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16 SOCAP Takeaways from Social Entrepreneurs

SOCAP May 20, 2019

Scholarship Awarded SocEnts Share What They Learned at SOCAP18

We asked all of the SOCAP18 Social Entrepreneur Scholarship recipients to share their top takeaways from the conference. Here were our sixteen favorite responses:

  1. There are many types of investment tools. It’s best to know which ones are most valuable for my organization.
  2. Applying my skill of “What matters most right now?” to every aspect of my every day is key as an entrepreneur.
  3. Focus on finding the right investor, who may not be the first person to offer you money.
  4. The importance of evidencing the business case for your social enterprise with impact data.
  5. Investors are also trying to figure things out.
  6. People are willing to talk to you more when you don’t approach them to just pitch.
  7. You may be too big for some investors and too small for other investors but don’t be discouraged.
  8. You never know who is sitting next to you – don’t blow them off at lunch or in line for coffee. It could be your next big break.
  9. Replication is difficult but there are resources/orgs that support entrepreneurs.
  10. There is a need for innovative funding mechanisms for nonprofits to support scale and replication.
  11. For impact to matter it has to be measured and measurable.
  12. People are so inspiring and doing incredible things.
  13. Better understanding of the investor/funder perspective. They have their own challenges and goals and are often inundated with requests and stories from entrepreneurs.
  14. There is significant money in the social impact space.
  15. There exists a community where you don’t have to sell the value of social good, but rather the impact of your intervention.
  16. There are so many issues and initiatives to be passionate about.

If you think your venture could benefit from coming to the flagship Social Capital Markets Conference in San Francisco, but you cannot afford the cost of a ticket, apply now for the SOCAP Entrepreneur Scholarship for SOCAP19! Applications are being accepted until June 30th.

Social Entrepreneurship
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