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Female INSEAD Director launches Incubator Program for High Impact Social Ventures
Founder & CEO Anya Navidski
Founder & CEO Anya Navidski
As funding of social enterprise is found to risky by many mainstream parties, Jumpstart, a new incubator program that calls itself a seed philanthropy organisation has launched to fill the gap. Founder and CEO, Anya Navidski is former Director of the Maag Centre for Entrepreneurship at INSEAD – a top five Business School – where she was responsible for the new vision and strategy of the Centre. Not only has she mentored hundreds of young entrepreneurs, but she regularly runs workshops on entrepreneurship, having taught a course on Business Planning at both INSEAD and the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards. Here she talks to The NextWomen about her new venture.
What is Jumpstart-Up and why did you initiate it?
Jumpstart-up provides support and funding for high impact (social) ventures at seed level. This is the idea/concept stage and too early for most VCs to even look at. Our primary focus is on education and healthcare, and scalability and replicability potential are a key part of our investment criteria. And yes, we are breaking new ground on a number of points. We are still very new and looking at our first round of deal flow, which is giving us a chance to fine tune our proprietary methods.
Why an incubator program for social enterprise?
I started off as a development economist, at the time when microfinance was just taking shape. I still believe that high impact entrepreneurship is the most effective solution to some of the world’s deepest social problems and the timing is perfect. Europe is behind the US in this space and we hope to help redress this balance and to contribute to the development of this still immature industry. The community of stakeholders in Europe is very small and we hope that with our new approach we can educate and bring in new investors and new entrepreneurs into this space. Our processes and methodology use a lot of in-house intellectual capital and access new research from our key advisors.
Seed funding is traditionally difficult even for ordinary start-ups and it is even harder for high impact ventures. Due diligence costs are very high and there are additional issues that many angels do not understand or do not have experience with. Plus, there are fewer social serial entrepreneurs – driven by impact they tend to stay with their ventures rather than exit so you are often dealing with first time venture teams and capacity building is crucial. The high impact space is far less organised and angel networks that do exists are very localised, whereas it is typical for high impact ideas to originate in one country, ventures being implemented in another and funding coming from all over. So we provide that bridge. We even have an angel network that individual angels can join so they can co-invest with us, share in our due diligence, and get experience with issues specific to this field.
How do you organise your deal flow?
We have an innovative approach to selection and capacity building of these ventures which lowers their risk and raises their potential financial return. This allows us to get them quickly to a point where they are either able to borrow growth funding against their revenues or demonstrate a track record and a proven business model, which gets social VCs interested for growth funding stage. We also have a proprietary impact assessment methodology that allows us to make consistent choices between alternative impact investments.
We are a seed philanthropy organisation – donor funded, which allows us to take these risks for the benefit of the impact that is generated as a result, but run using the best of commercial organisation approaches.
We are not an incubator in a physical sense. We are a typical modern day organisation with ventures and our team based around the world. However we do partner with local incubators as force multipliers for our investments and to help us with local issues. We fill the gap that is currently out there and are closely interconnected with the other stakeholders. The creation of an ecosystem for high impact ventures is at the core of what we do.
Do you have people involved that have a track record of incubating ventures or investing in start-ups?
Absolutely. Most of our team is young but each with an amazing set of experiences, particularly in this area. It was put together very carefully. I have been helping seed level ventures (student and alumni) while Directing the Maag Centre for Entrepreneurship at INSEAD business school. Our CSO – Wesley Cross – has been assisting SMEs as the CEO of Stratagem. One of the senior team members set up and ran a successful technology seed fund in the UK. To name but a few.
We are also in the process of putting together an Investment Committee that will provide a broader set of specific investment skills. A number of firms providing growth capital for high impact ventures that we are partnering with will be contributing fund managers to that Committee.
What are the costs for entrepreneurs who want to apply?
The most valuable thing of all – time. Our application process is extensive and is part of the capacity building exercise. Commercial companies pay good money to go through similar processes. We make this available for free for high impact ventures. Thus, even if they do not get selected for investment, by the time they finish the process they would have learned how to ask the right questions and how to go about answering them. This is a highly valuable asset for them, for this and for their next ventures. For us this is a way of contributing to the development of the next generation of high impact entrepreneurs. Of course, our investments are made on preferential but commercial terms and we use a mix of instruments, depending on what is appropriate in each case.
Can you tell us about a couple of the companies that have applied or been admitted? Read more
Twillionaire Fry Tops the 66 Twitter Topics at the 140 Characters Conference
The following is a guest post by Alison Wheeler, a self-confessed geek since the year dot, and now a writer and consultant on innovation, managing knowledge, and business strategy in a free world. A designer, developer and promoter of open source software, open knowledge and open content, she enjoys finding solutions to problems others insist are impossible. She blogs at alisonw.com and tweets as http://twitter.com/AlisonW. Here she covers her recent visit to the 140 Characters:
Hardship Intro and Twillionaire Stephen Fry
Twillionaire Stephen Fry
On November 17, @JeffPulver came to town with his 140 Characters Conference show, following in the footsteps of past 140conf events in New York and Los Angeles. Selecting the Indigo at the O2 as its venue was an interesting decision, given that the conference supplied no coffee or meals and none of the coffee shops at the O2 opened until shortly before 9am. Considering registration was from 8am, there were a lot of people looking for their caffeine fix. Early on it was also discovered that there was no WiFi – a little odd considering attendees would naturally want to be tweeting or heating. But then these weren’t the reasons people were attending.
Stephen Fry (@stephenfry, pictured) was a big draw to the event, and he gave a wonderful — and extended — review of how the immediacy of 140 characters has effectively changed the world, and his as he was crowned a ‘Twillionaire’
Kevin Holly on SMS text Messaging and Twitter
We were there to hear about what other people were doing with Twitter, and occasionally other short message services: the “140 characters” of the title. Indeed the most interesting presentation, for me, was from Kevin Holly (@gadget37, co-inventor of SMS text messaging) who gave us the technical background about the development of texting and just why the limit is 160 characters — the 140 for Twitter et al is because the remainder get used for the ‘from’ and ‘to’ — and their using 7-bit characters to squeeze them all in.
Crowdsourcing, Music, Education and 66 other Twitter Topics
Initially all the seats were filled for the sessions and the event was opened at 9am by Jeff Pulver alongside Jeffrey Hayzlett (@JeffreyHayzlett, CMO of Kodak, who sponsored the event). Pulver presented his ‘State of Now’ (You can find it on YouTube) and Hayzlett talked about how Kodak had made use of the crowdsourcing opportunities to improve their products and their customer service. Pulver was due to be followed by 66 other people discussing everything from music to education, news services to eBay, The Police service to dreams. It was a busy schedule and, with only the single lunchtime break, possibly too intensive for some. Many of the seats emptied after Stephen Fry as people moved to the back and sides of the hall or left for the coffee shop for their own discussions and a multitude of laptops and netbooks appeared.
London as Super Twitter Town and Community
According to Twitter, the highest concentration of their users is to be found in London. Read more
Female Entrepreneur Launches Sprouter: Twitter for Entrepreneurs?
Sarah Prevette, Founder of Sprouter (right)
Last week Sprouter, an online networking tool for entrepreneurs that allows for collaboration and connection, was launched. Founder of Sprouter, Sarah Prevette, is also well known as the organiser of Twestifals, and although the seat of the startup is in Toronto, Canada, the setup is global.
What is Sprouter?
Sprouter asks entrepreneurs the question “What are you working on?” Answering this question encourages other members of the Sprouter community to offer tips, support, resources or other relevant members to connect with, all in 140 characters or less. Any member of the site can reply or give a reaction to a comment, or direct message for private information.
The problem that Sprouter wants to solve is that there is now an easy, effective way for entrepreneurs to connect in real-time online, and so an online community that allows small business owners and entrepreneurs to share links, ask questions, and share expertise with their peers is now needed. During the setup of the company, the name of the startup changed from RedWireNation into Sprouter, while its platform morphed into a Twitter look-alike.
Community of Entrepreneurs
“The power of social networking by individuals has been made more than evident, and Sprouter is striving to create that same sense of community and sharing for entrepreneurs,” said Sarah Prevette, Sprouter’s founder and CEO. “Entrepreneurs face struggles on a daily basis – from how to get funding to the best business tools to use. Sprouter can provide the forum for real-time networking and collaboration so everyone can benefit from mistakes and successes.”
Hashtags become topics
Sprouter members can create a topic around a concept, company, association, or event. This allows conversations around a specific topic to be streamlined, and facilitates discussion around events or subjects in real-time. Members of the Sprouter community can also use the search function to find entrepreneurs in their area or industry, or find others who are discussing a topic of interest (like “funding”).
Another Social Network?
Typical social networks allow you to connect with people you already know – whether they are your friends, family, or former co-workers. Read more
There are 100 Sexy Roles a Woman Can Take in Tech: No. 8 Catherine Doran of NetworkRail
CIO Catherine Doran
The NextWomen are running a series of stories on women in tech, explaining what inspired them to work in the industry. The baton has been passed to Catherine Doran, CIO of NetworkRail.
1. What inspired you to get into Tech?
Actually it was purely by chance – I had graduated from University with a degree in maths & Geography. I was enrolled to do a teacher training conversion course when I saw an advertisement in the national press for trainee Programmers. I applied on a whim, sat the aptitude test and passed.
I love puzzles and the prospect of problem solving as a way of living really appealed.
I have thanked my lucky stars many times over for the way the cards fell for me with my career choice.
2. How were you educated in Tech?
The company I joined was a UK software house that established an office in Ireland specifically to target the Irish Graduate market. We were classroom trained in programming and program design for 6 months. We were then placed on customer site (in the UK) at reduced day rates to gain practical experience. My first 18 months in ‘real’ work, I mean post training, was in ICI Organics in Manchester.
Working for a software house meant changing jobs every 12 – 18 months, moving from client to client. Great way to get a good range of experience in a relatively short time.
3. How has your experience been in the world of TECH?
I stayed working at a pretty technical level for quite a number of years – loved designing, building and implementing systems. I haven’t done technical work for a long time now, but having worked in the industry for 30 years, I have a good nose for what is going well and what is going badly. Read more
Hatchery: American Idols for Tech Startups who Want to Launch in New York
The Hatchery, American Idols for Tech Startups, came about because of the lack of an entrepreneurial hub in New York. In its mission it says the following:
One of the key reasons why Northern California is a hotbed of technology innovation and investment is that there is a culture of collaboration, even between groups that could be seen as competitors. In contrast, New York’s approach is far more ‘cut throat,’ meaning that organisations often work against each other out of habit.
Co-founder Yao-Hui Huang and CEO at GigaPIxel Creative started the Hatchery in 2007 purely for New York Startups, but has since extended its reach to international companies looking to launch in New York. This autumn, the United Kingdom Trade and Investment Agency brought 3 UK companies to the program, after a selection process where more than 50 companies applied.
When preparing for a Pitch or Speedmatching at the Hatchery, David Blumenstein, fellow co-founder has the following Hatchery 14 points and sequence:
✓ what is the name of your company
✓ what is the mission statement – one sentence Read more
Female Entrepreneur launches Brightwide.com: You Tube for Social and Political Cinema
Last week at the London Film Festival, social enterprise Brightwide.com, a platform where you can watch the best social and political cinema, was launched. The venture, which was co-founded by female entrepreneur Paola de Leo, formerly of Amnesty International, has a high-profile co-founder in actor Colin Firth.
The mission of Brightwide is to Watch, Think, Link, Act. People can watch the best of social and political cinema on Brightwide, but don’t need to stop when the credits run. Brightwide wants the audience to engage in a passionate and multi-faceted debate all around their films and issues, and to get involved and to act together with their partner charities, such as Amnesty, Oxfam and Save the Children. It therefore intends to create a partnership between film-makers, campaigners and the audience giving them the tools to explore the issues and make a difference, all in one place.
The first film was the premiere of ‘No One Knows About Persian Cats’, after which a debate ensued. Films are selected by experts and reviewed by artists, journalists, authors – and the audience.
Colin Firth spoke at the launch of Brightwide, which he called a Forum for Debate and a Forum for Action.
FT and Quintessentially LAUNCHES Luxury Online Charity Auction for Room to Read
The Financial Times and Quintessentially have launched a luxury online charity auction to help raise money for Room to Read, the charity that was featured in the BIG Kitchen Dinner Raffle on Women’s Enterprise day.
Room to Read, launched in Nepal in 2000, works with local communities throughout the developing world to provide quality educational opportunities by constructing schools, establishing libraries, creating children’s literature in local languages and providing education with a particular focus on girls.
The FT supports Room to Read through its 2009-2010 seasonal appeal to readers, and Quintessentially, the world’s leading private members’ club with a global concierge service, supports the charity through Quintessentially Foundation, a charitable organisation which helps improve the health, education and welfare of disadvantaged communities worldwide.
The auction runs until midnight on Monday 30th November and features many items including a rare Signed auction booklet for J.K Rowling’s ‘The Tale of Beedle the Bard’, a personal introduction to Clive Christian’s Perfumes and Tea with Victoria Christian at Fortnum & Mason, a holiday for two at the Half Moon Resort in Jamaica and two Renault F1 Team VIP Technical Centre Visit Packages including two TW Steel watches. In order to bid, people must visit their auction page.
Room to Read is an innovative non-profit leader dedicated to promoting and enabling global education.
Read more
Interview: Sheetal Mehta, the Female Microfinance Guru
Sheetal Mehta, founder of Innovative Social Ventures, has won many awards such as: Asian Women of Achievement; was listed in the 35 under 35 of Management Today and awarded for her Public Services this year at the Jewel Awards. She has just launched Shanti Microfinance which takes technology and microfinance to entrepreneurs in slums in India. Here, she talks to The NextWomen about her experiences in business and microfinance:
Tell us about yourself and your experiences in business?
I am a Canadian who has lived in the United Arab Emirites, San Francisco and the UK. I have a background in technology and venture capital – I initially started my career in banking in the Middle East and later went on to join Microsoft Corporation where I set up their Venture Capital Strategy. Later, I expanded that initiative into EMEA.
In 2006 I created my own business focussing on social enterprise – combining my tech and vc experience with my broad network – which took technology to villages. In 2006 I was also appointed UK Deal Maker to the UKTI’s Global Entrepreneur Programme, where we attract the world’s most innovative tech companies to the UK, and then help them go global. Outside of work, I teach yoga, play drums and dohl and love travelling.
Which businesses are you currently involved with?
I advise several tech companies, including: Enviropack, a recycling bag company; MFSL for mobile payments; the UK government via the Global Entrepreneur Program where I am the UK Deal Maker, and my main focus – Shanti Microfinance.
Why microfinance? Read more
The NextWomen’s Highlights of Global Entrepreneurship Week 2009 – Part 1
As Global Entrepreneurship Week draws to a close, The NextWomen reflect on the week’s events:
Wednesday 18th November – The NextWomen BIG Kitchen Dinner
Organised to coincide with Women’s Enterprise Day, the Big Kitchen Dinner saw 83 women and men leading and investing in web 2.0 ventures enjoy a keynote from Stephanie Phair of theOutNet.com. To get a taste of the evening, read the detailed coverage of Stephanie Phair’s speech and have a look at the complete set of photographs taken on the evening.
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Monday 16th November – Pitch 2009
The Pitch 2009, which has seen five regional heats over the past six months, came to its conclusion with the grand final at the Institute of Directors on Pall Mall, where Tony Lau and Cyclehoop were declared overall winners and bagging themselves £50,000 worth of business services.
A great collection of T-shirts from The NextWomen and Pitch 2009 Winner Tony Lau
A day of free seminars included a success story from Karen Darby who gave her ‘top tips on founding and running a business: Read more
Stephanie Phair of theOutNet.com Talks to Female Entrepreneurs in Celebration of Women’s Enterprise Day
- Stephanie Phair
On the day that the Women’s Enterprise Task Force announced its intention for a privately held women’s enterprise forum, The NextWomen took the lead as the first women’s enterprise forum with a focus on high growth business. In celebration of Women’s Enterprise Day, over 80 women came together in their most successful Kitchen Dinner to date – The BIG Kitchen Dinner – where Stephanie Phair of theOutNet.com delivered an inspiring keynote, and The NextWomen announced their next End of Year Kitchen Dinner.
The evening set off to a novel start, as 70 women and 15 (lucky) men arrived at The NextWomen kitchen for pre-dinner drinks and a taste of the ‘original’ and usually (much) smaller kitchen dinner. A seemingly smooth operation took attendees on a swift conveyor through check-in, individual photography and prosecco and canapés. The kitchen was turned into a candle-lit den that was full to bursting as the final revellers appeared.
It was with great relief that, as the party began to move over to the Clarendon, the recent London rain had abated, and apart from gale force winds dangerously whipping skirts in the air, the 200m transition went problem free. The venue was beautifully wrapped in white and gold, and as the guests settled into their seats, the wine was poured and Simone Brummelhuis greeted the party with a special reference to Global Entrepreneurship Week and Women’s Enterprise Day.
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An amazing starter set the precedence for the evening, as waiters brought out charcuterie boards of meats, cheeses and roasted vegetables; followed by a seafood feast of whole crabs, prawns and oysters on a bed of seaweed, that were nothing less than decadent. If it felt the initial bar had been set too high, there was no worry of disappointment as the enigmatic Stephanie Phair of theOutNet started with the brilliantly apt quote from Madeleine Albright – the first female US Secretary of State:
‘There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women’
Stephanie mapped her fascinating career, which started just having graduated from Oxford with a degree in philosophy, politics and economics, and having made the decision to head for New York. Of Argentine and Canadian descent, but having grown up in London and spent the last ten years in the States, there is no surprise that a subtle US hint runs through her accent. Yet it’s not her accent that is so impressive here, it is the number of high-end fashion companies she has worked with over the years as a result of heading across the pond. Read more
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