Category Archives: Social Business

Why can’t we sell Charity like Perfume?

I realized t has been a very long while since I last wrote an article for my blog. I hope to get back in the swing of things again.

To kick things off here is thought-provoking article that was in the Wall Street Journal on Saturday,  Why Can’t We Sell Charity Like We Sell Perfume?

It raises several issues about how we could allow charities to operate differently and perhaps more effectively. Some excerpts from the article – recommend you read the entire piece. What do you think?

We have two separate rule books: one for charity and one for the rest of the economic world. The result is discrimination against charities in five critical areas. Continue reading

Startups have a chance to share $1 Million in prizes in MassChallenge, world’s largest competition

Image representing MassChallenge as depicted i...

Image via CrunchBase

Last year I had the opportunity to participate as a judge and mentor in the inaugural competition, MassChallenge. This is a serious business competition that has shown it can attract top quality concrete job creating ideas from round the world. Over 450 entries applied and 110 finalists were incubated for 3 months including free office space, introductions to VC, funders, customers and team resources.  Sixteen finalists split $1 Million including $100,000 for the top finisher. Seeding Labs, profiled elsewhere on my blog, won $50,000 as the Social Impact finalist and also was offered free office space for another nine months.

If you have a venture and are looking to make it to the next level I strongly encourage you to apply to the 2011 accelerator. If you have any questions please reach out to the organizers at contact@masschallenge.org or apply online at www.masschallenge.org/enter. Continue reading

45 Finalists to Raise $200,000 and vie for a slot in this year’s Unreasonable Institute

In 2009 we had the distinct honor of being one of the first locations where the Unreasonable Institute was announced when we had one of its original founders sign up as a judge for the Pitching SE contest at ForSE 2009. Following an incredible launch of this new format for jump-starting  social enterprises in the summer of 2010, the Unreasonable Institute is in the process of selecting the final list of 25 potential attendees for the 2011 summer session. Unreasonable Institute Marketplace

This year there are several candidates that have strong ties to the TIE Social Entrepreneurs Group and ForSE. Some of them are:

  • Zubaida Bai founder of AYZH, who presented her idea at ForSE 2009 in the Pitch contest. AYZH provides appropriately designed health and livelihood products to address rural women’s needs.
  • Sana: Care Anywhere, presented last year at ForSE 2010 on the Technology panel about their mobile platform for delivering healthcare in developing countries
  • EGG Energy also was one of the panelists in our Technology panel last year at ForSE describing their work on providing electricity to  remote Africa by creating a service infrastructure that recharges and supplies batteries to their customers
  • Deepak Ravindran, a fellow in the Startup Leadership Program from TiE Boston and founder of SMSGyan a mobile is also one of the finalists

You can help these and other entrepreneurs by helping them raise the $8000 it costs to attend the Unreasonable Institute.  Continue reading

Increase your nonprofit’s web marketing impact in 11 simple steps

Cover of "Inbound Marketing: Get Found Us...

Cover via Amazon

A few months ago I wrote a piece on “How to get started with Twitter to get your message out”. At that time, one of the books on my ‘must read’ pile was “Inbound Marketing” by Brian Haliigan and Dharmesh Shah, founders of Hubspot. I finally got around to cracking it open and thought I would share some of my observations.

Dharmesh and Brian were there at the start of the Social Media revolution and have created one of the most popular sites for people serious about growing their leads and customers from the web. Their aptly coined term “Inbound Marketing” denotes how conventional marketing has been flipped on its head with the emphasis on your customer finding you. Continue reading

An amazing lineup for ForSE 2010 and there is still time to register!

It is real exciting the see the lineup of speakers that will be at the upcoming ForSE 2010: Forum for Social Entrepreneurs on October 30 at Northeastern University. ForSE 2010 brings together social innovators, leading business professionals, investors, donors, government officials, academics, and students to share new technology and business ideas with the potential for significant social impact.

 Don’t just take our word for it – see what others are saying about the speakers who will be at ForSE 2010.

  •  Of Prof. Ramesh Raskar and NETRA, his low-cost, cell-phone based, optometry solution, Xconomy.com says, “Camera Culture: Ramesh Raskar, perhaps the Doc Edgerton of the future, dreams of creating “femto” cameras that operate at a trillion frames per second”
  • Seeding Labs’ Nina Dudnik and David Qualter were recent winners of the $50,000 Social Impact prize in the MassChallenge competition for their innovative idea.
  • Seeding Labs CEO Nina Dudnik has been chosen as a 2010 PopTech Social Innovation Fellow and presented at the recent PopTech last week in Maine. “PopTech Social Innovation Fellows are visionary change agents who are incubating high-potential solutions to pressing global challenges.
  • Pradip Sarmah, Ashoka Fellow and Founder of Rickshaw Bank, an NGO that provides micro-finance to Indian rickshaw drivers, invited to participate at MIT D-Labs
  • Jose Gomez-Marquez, another fabulous speaker in the Health track, is named by Smart Planet as “master of invention” in their news piece about his many inventive creations.
  • Dr. Una Ryan and Sam White speakers in the Health and Technology tracks are named as Boston’s Top 15 Innovators by the Boston Globe.

And the ForSE 2010 keynoters are outstanding in their fields:

  • Prof. Kasturi Rangan, who is co-chair of Harvard’s Social Enterprise Initiative and Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing
  • Gianfranco Zaccai, co-founder, Chairman, President and Chief Design Officer of Continuum, a design consultancy that has delivered significant designs for social impact globally.

So what are you waiting for? Register before it is too late at http://www.forumse.org/ Attendance is limited to 250 registrants and it has been consistently sold out in past years.