It’s Twin Cities Startup Week! Well, “month”, this time around. With gathering restrictions, TCSW20 is 100% virtual with sessions scattered across September, and that included our panel Lessons Learned While Growing Your Social Enterprise hosted by Ecotone Analytics.
We were joined by 2 other stand-out social entrepreneurs, Isaiah Goodman and Emily Hunt Turner, to talk about lessons learned as founders of social enterprises. Specifically, we highlighted times when we’ve had “bruised shins” and had to work our way back.
A few key take-aways:
1. Make sure your story is refined early. It will always make perfect sense to you – you are the founder! Make it hit home with others by getting professional story-telling help ASAP. One resource I’d suggest is Julie Kucinski at Pitchwell. She can take your complicated business plan and boil it down to a 5 second catch phrase that grabs attention and leaves people wanting to hear more.
2. Remember to build in a feedback loop. This applies to customers, beneficiaries, stakeholders, or anyone else that is touched by your project. At the same time, remember to filter the feedback, as well. In some cases, you have decide which feedback to listen to, and when to listen to your gut. It isn’t easy – but getting the feedback is the first step, then confirming who has the best insight is next.
3. Get comfortable with debt. In our personal lives, we strive to stay out of debt. With a social venture, you are assured to take on debt in the early stages, just to stay afloat. Very few investors will invest early, so you’ll need to look to friends and family, banks, and other debt vehicles to keep both you and your company going. This is normal. Don’t feel like you’ve failed! Just keep moving, and once you get your break and start generating revenue, the investors will come.
We had a light-hearted discussion on how to handle struggles with humility while also harnessing the passion we all feel about our social enterprises to overcome the obstacles. It’s important to know you’re not alone, and we’ve all hit some lows in our journey. But use your passion to drive through it, and use your network of social entrepreneurs!
If any social startups are struggling with an obstacle right now, feel free to connect with me, and I’m happy to talk through any lessons I’ve learned that might be helpful!
