Top Ed Tech Companies Gather at the 2012 SIIA Ed Tech Business Forum

Futuristic Classroom

If you’ve ever dreamed of a futuristic world where robots take over the role of teachers, and computers create a virtual classroom tailored to each student – I think I’ve seen it. Last week I attended the SIIA Ed Tech Business Forum in New York, which brought together top companies and investors from all over the US in the field of education technology. The event featured burgeoning start-ups alongside established companies, as well as corporate foundations, publishers and venture capitalists looking for the next bright idea. And it was encouraging to see that although this was a “business forum”, many of the companies had a product that targeted a specific social aim.

One of these companies was mSchool, founded by Elliot Sanchez, with the mission of making communities into classrooms. They target community centers where students hang out after school, and provide access to state-of-the-art technology to teach kids math. The software is so fun the kids actually enjoy using it, and it is essentially an automated homework tool that dramatically improves numeracy. mSchool’s stated goal is to eliminate the numeracy achievement gap in the US – cheaper and faster than anyone else.

OpenStax College plans free books for most-attended college courses.

Another product targeting the achievement gap is a program of Rice University. You may have heard of the success of MIT’s OpenCourseWare platform, which provides free online course material. David Alviar, a manager in Rice University’s Digital Learning department, introduced me to Rice’s own open source solution. OpenStax College offers students and administrators free and low-cost textbooks that are peer reviewed and written by professional content developers and education experts. They are currently serving over one million students with access to low-cost textbooks that meet course requirements.

Joe Woo, co-Founder of Learn Sprout was an energetic young entrepreneur with some great advice for start-ups. His own company was incubated which really helped their development, and he said he would direct any NYC-based ed tech entrepreneurs to check out Socratic Labs. Learn Sprout is “a universal application interface that helps schools to integrate education applications with their student information systems”. Sounds complicated I know, but it offers the promise of making it easier for school administrators to implement new technologies in their school, keeping track of all the student data, which would be pretty useful.

The only Irishman at the Ed Tech networking session (dressed in tweed I have to add) was the CTO of Texthelp, an innovative company that is providing text-to-speech solutions that actually don’t sound like a robot. The software captured the rhythm and cadence of the sentences it read, and sounded scarily similar to my fourth grade teacher (which I guess is modern progress). Their technology could be hugely helpful for children with learning difficulties, and also in developing nations where kids are so eager to learn but often lack basic literacy skills.

HandHold Adaptaive creates apps for the differently enabled, in particular, children who have autism. A family-run business founded by the parents of a 4-year old boy with autism, HandHold Adaptive helps parents and carers with a range of tools including an app that tracks behavior, and a picture-based prompt app that helps with language development.

It was really inspiring to see top tech entrepreneurs apply their skills to the field of education. If the SIIA Ed Tech Business Forum is anything to go by, I am excited for the future of education technology – widening access, borderless classrooms, and innovative solutions to learning for those who are often left behind.

15 Social Venture Capital Firms that You Should Know About

Unfortunately the playing field is far from level when it comes to social entrepreneurs looking for funding for their initiatives. There is still a relatively small pool of funders that will consider foregoing a significant ROI for a SROI.

That said, the pool is growing as social venture capitalism becomes a buzz concept in the sector, and these funders are involved in some of the most inspirational projects around the world.

If you are seriously considering venture capital, you should also check out this post from Joe Ippolito on Good Business about the pros and cons of VC for a social enterprise start up.

If you’re ready to go, Olivia Khalili at Cause Capitalism lists these as her top 15 social venture capital firms for social entrepreneurs looking for funding – from seed to late stage:

1. Acumen Fund: Focus on solving problems of global poverty through loans and equity in India, Pakistan and East and South Africa.
2. Big Issue Investment: Focus on medium-term growth capital.
3. Calvert Group: Early, direct investments.
4. Central Fund: Strong focus on sustainable jobs for low-income populations; services for distressed communities.
5. City Light Capital: Early stage, social mission-driven companies; focus on good financial returns.
6. Clean Technology Venture Capital: Invests in mid-sized alternative energy companies with promising exits.
7. First Light (an iniatitave of Gray Ghost Ventures): Incubator and investment partner to seed-stage, for-profit social ventures
8. Good Capital: Expansion fund; high-engagement, hands-on investment partner.
9. Gray Ghost Ventures: Early stage enterprises focused on low-income communities in emerging markets.
10. Investors’ Circle: Investors’ Circle matches social entrepreneurs with its circle of angel investors.
11. Root Capital: Focus on grassroots businesses in rural areas of developing countries.
12. Shared Interest: Invests in fair trade businesses.
13. TBL Capital: Focus on social enterprises in consumer products, service providers, software, clean technology, green building, health and wellness, and retail.
14. Triodos Bank: Equity and debt fundraising; Social Enterprise Fund and EIS Green Funds.
15. Underdog Ventures: Focus on natural and organic food, environment and conservation, socially responsible consumer products, and socially responsible investment companies.

Top 5 Websites for Women Social Entrepreneurs

Taken from Forbes.com’s recent article Top 100 Websites for Women, and the Ashoka website’s review of that piece, I give you the top 5 websites out there for women (and men!) social entrepreneurs!

Use this page as a treasure trove of links that you can keep coming back to for inspiration – whether it’s advice on how to get started, how to use social media, or how to market yourself:

1. Women Entrepreneur: Female arm of entrepreneur.com
Helpful article for social entrepreneurs:  Facebook Game Changer: Don’t Miss Out, Success Stories

2. Ladies Who Launch: Resource for female entrepreneurs on how to start and run a new business
Helpful article for social entrepreneurs:  Free startup assistance, Networking communities for entrepreneurs

3. Start Up Princess: Resources and coaching for female entrepreneurs by female entrepreneurs
Helpful article for social entrepreneurs:  Search Engine Marketing Basics: Understanding How to Use Content to Your Advantage

4. She Takes on the World: Marketing and social media blog, with a section for entrepreneurs
Helpful article for social entrepreneurs:  Thirty Women Entrepreneurs to Follow on Twitter (see “Popular Posts”)

5. Escape from Cubicle Nation:  Career and marketing advice blog, particularly useful for first-time entrepreneurs.
Helpful articles for social entrepreneurs:  How to use social media to create an audience that wants to hear you speak, Sales tip: work a little old school outreach into your new school marketing

A number of other websites listed could serve as useful resources for social entrepreneurs focused on women’s empowerment, including Womens E-News (a source for news about women), Hello Ladies (a forum for news and issues affecting women), and information about feminist issues (Feministe, Ms. Magazine).

Finally, a number of websites provide useful business advice for social entrepreneurs, including but not limited to: Pink Magazine (featuring a section on small businesses), Tech Mamas (useful advice on social media), and Women on Business(note the Businesswomen Bloggers Directory  including ecopreneurist.com focused on social entrepreneurship).

Muhammad Yunus and the Perils of Making Money – can social business really change the world?

“I do things which I know nothing about and I throw myself at them.”

You have to admire the entrepreneurial spirit of Professor Muhammad Yunus, speaking two weeks ago at a convention in Bangkok to a gathering of 20,000 people.

Unremarkably I suppose, Prof Yunus’ speech was not unlike the lectures I had sat through during my college days, and I found myself scribbling down notes in short-hand, trying to capture the little gems of ideas that he so effortlessly tossed our way.

For those who don’t know (and you can catch yourself up here and here), Muhammad Yunus is the venerable ‘father of microfinance’ and founder of the Grameen Bank  – for which he and the Bank won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. Most recently, Prof Yunus has become a vocal proponent for what he calls ‘social business‘; creating businesses that exist to serve and employ the poor, rather than make profit.

After meeting the man himself and doing a little digging of my own, the question I am left with is this: is Yunus’ model of non-dividend, essentially non-profit social business the most efficient way to create social impact and help the poor, or is it really just a new form of charity?

Prof Yunus insists that investors in social businesses should only recoup the principal on their investments, without any profit. This is enshrined as one of the “seven principles of social business” he has crafted, where is states that, “Investors get back the investment amount only. No dividend is given beyond investment money”.

Some in the microfinance and social business space see this as a radical view, as many prefer to think of social business as a way that entrepreneurial individuals and companies can do good and make a profit.

Yunus gives examples of the numerous partnerships and joint ventures that he has brokered with big business – including venture between Danone and Grameen Bank to create dessert snacks rich in essential multivitamins for children, as well as the €1 Nike shoe and the affordable sanitary napkin designed by Uniqlo, all of which target the extreme poor.

Undoubtedly, these public-partnerships are transforming charity by approaching the poor as a customer – a far more empowering position than beneficiary. It is clear though that these are all global companies that can afford to do social business ‘at cost’, only recouping their initial investment and not making a profit on the products.

Yunus’ philosophy of social business is limited to the realm of the biggest and wealthiest companies with extra cash to spend to create social impact. Arguably, many more of these innovative joint ventures would occur with for-profit businesses of all sizes if they were able to measure their success by the social impact and the financial return. With 1.4 billion people still living in extreme poverty (that is less than US$1.25 per day), it is unclear how social business by Yunus’ definition can be scaled up to meet these needs.

On the other hand, the greatest challenge to social business as a profit-making venture is a moral one. For how can we ensure that business – which has traditionally been about maximizing profits regardless of the social or environmental impact – does not take advantage of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people?

According to Elizabeth Rhyne, for-profit social enterprises are already challenging the assumption that non-profits are inherently more virtuous. Many microfinance institutions for example, have morphed from non-profit to for-profit enterprises to increase their access to capital and scale up their social impact. These for-profit enterprises write into their corporate documents a commitment to their customers (the extreme poor) as well as investors. While investors in these social enterprises may sometimes (though not necessarily) expect a below market rate of return, they do expect a significant SROI (social return on investment).

In the world of philanthropy, major foundations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation regularly give grants to for-profit enterprises to create social impact, recognizing the valuable role that social entrepreneurs can play in scaling up business solutions to social problems, without relying on a constant stream of donor funding.

New for-profit legal structures for social enterprises like L3C (low-profit enterprise) or B Corp (benefit corporation) in the US also provide a vital legal framework and oversight of socially-conscious business practices to build trust in profitable businesses with a social mission. Below is B Corp’s ‘declaration of interdependence’ that its members commit to, placing business at the service of ‘shareholders and stakeholders’.

Prof Muhammad Yunus’ concept of social business that serves the poor as a customer and B Corps’ definition of enterprise that can serve ‘stakeholders and shareholders’ are both pushing towards a future where business and social impact collide. Yet in practical business terms, they differ greatly.

In my view, if we want to create a corporate landscape where businesses integrate being “good” into the core of their business, and charities find enterprising ways to fund their activities and attract and retain the best staff, “profit” – measured by a financial and social return – needs to be part of the equation.

When Professor Yunus ended his speech in Bangkok with the resounding call – “let’s decide to put poverty in the museum!” – it was certainly rousing. But we may disagree on how that is going to be achieved.

Heroic vs. Homegrown Entrepreneurs?

When we think of “social entrepreneurship”,we tend to focus on the really big organizations that have had a huge impact, groups like Teach for America or Grameen that are dealing with national or global issues of poverty, inequality and justice.

Yet research suggests that social entrepreneurship is also making an impact on the local economy. A study by Harvard Business School that analysed recent Echoing Green fellows found that many of the most promising social enterprises are not focused on changing the world, but rather on effecting change in their own backyards.

We have become intoxicated with “heroic entrepreneurs” that have set a course to the moon, but I believe that groups focused at the community level are just as deserving of our attention. These locally-focused initiatives show us a new way in which we can take the traditional model of business and turbo-charge it with a passion for social change that could revolutionize the US economy.

The research highlights the example of Bethel Erickson-Bruce, an Echoing Green fellow who founded an urban farm in Waco, Texas, to raise awareness of sustainable agriculture and train community members in how to start their own gardens. Built on a principle of collaboration and sharing knowledge, Bethel’s initiative is about giving farmers the tools to take advantage of the strategic opportunity of sustainable farming given the demand for organic produce.

Having a bold universe-changing idea is the hallmark of social entrepreneurship, and part of what I love about working in this space. And I believe that these locally-focused initiatives are universe-changing too. Homegrown entrepreneurs are helping to reshape the corporate landscape here in the US. They are pioneers that are taking advantage of the strategic opportunity in sustainable, socially-driven enterprise, and bringing others on the journey with them. Let’s not forget they are heroes too.

Inventing the Collaborative Workspace

We need a space like this in New York for social entrepreneurs. I totally believe in the power of the built environment to foster creativity and productivity. Who wouldn’t want to go to work everyday in a space like this?

Inventing the Collaborative Workspace – Adam Richardson – Harvard Business Review.

Of course, some incredible engineers are already way ahead of the curve and have invented “living buildings” that can actually absorb CO2 from the atmosphere, and store energy so that they are completely carbon neutral.

It is my dream to work in a living space rather than be surrounded by the heavy weight of dead walls that contain and constrict. Anyone else feel the same? Have you ever been in one of these buildings?

The Classroom of the Future

It seems like social media week in New York could pass by with a whisper, although with over 300 free events around the city, its a great opportunity for social entrepreneurs to get a fresh perspective on innovation in the 21st Century.

Yesterday morning I attended a panel discussion on ‘The Classroom of the Future‘ – a frontline perspective on using mostly free and readily-available technologies in the classroom to enrich the learning experience for kids.

The panel included some relatively big names: former government bureaucrat Carole Wacey and Columbia academic Sree Srrenivasan. But it was Melissa Seideman’s practical demonstration of how she uses social media in her classroom that alarmingly made me wish I was in 8th grade history again.

Melissa Seideman is the present-day architect of the classroom of the future. In her class in White Plains, New York, students tweet real-time questions about a film they are watching that appear on the whiteboard, parents participate in history lessons via sms, and student’s learning progress can be assessed by the quality of their blog posts.

At the panel event it was clear that this unassuming 8th grade history teacher from White Plains was using technology her fellow well-groomed panelists hadn’t even heard of – integrating tools such as My Big Campus, Edmodo and Socrative, to revolutionize the classroom dynamic. It can also save valuable time, as technologies such as GradeCam enables teachers to quickly grade their multiple choice tests and quizzes.

The hierarchical teacher-student relationship is losing relevance in Miss Seideman’s class, as kids teach each other in a media-rich environment, asking and answering each other’s questions through safe, controlled online forums by posting comments, links and photos.

Melissa Seideman – who aptly calls herself ‘Not Another History Teacher’ on her edu blog – highlights how “The classroom of the future” is an oxymoron, as social media means that learning is now taking place beyond the confines of a physical space. An example from one of her recent posts is ThinkBinder, technology that enables students to study for tests together online with space for group discussion, sharing notes and a whiteboard feature for solving problems together.

Social entrepreneurs can learn from Miss Seidman as they think about providing tools that educators need to flip the lid on students’ self-driven learning. On the other hand, hopefully it won’t be long until more teacher’s embrace this collaborative approach to learning by experimenting with the (mostly free) technology that already exists –  bringing the classroom of the future into the present.

Why we have too few women leaders

According to Sheryl Sandberg, the no.2 at Facebook, women are holding themselves back. It is an interesting message from a woman who has become such a poster-child for female empowerment in the workplace.

Although I find her message compelling, and at some points convincing, I can’t help but notice  there is an anti-feminist train in her thinking. Her argument is largely based on pop psychology and anecdotal evidence of how women act in the workplace, and she has three major points:

1. Sit at the table – don’t sit on the sidelines and let men take charge of meetings and decisions.

2. Make your partner a real partner – women earning the same amount as men do 2x the housework and 3x the childcare. But equal partnerships are happier and are 50% less likely to end in divorce, so make sure your partner does his share.

3. Don’t leave before you leave – women start planning for children long before they are pregnant, and consciously or sub-consciously do not put themselves forward for promotions. “Keep your foot on the gas pedal” till the last moment.

Do these stereotypes fit you? Do you relate to her argument? Are women our own worst enemy in the workplace?

The Top 10 Books on the Economics of Poverty | Stanford Social Innovation Review

If you need some light reading….

The Top 10 Books on the Economics of Poverty | Stanford Social Innovation Review.

Seriously though, this is a great list. The White Man’s Burden by Bill Easterly is a great summary of the remnants of patriarchal post-colonial mindset of much aid-giving, contrasted with The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs on the other side of the argument, which is a call to action for us to invest aid now in key infrastructure to lay the foundation for future economic growth in developing nations.

Watch out for Dead Aid by Dambisa Moyo – whilst I am delighted to have an African scholar writing on the topic of aid, Moyo is Western-educated and sides clearly with the Bill Easterly school of thought, but in my opinion her work has some serious intellectual flaws.

Paul Collier is a compelling writer, and his Bottom Billion is an excellent book illustrating Collier’s own view of the intertwined role of conflict and inequality in the aid question.

Have you read any of these? Where do you recommend a beginner to this topic should start?

All Volunteers Are Not Created Equal

If you are not following Rachael Cheong, the Founder and CEO of Catch a Fire, you should be. Apparently she is an absolute firecracker in person – and she has certainly set light to the idea that volunteers can be used much more effectively to cut non-profit budgets and increase impact.

The Catch A Fire website is packed full of great case studies, and her organization itself is a great example of a sustainable social enterprise. It provides a service the non-profit sector needs and is willing to pay for.

Her recent Huff post blog shows why it such a great business model:

Although more than one quarter of the American population volunteered in the last year, most volunteers don’t use their professional skills on behalf of nonprofits, even though those who do are more satisfied volunteers. The gross mismatch in the supply and demand of pro bono service is highlighted by the results of a recent Deloitte study in which 95% of nonprofit leaders indicate a need for more pro bono support, and yet 97% of those nonprofit leaders do not know who to approach to solicit skilled volunteers.

Do you have a non-profit that needs volunteers? Would you use Catch A Fire services to reduce costs?

via Rachael Chong: All Volunteers Are Not Created Equal.