toilet Day — focused on raising awareness of the 2.4 billion people around the world who lack access to clean water and sanitation. Today’s efforts will also shine a spotlight on the incredible people and organizations working towards meeting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal to ensure access to water and sanitation for all.

For me, it’s a not just a happy coincidence that these two important world celebrations — entrepreneurs and toilets — fall in the same week. In fact, I see them as closely intertwined. Admittedly, it’s an odd couple at first glance… what do entrepreneurs and toilets have to do with each other? Actually, quite a lot.

We talk a lot at the Case Foundation about the role that entrepreneurs can — and must — play to solve some of our most intractable social challenges. And opportunities abound to bring entrepreneurial thinking and approaches to address the sanitation crisis.

One of the organizations living this idea is Sanergy, a social enterprise and a grantee of the Case Foundation. We’ve written about its groundbreaking work in the informal settlements of Nairobi, Kenya and had the opportunity to spend time with the Sanergy team during our visit to Africa this summer. But what’s particularly worth highlighting about Sanergy on this year’s World Toilet Day is its unique approach to leveraging the power of entrepreneurship. Through its franchise model, Sanergy has created a community of 370 micro-entrepreneurs — known as Fresh Life Operators — who purchase and operate Fresh Life toilets, providing their communities with access to clean, safe and affordable hygienic sanitation.

The Sanergy team mentors and assists these entrepreneurs along the way: from providing training in basic business skills, to partnering with Kiva to provide access to interest-free loans, assisting in the set up of savings accounts and holding regular forums on best practices. Creating a community of successful Fresh Life Operators goes well beyond enabling these entrepreneurs to provide hygienic sanitation to their friends and neighbors (via the 764 Fresh Life Toilets deployed to date), but they are also helping them create jobs. To date, nearly 150 Fresh Life Operators have hired attendants to help run their toilets, creating new, steady jobs in an area with 40 percent unemployment.

Sanergy certainly isn’t alone in this endeavor to leverage entrepreneurship to address the sanitation crisis — our long time partner Water for People has piloted a “sanitation as a business” initiative, which it intends to build on in 2016. And WSUP (Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor) has been a leader in this space, incubating a number of new initiatives that leverage the power of business and entrepreneurship to provide sanitation solutions in places like Ghana, Bangladesh, Kenya and Zambia, through its innovative WSUP Enterprises effort. And companies like Sanivation (an alumni of the incubator program run by our friends at Halcyon House), Pivot, x-Runner Venture and many others are making an impact by providing toilets and removing waste from communities in places like Kigali, Naivasha and Lima. The list of innovative organizations leveraging entrepreneurship to address the range of challenges in the sanitation crisis goes on and on.

It is my hope that someday, we won’t need a World Toilet Day because each and every person will have access to safe, hygienic sanitation, forever. But until that day, let’s celebrate the unexpected and critical role that entrepreneurs and innovators can play in changing the status quo.

Show your support for World Toilet Day by tweeting: Celebrate the innovative entrepreneurs working to address the global sanitation crisis this #WorldToiletDay! https://bit.ly/1NEDuT4

The Myth of the Entrepreneur

Posted on by Case Foundation

Entrepreneurship is the bedrock of our country’s economy. In the US, fast-growing, innovation-driven startups represent only two to three percent of all businesses, but they create almost all of the revenue growth in our economy. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, over a recent three-year period 34 percent of all private sector jobs were created by 80,000 high-growth businesses. Beyond the creation of jobs and wealth, entrepreneurship serves perhaps an even more essential function to Americans—it embodies our shared belief in limitless individual opportunity. Our Chairman, Steve Case, often reminds us that America itself represents one of the greatest startup ventures ever. Deeply ingrained in America’s startup business proposition was the belief that any individual—no matter their race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, economic background or geographic location—could bring their entrepreneurial talents to building the kinds of strong and diverse businesses and communities we need to keep our nation prosperous.

Yet today the American dream that any individual has the power to change his or her own trajectory, and in doing so be a part of driving our nation’s entrepreneurship and innovation legacy forward, is fading. The vast majority of today’s celebrated startups continue to be founded and funded by white, well-educated, well-networked males. Women are at the helm of 30 percent of all businesses in the US, and these businesses are leading the way in terms of hiring and growth. However, startups with women CEOs still receive only three percent of venture capital funding. Minority-owned businesses are growing at a faster clip than non-minority owned businesses, but are receiving an even smaller fraction of investments.

Why is that? It’s not that high-potential, high-performance companies founded by women and entrepreneurs of color don’t exist—check out the amazing talent featured at the first ever White House Demo Day this summer. It’s not that performance data isn’t on their side—women-founded ventures are outperforming their male counterparts and companies with diverse executive teams (gender and race) are more likely to have higher financial returns. It might be that unconscious bias permeates—bosses tend to hire people that look like they do, think like they do and come from similar experiences that they do. Investors tend to do the same. Sadly, it might be that men are perceived as “more persuasive” pitchers. Whatever the reasons, it can’t be that leaving half the team on the sidelines is a winning game plan.

In an effort to level the playing field and leverage the maximum potential of America’s entrepreneurial talent, earlier this year the Case Foundation launched a new effort to catalyze a movement around Inclusive Entrepreneurship. We have been inspired by the data that suggest diversifying our entrepreneurial ecosystem is good for business and good for the world. We have been inspired by early pioneers like Forward Cities, PowerMoves and JumpStart, Inc., who have been leading the way in engaging, networking and financing diverse entrepreneurs in their communities. And we have been exceedingly curious about the extent to which the American culture and mythology surrounding entrepreneurship, perpetuated by the media, may be impeding the success of women and entrepreneurs of color.

Unbundling The Myth of the Entrepreneur

Today, when you look at the most highly celebrated entrepreneurs—or look at how entrepreneurs are depicted in pop culture—it’s not exactly a picture of diversity. And typically the story of the entrepreneur casts main characters that appear to be singularly heroic, toiling away in garages and labs until, suddenly, a Eureka Moment! Culture begets behavior, and behavior creates outcomes. So if we want to change outcomes by expanding access to entrepreneurship, we must start with what informs our culture of entrepreneurship: We must very intentionally examine, and change, the stories we tell.

In conjunction with National Entrepreneurship Month and Global Entrepreneurship Week, we are doing our small part to start changing the narrative by launching a new blog series called The Myth of the Entrepreneur. Through this series we will take a critical look at the common stories told in startup culture. We want to distinguish between what stories should be embraced and what stories are holding us back. And to suggest it’s time to reboot and re-focus the narrative on entrepreneurship, and create a message of inspiration and aspiration grounded in inclusivity. The next era of entrepreneurship is about leveling the playing field, expanding participation and scaling the networks of social, financial and inspirational capital that provide the foundation for successful startups and scalable business. The new paradigm of entrepreneurship will replace the myth of isolated geniuses with teams of diverse problem-solvers working hard and collectively to build and scale businesses that make life better for all, not just more convenient for an elite few.

If we can debunk these long-standing and highly influential myths, perhaps we can, together, put a new “face” on today’s entrepreneur. We hope you will join us on this journey—offer up your thoughts, inspiration and new era entrepreneurs you admire on twitter using the hashtag #Ent4All. Check back here next week to learn the truth about one of the most infamous myths of entrepreneurship today—The Myth of Isolation.

50 Entrepreneurial Influencers You Should Be Following On Twitter

Posted on by Case Foundation

At the Case Foundation, we celebrate the power of entrepreneurship—as a means to help changemakers tackle global challenges, transform communities, create jobs, spur economic growth and close the opportunity gap—every day of the year.

This week however is special, as we join with millions of others in the world’s largest celebration of entrepreneurs, innovators and job creators during Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW). Now in its ninth year, GEW “inspires people everywhere through local, national and global activities designed to help them explore their potential as self-starters and innovators.” It has become a “platform for connection and collaboration—engaging all players along the entrepreneurship spectrum in strengthening ecosystems around the world.”

To forge a stronger, more dynamic and increasingly diverse entrepreneurial ecosystem, we have curated a list of 50 influencers in the entrepreneurial space—with a focus on social entrepreneurs, women entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs of color, impact investors and ecosystem builders—who we encourage you to follow and engage with on Twitter. We recognize that there are thousands of others who are actively engaging in this conversation on Twitter… so if you want to shine a spotlight on others supporting this ecosystem, please let us know on Twitter using @CaseFoundation and the hashtag #Ent4All.

And don’t forget to keep in touch with the Case Foundation and our team!
@CaseFoundation   @JeanCase   @SteveCase   Full Team List

Entrepreneurial Influencers*:
Easily follow every Twitter handle on this list through our Entrepreneurship Twitter List.

Halcyon Incubator

@HalcyonIncubate

Supporting intrepid social entrepreneurs with transformative ideas to solve 21st century challenges.

PowerMoves

@PowerMovesNOLA

PowerMoves.NOLA is about creating power through opportunity – the opportunity of high growth minority Traditional & Tech Entrepreneurship.

1776

@1776

Global incubator & seed fund helping startups transform industries that impact millions—education, energy & sustainability, health, transportation & cities.

FundGoodJobs

@FundGoodJobs

We bet on good job creators.

Propeller

@GoPropeller

Propeller is a New Orleans nonprofit that works to solve local problems through social innovation. #PropelForward #PropelChange

Scott Case

@tscottcase

@MainStGenome Co-Founder *** Up Global https://www.UP.co *** @MalariaNoMore to end malaria deaths in Africa by 2015.

Entrepreneur Magazine

@EntMagazine

Premier business magazine for entrepreneurs. Our main account is @Entrepreneur. Follow this account for all print-related content and material.

Penny Pritzker

@PennyPritzker

The official Twitter feed of the United States Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker

TechStars

@TechStars

Techstars is a global ecosystem that empowers entrepreneurs to bring new technologies to market wherever they choose to build their business.

Catalyst

@CatalystInc

Working globally to build inclusive workplaces and expand opportunities for women and business. Terms of use: https://catalyst.org/node/683

Tory Burch Foundation

@ToryBurchFdn

The official Tory Burch Foundation tweets.

UBS

@UBS

Follow us for news about UBS, our events and opinions from around the world.

Startup Weekend

@StartupWeekend

Create communities & build companies in a weekend! No Talk. All Action. Part of @techstars and powered by @GoogleForEntrep

Kauffman Foundation

@KauffmanFDN

Fostering economic independence by advancing education & entrepreneurship. RTs ≠ endorsements. House Rules https://kff.mn/110LS6x

Global Entrepreneurship Network

@unleashingideas

#GEW has given rise to a Global Entrepreneurship Network of entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, researchers and other startup champions in 160+ countries.

Branson Centre

@bransoncentre

The Branson Centre was established by Richard Branson and Virgin Unite to identify promising entrepreneurs and equip them to launch successful businesses.

Inc

@Inc

Everything you need to know to start and grow your business now.

Conscious Company

@ConsciousCoMag

Print and digital publication about innovative, sustainable businesses that are doing good in the world.

Forbes

@Forbes

Official Twitter account of https://Forbes.com , homepage for the world’s business leaders.

FastCompany

@FastCompany

Official Twitter feed for the Fast Company business media brand; inspiring readers to think beyond traditional boundaries & create the future of business.

Skoll Foundation

@SkollFoundation

Driving large-scale change by investing in, connecting, & celebrating social entrepreneurs & innovators dedicated to solving the world’s most pressing problems

Forward Cities

@ForwardCities

A national learning collaborative between cities of innovation. Focus: inclusive innovation; shared learning; social impact; entrepreneurship.

New Economy Initiaitve

@NEIMichigan

New Economy Initiative for SE Michigan is accelerating the transition to an innovation-based economy that expands opportunities for all.

Christopher Gergen

@cgergen

Focus on urban innovation & developing next generation high-impact leaders. Author, teacher, father, entrepreneur.

Arlan Hamilton

@ArlanWasHere

Investor/Managing Director at @Backstage_Cap 

Earl Robinson

@pmnolaearl

CEO, New Orleans Startup Fund & PowerMoves.NOLA: Providing underrepresented, early-stage treps with access to capital, guidance and a national ecosystem.

Idea Villages

@IdeaVillage

For entrepreneurs and those who believe in them.

Jess Knox

@jknox78251

Movement maker; growth consultant; father; Maine Startup & Create Week, @startupportland @olympicostrat

Blackstone Launch Pad

@BxLaunchPad

Blackstone LaunchPad is a campus entrepreneurship program offering coaching, ideation and venture creation support.

Kapor Center

@KaporCenter

The Kapor Center is relentlessly pursuing creative strategies to leverage tech for positive, progressive change.

SBA

@SBAgov

The official Twitter account of the U.S. Small Business Administration. News, tips, and resources for the small biz community.

JumpStart Inc

@JumpStartInc

JumpStart is a nationally recognized nonprofit accelerating the success of diverse entrepreneurs, their high growth companies and the ecosystems supporting them

The Pew Trusts

@pewtrusts

Driven by knowledge to solve today’s challenging problems, improve public policy, inform the public, and invigorate civic life. RT does not imply endorsement.

Ross Baird

@rossbaird

Executive Director of @villagecapital; also teach at @UVA. Enable entrepreneurs to solve major global problems. Big fan of @UVa basketball, @braves.

CityLab

@CityLab

All things urban, from The Atlantic.

Aspen Institute Center for Urban Innovation

@AspenInstitute

Exploring ideas. Inspiring conversations on issues that matter.

National Urban League

@NatUrbanLeague

Established in 1910, National Urban League is the nation’s oldest and largest community-based movement devoted to empowering African Americans.

Small Business Majority

@SmlBizMajority

We are a national small business organization founded and run by small business owners.

Opportunity Hub

@ohubatl

Opportunity Hub is the largest minority owned multi-campus coworking space, entrepreneurship school, pre-accelerator and incubator.

John Hope Bryant

@johnhopebryant

Thought leader, founder, chairman and CEO, Bryant Group Ventures & Operation HOPE, bestselling author of How The Poor Can Save Capitalism & LOVE LEADERSHIP

Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship

@NFTE

Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) is a global nonprofit that unlocks potential in young people by teaching them how to think entrepreneurially.

Opportunity Finance Network

@OppFinance

OFN is a national network of CDFIs (community lending institutions) that invest in opportunities to benefit low-income and low-wealth people in the U.S.

Ellevate Network

@EllevateNtwk

A global women’s network. The essential resource for professional women who create, inspire and lead. Together we #InvestInWomen.

Sallie Krawcheck

@SallieKrawcheck

Ellevest, Ellevate Network…past head of Merrill Lynch & Smith Barney ….past research analyst…..mom….crazed UNC basketball fan

Lesa Mitchell

@lesamitchell

Supporting networks that enable inventors and startups to scale.

Craig Shapiro

@cshapiro

Founder and managing partner @collabfund. Student of history.

Jacqueline Novogratz

@jnovogratz

Founder/CEO of @acumen, dedicated to changing the way the world tackles poverty. Author of The Blue Sweater

Linda Rottenberg

@lindarottenberg

Endeavor CEO and Co-Founder, high-impact entrepreneurship promoter, mom of identical twins. Author of Crazy Is A Compliment

Omidyar Network

@OmidyarNetwork

A philanthropic investment firm harnessing the power of markets to create opportunity for people to improve their lives. #PositiveReturns

Google for Entrepreneurs

@GoogleForEntrep

News and updates from Google for Entrepreneurs.

*This list is provided for informational and educational purposes only. Inclusion on this list does not include endorsement by the Foundation.

How to Pick Winners at an Early Stage

Posted on by Case Foundation

On November 4, Sheila Herrling, the Case Foundation’s senior vice president of social innovation, joined the S&R Foundation’s Illuminate event to discuss how to assess risk and find winners in early-stage startups.

Moderated by Ryan Ross, program manager for the Halcyon Incubator, the panel included Sheila, Tien Wong, Todd Klein and Yanev Suiss. Together, they engaged in a robust discussion on picking “winners” at an early stage—including how they deal with the lack of data in early-stage investing, the need for diversifying the geography of venture capital investments, leveling the playing field for entrepreneurs of color and women entrepreneurs and more.

Below is a video of the entire conversation. The first question, and Sheila’s opening statement, begins at the 4:18 minute mark.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/145148162

Here is a little more about the distinguished panelists featured in the video:

Sheila Herrling
Sheila Herrling, senior vice president for social innovation at Case Foundation, leads the foundation’s efforts to develop and implement mission-driven domestic and international initiatives, expand tech for good platforms, leverage partnerships, promote entrepreneurial approaches to social change, and build a robust portfolio of social and impact investments.

Tien Wong
Mr. Tien Wong is chairman and CEO of Tech 2000, Inc., a Virginia-based EdTech company providing e-learning, learning analytics and mobile sales enablement software to Fortune 500, education and government clients. An active angel investor, he is also chairman of Opus8, Inc., a private investment and consulting firm which helps private equity and venture capital funds raise capital overseas.

Todd Klein
Mr. Klein is a successful private equity investor and author who focuses on identifying, investing in and helping build transformative companies – those that not only succeed but transform their industries, their markets and the world around them. During his career he has been involved in financing over 130 venture and growth stage companies.

Yanev Suissa
Yanev is the founder of SineWave Ventures, a new venture capital fund focused on connecting the top technology companies of the top VC firms to access the public sector.

Apple Watch: The Good, the Not-So-Good and the Social Good

Posted on by Case Foundation

About six months ago, to great fanfare, Apple debuted the Apple Watch. And for good reason… Smartwatches will account for 59 percent of total wearable device shipments in 2015, and that share is expected to expand to just over 70 percent of shipments by 2019. The company’s long awaited foray into wearable technology has been met with mixed reactions by consumers. Over the last few months, we’ve been testing out the Apple Watch to help our team at the Case Foundation learn about this new tool and how this innovative technology could be used to change the social sector landscape. With the latest update to the operating system (OS), we thought it was a good time for a brief report out. Below, is a summary of what I like, what I suggest could be improved and where I see potential for the Apple Watch to be used for social good.

Have your own thoughts about the Apple Watch or wearables? Please share them with us on Twitter using @CaseFoundation and #wearables.

The Good:

The most obvious thing to love about the Apple Watch is the incredible convenience it brings. Being able to merely turn your wrist and instantly see those things that are most important to you—the date, what your next appointment is, what the temperature is outside and more—without having to dig out a cell phone or open up your computer—can’t be beat.

For many of us testing the Apple Watch, the main question boils down to: “When would I rather use the Apple Watch than my phone?” And the answer for many applications is usually, I wouldn’t. That being said, there is much to appreciate with this device:

  • Complications: These are small elements that appear on the watch face and provide quick access to frequently used data, offering unparalleled convenience. For example, apps like Dark Sky that can notify you that it’s about to rain, or App in the Air that will push flight statuses to your wrist while walking through the airport. And obviously, as a wearable, the possibilities are huge in the health and fitness space. A running list of available apps and complications for the Apple Watch is here.
  • Haptic alerts and alarm: It is great for minimizing distractions in meetings as the watch merely vibrates quietly to tell you when you have a call or a text coming in and is not as disruptive as a phone. The same feature also allows the watch to act as a much more pleasant alarm, gently tapping your wrist to wake you in the morning.
  • Voice recognition and voice to text feature: When you receive a text, you can quickly reply by speaking into the watch. This feature is really helpful for driving, exercising or simply for when your phone is out of reach; with just a tap of the watch, you can speak your reply. It picks up speech amazingly well.

The Not so Good:

While the convenience is impressive, there are a few features that, in my opinion, could be tweaked to drastically improve the user experience.

  • Battery life: The watch’s battery is only good for 18 hours, meaning you’re left recharging the watch daily. This inconvenience might not be so bad if there were an easier way to tell what the battery level is, but one has to go through multiple steps to see what the power level is or set it up as a complication. A suggestion is to perhaps utilize the outer ring of the bezel as the battery indicator for example. It might also be less cumbersome if there were an easier way of taking the watch off and on. For example, a simple-to-use quick release mechanism to actually pop the watch away from the band for charging.
  • User experience: It is not clear when to use the screen itself by tapping; swiping or “force touch”; when to use the crown; and when to use the button that sits below the crown. I suspect the integration of these elements will likely improve over time as Apple and other developers gain more user data and create a more consistent set of guidelines and best practices for watch interfaces.
  • Waterproof: It’s not. While this may not be a deal breaker, it does feel restrictive given the integration of wearable technology to track our every move and heart beat. The watch could be great for sports for instance, but right now you will always have to worry about taking it out kayaking or canoeing, and if you are a swimmer you can’t use it for that. The lack of a waterproof feature just feels limiting.

The Social Good:

So where does that leave us for social good? The possibilities are endless. One could imagine an application that utilizes proximity marketing technology that pushes notifications to customers about social good deals as people walk through the mall—notifying shoppers that the store to their right is donating a percentage of revenue to a local nonprofit for every purchase made today. This would help connect individuals with the organizations and causes that they care about the most.

This may just be an imagined application for the watch now, but it isn’t so far-fetched. There is a long history of tools designed for commercial uses pivoting to support social good. For example, many of the e-commerce tools of the past were developed into non-profit donation tools. Recently, UNICEF’s “Wearables for Good” competition challenged changemakers to ideate on new uses for wearable technology, and has hit upon some incredible ideas, including devices that: facilitate record keeping; aid in the tracking of medications; purify drinking water; and even track vaccinations. Indeed, much of the “tech for good” movement, powered by driven social entrepreneurs, embodies these principles of repurposing commercial technologies for social impact.

When game-changing technologies like the Apple Watch come out, it opens up a world of possibilities for social entrepreneurs to apply their skills and talent, experiment, fail, experiment again and come up with applications for these innovative technologies that could change the world. My hope is that pioneering social entrepreneurs, like the finalists in UNICEF’s “Wearables for Good” competition, will take the lead in developing these new technologies. It’s time for social good applications to be integrated into our technology. I can’t wait to see what’s next for the evolution of the Apple Watch and other wearable tech like it!

Be Fearless Spotlight: Fixing a Leaky Pipeline

Posted on by Case Foundation

This Spotlight is authored by guest writer Caitlin Kelly as part of a special blog series by the Case Foundation featuring Be Fearless stories from the field. Follow along with us as we meet people and learn about organizations that are taking risks, being bold and failing forward in their efforts to create transformative change in the social sector.

Last year, a number of well-known tech-focused companies released information about their employees that relates specifically to race and gender. The results shone a light on the deeply rooted challenges this sector faces when it comes to diversity. Breaking through those obstacles remains a challenge for women and minorities in particular—one that the Kapor Center for Social Impact (Kapor Center), based in Oakland, California, is boldly tackling every day.

The Kapor Center wears its mission on its sleeve: “We believe that when the community of tech leaders reflects the diversity of the United States, tech will play an integral role in closing gaps and disparities that exist in this country,” the organization’s website states. “Via proven methods from the for-profit and nonprofit fields, we work in partnership with a diverse set of stakeholders to maximize social impact.” Over the years, the Kapor Center has focused its efforts on audacious, “gap-closing” endeavors. The “gap” in these cases refers to a number of challenges facing society today—gaps in academic achievement, access to health care and economic opportunity, as well as gaps in income, information and social mobility.

TheGap_Kapor Center

To achieve these lofty goals, the Kapor Center funds a variety of groundbreaking initiatives and entrepreneurs aimed at stopping what it calls the Leaky Tech Pipeline, which creates roadblocks for African Americans and other underrepresented communities of color in the tech-innovation fields. Currently, African Americans account for less than 3 percent of programmers, developers, engineers and other tech-focused talent. As a result, although African Americans are generally early adopters and users of technology, their intellectual capital is almost nonexistent in the development of new apps and tech systems, leaving in question how germane the products are to their daily lives. To address this gap, the Kapor Center has initiated several interventions, including efforts to provide greater access to educational opportunities for African American and Latino students.

One such intervention has emerged from a program called the College Bound Brotherhood, which supports college and 21st-century career readiness for Bay Area African American males. Created in 2008, the Brotherhood is the first network in the United States to focus on African American male students and connect them to college readiness programs and local resources. Using a Networked Improvement Community model—in which organizations, parents and school districts learn from, support and build with one another to become more solution-oriented toward issues specific to their community—the Brotherhood aims to place 3,000 African American males on a college-bound and college-completion track annually.

Justin Davis, a former professional basketball player who serves as a Program Officer for the Kapor Center, joined the organization in order to “pay it forward” after benefiting from the opportunities that similar funded programs offered him as a young male of color, including college prep services. Davis attended Stanford University on an athletic scholarship, studying communications, then played with the Golden State Warriors.

“In 2008, foundations weren’t investing heavily in black males’ achievement or black-male-centric initiatives,” Davis notes. “We would like to think we were seeing ahead of the curve of what was a pressing issue needing philanthropic support.” Davis says that as a result of the Kapor Center’s early investments in black males, it has been on the front lines of a larger movement, providing not only financial resources, but also “our tech inclusion lens” to such initiatives as President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper, the Executive Alliance to Expand Opportunities for Boys and Men of Color, and the California Executives’ Alliance to Expand Opportunities for Boys and Men of Color.

Davis embraces a bold approach when advancing the work of the Kapor Center. Fearlessness to him means “being unapologetic about serving underserved communities, especially black and Latino, especially with regard to technology.” Noting that the tech industry is “highly homogeneous and not truly reflective of America in general,” Davis says that “our priority and focus is on creating a more diverse tech sector, so we made several investments in community-based organizations and nonprofits serving these groups. Being fearless means we’re very vocal and outspoken about this being an issue. These doors are not welcoming for people of color! And even for the few people who get in, is there a culture that retains them?”

Davis is an athlete at heart, and his competitive nature drives his work. “How do you get better at philanthropy? How do you get better at serving communities of color?” These are key questions that he challenges himself and his team to consider. “I’m always thinking about ways to improve our work and our organization.”

Davis asks, “How can we make the best investments that snowball and create a tech sector that welcomes these men? Our challenge has been trying to understand where to make those investments, as there are no blueprints for how to do this through grant-making. We’ve been making investments outside our comfort zone.”

Reflecting the skill set he developed while working with the Kapor Center, Davis has gone on to rebrand the College Bound Brotherhood, helping it to focus solely on diversifying the world of tech. That meant cutting off funding to some grantees while gambling on new and untested investments. “As part of our pivot to focus exclusively on tech, we parted with some of our long-term grant partners,” Davis says. “In doing so, an opportunity presented itself to support a number of nonprofits who weren’t receiving much interest or funding for their work aimed at exposing communities of color to coding.”

Without such focused support, Davis adds, the effects of a growing tech sector on black and Latino communities were mainly “displacement, career unreadiness and gentrification.” The Brotherhood’s investment strategy paid off: “Two to three years later, we had people so thankful for [our] taking the risk to help them grow and develop.”

While the Kapor Center is strengthening the tech pipeline for people of color, Davis is quick to point out that “there are many entry points—from a novice coder to successful entrepreneur.” He notes that not all students in the College Bound Brotherhood have been introduced to coding, but like many Americans they’re “connected at the hip to technology via cell phones or gaming consoles. We simply want to expose these young men to exactly where that technology comes from and inform them that there is a lucrative career available to them if they’re interested. We aim to build meaningful relationships with tech companies so they remain cognizant of the importance of having multiple doors through which talent of color can comfortably walk.”

The Brotherhood collaborates with more than 40 agencies and organizations, each of which contributes to the network model. Much of the success of the program is due to the engagement of unlikely partners. “They’re the big tech firms just down the road. We’re knocking on the door and getting into those closed walls,” Davis explains.

The “tech inclusion” full court press is working, he says with satisfaction. “Oh yes! We’re sitting down now with C-suite staff and doing workshops on this issue in front of hundreds and hundreds of their staff,” Davis says. “These conversations have paid dividends in the sense that we are no longer knocking on the doors (as much), but are now often answering the knock on our door.”

Feeling inspired? If you’re ready to begin your own Be Fearless journey start by downloading our free Be Fearless Action Guide and Case Studies.

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