SOCAP11 Social Entrepreneur Spotlight: Sandra Hirschberg, Green Breakfast Club

Our organization, the Green Breakfast Club, is addressing a void in capacity building. Capacity building is an instrumental part of the entrepreneurial development ecosystem. There are several issues that plague organizations focused on this, mainly sustainability. How can you make a business model out of pure capacity building? Where is the revenue? I have seen more social investment funds realize that they must tend their pipeline for better success and profitability. For example, after several years as a pure fund, Agora Partnerships, http://agorapartnerships.org/ has recently launched an accelerator. From a different spectrum, New Ventures Mexico, http://nvm.org.mx/, after several years of running an accelerator, has launched a social investment fund called Adobe Capital http://www.adobecapital.org/. Now we have a capacity building entity with capital associated; a strong model. The recipe here is quality over quantity….but what of the rest?
Impact investment funds are looking to invest in the capacity building of potential organizations that show profitable potential. What happens to the entrepreneurs that need more attention? Every business has to face the tradeoff of risk versus reward. As social investment is a new industry, funds end up taking more sure bets catering to a smaller percentage of entrepreneurs that will meet their portfolio’s needs. The Green Breakfast Club, www.greenbreakfastclub.com is trying to supplement the needs of those that don’t make the cut as well as those that do. We are helping the masses by creating a community of support for any social or environmental entrepreneur. Our assets are the people themselves.  We are creating hubs of entrepreneurs helping other entrepreneurs in a resource exchange. This model is low cost, high return (social and progress) and easily scalable. We do not have strict requirements or pressures to develop a pipeline of a certain caliber. Our goal is to help everyone reach their potential by empowering each other. When ready, we link our community to the accelerators, incubators, business development services, and capital resources. What is most important is that with the Green Breakfast Club entrepreneurs don’t have to wait for their “big break” they can progress with each other.