How to create a successful social enterprise | Marquis Cabrera | TEDxTeachersCollege
Summary
TLDRThe speaker shares their personal journey from a troubled childhood in foster care to becoming a social entrepreneur. They founded Foster Skills, a social enterprise aimed at helping foster kids overcome challenges and achieve success. The talk introduces the B.I.D. methodology—Business, Impact, and Brand—as a guide for aspiring social entrepreneurs to transform ideas into impactful ventures. The speaker emphasizes the importance of passion, credible support, and the desire to solve societal issues, inspiring others to take action and create meaningful change.
Takeaways
- 🏆 The speaker is recognized as a social entrepreneur with numerous awards but considers themselves an ordinary person.
- 🕷 Despite being afraid of spiders, the speaker has founded a social enterprise to help children achieve the American dream.
- 📩 The speaker receives many requests for advice on starting social ventures and aims to empower others through sharing their own experience.
- 💡 The speaker introduces the 'B.I.D. Methodology' as a framework for taking an idea from concept to reality in social entrepreneurship.
- 👶 The speaker's personal story involves overcoming a challenging childhood, including time in foster care, which inspired their mission.
- 🎓 The speaker's experiences in high school and Junior ROTC taught them the importance of caring for the success of others.
- 🏆 The speaker's success in social entrepreneurship was influenced by studying other successful ventures and identifying patterns in their approaches.
- 🌐 The 'B.I.D. Methodology' stands for Business, Impact, and Brand, emphasizing the importance of a clear purpose, measurable outcomes, and credibility.
- 🤝 Building a strong brand involves forming relationships with credible supporters who can endorse and amplify the social venture's mission.
- 🌟 The speaker shares examples of their own nonprofit, Foster Skills, and how they applied the B.I.D. Methodology to gain traction and make an impact.
- 💼 The script encourages the audience to use the B.I.D. Methodology to sell potential supporters on their ideas and to build successful social enterprises.
Q & A
What is the speaker's view on being referred to as a 'superhero' in their field?
-The speaker finds the term 'superhero' ridiculous because they consider themselves an ordinary person, just like the audience, despite their success in social entrepreneurship.
What is the 'bid methodology' mentioned by the speaker?
-The 'bid methodology' stands for Business, Impact, and Brand. It is a framework the speaker created to help social entrepreneurs take an idea from concept to reality, gain traction, and effect change in the world.
Can you explain the speaker's background before they started their social enterprise?
-The speaker had a challenging childhood, including foster care and witnessing neglect and abuse. They were adopted by a caring foster family and excelled in high school, particularly in math and technology. They joined Junior ROTC, which influenced their view on success and teamwork.
What motivated the speaker to start their social enterprise, Foster Skills?
-The speaker was motivated by their personal experiences in the foster care system and the shocking statistics about the outcomes for children in foster care. They wanted to help these kids beat the odds and become productive citizens.
What is the definition of a 'social enterprise' according to the speaker?
-A social enterprise is a for-purpose company, which could be a non-profit or for-profit, that uses entrepreneurship to tackle social, environmental, or human justice issues in the world.
How did the speaker's experiences at the Massachusetts Supreme Court and mentoring a foster child influence their career path?
-Witnessing cases in the juvenile court and mentoring a foster child who improved academically inspired the speaker to learn more about the foster care system and motivated them to transform it through their social enterprise.
What is the importance of 'impact' in the context of the bid methodology?
-Impact is about creating value for others and demonstrating how the social enterprise is solving problems to make the world a better place. It's essential to show effectiveness, benefits, scalability, and the willingness to put oneself out of business once the goal is achieved.
How did the speaker build their brand for Foster Skills?
-The speaker built their brand by gaining support from credible individuals and organizations, such as city councilors, Microsoft, and the Case Foundation, who believed in their mission to give every child a chance.
What is the significance of the speaker's story about their foster parents and how it relates to their social enterprise?
-The speaker's personal story of being adopted and nurtured by foster parents who believed in them despite their troubled past is a testament to the potential of foster children. This personal connection fuels their passion for their social enterprise, Foster Skills.
Can you provide an example of how the speaker used the bid methodology in their own social enterprise?
-The speaker applied the bid methodology by defining the business of helping foster kids beat the odds, creating impact through education and advocacy, and building a brand with credible supporters to gain traction and funding.
What advice does the speaker give to aspiring social entrepreneurs who contact them for advice?
-The speaker advises them to use the bid methodology to sell potential supporters on their business, impact, and brand, and to focus on solving problems that matter to them, becoming obsessed with making a difference.
Outlines
🦸♂️ From Ordinary to Social Entrepreneur
The speaker humorously dismisses the notion of being a superhero, identifying themselves as an ordinary person with an extraordinary mission. They recount their journey from founding a social enterprise aimed at ensuring all children have the opportunity to achieve the American dream to receiving prestigious awards. The speaker also shares their experience of receiving numerous requests for advice on starting social ventures, leading them to share their 'secret sauce'—the B.I.D. methodology—for turning ideas into reality. The speaker's personal story is also highlighted, from facing adversity in their early life to finding a supportive foster family and learning the importance of caring for the success of others through Junior ROTC.
🏆 The B.I.D. Methodology: Transforming Ideas into Impact
The speaker delves into the B.I.D. methodology, which stands for Business, Impact, and Brand. They explain that a social enterprise, whether for-profit or non-profit, uses entrepreneurship to address social, environmental, or human justice issues. The speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding the problem space deeply, creating value propositions, and demonstrating the ability to solve problems effectively and at scale. They use examples such as Muhammad Yunus's microloans and Scott Harrison's charity:water to illustrate the methodology's effectiveness in gaining traction and making a difference.
🤝 Building a Brand with Credible Support
The speaker discusses the importance of building a strong brand for a social enterprise, which involves more than just a logo—it's about the network and social capital. They stress the need for credible supporters who can vouch for the enterprise's mission and impact. The speaker shares the story of Sal Khan's Khan Academy and how early adopters and influential supporters helped it gain momentum. They also introduce their own social enterprise, Foster Skills, and how they built their brand through networking and gaining support from credible individuals and organizations.
🌟 Success Stories and the Urgency to Make a Difference
The speaker presents case studies of both service and product-focused social enterprises, such as Foster Skills and Sportin' Plow, which sells products made from recycled military materials and employs veterans. They highlight the impact these enterprises have made and how they gained support by pitching to anyone who would listen. The speaker concludes with a call to action, urging the audience to use the B.I.D. methodology to bring their ideas to life and make a meaningful difference in the world, emphasizing the shortness of life and the abundance of problems that need solving.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Social Enterprise
💡American Dream
💡Impact
💡Value Proposition
💡Foster Care
💡Mentorship
💡Innovation
💡Advocacy
💡Brand
💡B.I.D. Methodology
💡Veteran Unemployment
Highlights
The speaker started a social enterprise to ensure all kids have a chance to achieve the American dream.
Won awards like Massachusetts Innovator of the Year and Microsoft Changemaker.
Receives many LinkedIn requests for advice on starting social ventures.
Shares the 'B.I.D. Methodology' for taking an idea from concept to reality.
The speaker's mother had mental health issues, leading to the speaker's placement in foster care at age eight.
Experienced instability in foster care with multiple home changes due to unfortunate events.
Found stability and love with new foster parents who eventually adopted the speaker.
Participated in Junior ROTC, which influenced the view on success and the importance of caring for others.
Witnessed the foster care system's challenges while interning and mentoring.
Learned about the poor outcomes for many foster children, motivating a desire for systemic change.
Founded 'Foster Skills' to help foster kids overcome challenges and become productive citizens.
The B.I.D. Methodology consists of Business, Impact, and Brand.
Business involves understanding the problem and providing a solution without duplicating efforts.
Impact is about creating value and demonstrating effectiveness and scalability.
Brand is about building credibility and gaining support from influential figures.
Shares personal stories of building the Foster Skills brand through networking and support.
Case study of 'Sportin' Plow', a social enterprise creating jobs for US military veterans.
Urges the audience to use the B.I.D. Methodology to bring their ideas to life and make a difference.
Encourages obsession with solving a problem that matters, drawing a parallel to successful people's drive.
Transcripts
today because we're in my own hometown
recently someone actually said to me
when I was mentioned that I was coming
to speak at TEDx Teachers College
marquees you're like this field of
superhero which is absolutely ridiculous
because I'm afraid of spiders I'm an
ordinary person just like you however a
few years ago I found it a social
enterprise to ensure that all kids have
a chance to achieve the American dream
due to the success of my social
enterprise
I've won numerous awards like
Massachusetts innovator of the Year
Microsoft changemaker
as a result I get a lot of requests on
LinkedIn from budding social
entrepreneurs soliciting soliciting my
advice to build their own social
ventures for example let's check out
Kevin's message a common message reads
like this for years I've been trying to
have an impact in the world then but I'm
not getting in traction can you offer
advice now get about five messages like
this a week and I don't have the time to
answer every single request however I
want to empower others to successfully
start up their own social ventures so
I'm here today to share my own secret
sauce with you guys the bid methodology
on how to take an idea from concept to
reality gain traction and change the
world but first I want to share a little
bit about my own story ironically my
mother attended Columbia University but
she had mental health problems and range
her behaviors range from swinging knives
at me to being a sweetheart and bringing
me delicious Chinese food my biological
father attended college as well then he
went on to so to create medicines that
sold for millions of dollars but he was
never around my parents lived apart when
my dad found out that my mother was
abusive and neglectful he called social
services and at eight years old I was
placed into foster care I bounced around
from home to home to home because my
aunt Peggy was going to adopt me but she
contracted cancer and passed away
my first foster mom was thrilled to
adopt me
but after surgery gone wrong she passed
away I was beginning to lose hope I
didn't care about school my future
education is New York State's math and
reading test got into a gifted and
talented program and it just didn't
matter people were dying
one day my social worker brought me into
the agency and asked do you want to live
with this family is for new foster
family in upstate New York it was either
go upstate or live in a group home and I
had heard bad things about group homes
so I decided to go upstate I gave these
new foster parents a ton of grief from
school getting into fights to school
suspensions I'll never forget my mother
was chastising me for another stupid
thing I had done and I yelled send me to
the group home I don't care she looked
at me and said sit your little ass down
you're not going anywhere
surprisingly um surprisingly instead of
giving up on me my parents shot my new
foster parents shopped showered me with
love and eventually adopted me so I
stopped being a little brat I mellowed a
ho and try my best to make my new
parents proud I geeked out in high
school I geeked out on math team became
active in student government and learned
all about tech and web development I
also joined Junior ROTC
which forever changed the way I view
success personal success I'll never
forget we professional year I
participated in boot camp at West Point
it was definitely not band camp it was
intense physical training from sunup to
sundown
one day in boot camp one of my buddies
fell asleep and the Marine Sergeant made
the two kids that didn't wake him up run
around trying to put the geese into
formation which was absolutely hilarious
while hilarious at the moment this
taught me a very important message that
in order to succeed here we needed to
care not only about ourselves we needed
to care about the success of our fellow
cadets so another time during boot camp
a kid cadet was tired cold wet and
couldn't keep going during an
orientation event or in tearing map and
compass event so I slung him on my back
ran through the woods for about a half
an hour in the rain
I want honor cadet in boot camp because
I genuinely learned to care about the
success of my fellow cadets continuing
to care about the success of my fellow
cadets senior year my unit one
distinguished unit with highest honors
for the first time in 20 years we won
because we genuinely cared about the
success of everyone the success of our
fellow cadets and we developed comradery
as my high school career was coming to
an end everyone thought I was headed to
the military but I did not I followed my
heart and a girl to college in Boston I
came intent on becoming a lawyer so I
interned at City Year a non-profit
founded by two Harvard law grads in the
high school dropout rate and I worked at
the White House under President Obama
however I had an experience that forever
changed my career trajectory
Massachusetts Supreme Court Chief
Justice Roderick Ireland was one of my
professors and with his consent I was
able to sit in on cases of the Boston
juvenile court there I witnessed many
heart-wrenching care and protection
cases adoption and foster care cases and
which parents and kids looked lost and
scared
later I helped mentor a foster kid who
went from getting C's and DS to getting
A's and B's these experiences made me
want to learn more about the foster care
system that many kids myself included or
forced into and what I learned shocked
me so imagine this that everybody in
this room was in foster care or was a
foster 12 child half of you would have
graduated from high school but the rest
of you wouldn't this front row would
have graduated from college but no one
else and most of you would have spent
time in the jail
homeless or be dead by 19 years old
that is insane and I knew I had to do
something about it but so I deferred my
lifelong dream of becoming an attorney
and turned down offers to work at top
consulting firms my parents thought I
was
easy but I followed seth godin advice if
it scares you it might be a good thing
to try I felt obligated to try and
systematically transform the foster care
system so I found it
foster skills a social enterprise
dedicated to helping foster kids beat
the odds and become productive citizens
starting off though I had no idea how to
build a social venture that captured the
impact that I wanted to see in the world
so I decided to study the Ventures of
many successful social entrepreneurs
like Adam Rana pencils of promise and
Jacqueline Novogratz of the acumen fund
to see what their secret recipe was or
their recipe success was I started
noticing some patterns I captured these
patterns and created the bid methodology
the that I used to create my own social
enterprise before I tell you about the
bid methodology I want to share with you
what let's define social enterprise so a
social enterprise is a for purpose
company it could be a nonprofit or
for-profit that uses entrepreneurship to
tackle social environmental or human
justice issue in the world now that we
explain social enterprise let me tell
you what this bid methodology is mark
I've been talking about it for so long
so what is the bid methodology bid
methodology is business impact brand so
business what do you want to do and why
this is not your traditional business
plan it's what you provide in what
society gets in return financial
otherwise if there's a problem in the
world and you're really really really
passionate about it
it could be in any industry energy
education environment and you want to
use entrepreneurship to bring it to
light you must do your homework I'm not
talking about spreadsheets and profit
margins you must know exactly what's
going on in that space in order to not
take away resources from existing
organizations doing great work plus you
want to use your time and resources
wisely so Muhammad Yunus is a perfect
example of business he was a professor
who visited poor villages and discovered
that small loans could help poor people
and Bangladesh he pioneered micro loans
and founded the Grameen Bank because
traditional banks weren't
handing out loans he showed that
low-income families were good investment
with his new method of business impact
who do you create value for and how much
essentially what is your value
proposition you need to be specific
anecdotes and qualitative information
are great but you need some numbers what
matters most is that you need to show
that you're solving problems that are
going to make our world a better place
what is it that you're providing is it
beneficial is it effective are you able
to scale and most importantly you need
to be willing to put yourself to exist
to put yourself out of business so Scott
Harrison in 2006 founded charity:water
a social enterprise dedicated to
bringing clean water to the billions of
people without it to date he's brought
clean water to 3 million people and over
20 different countries around the world
he's able to gain traction because he
connected his supporters to their
individual impact using your phone you
can use GPS and literally track your
donation in real time
once he accomplishes his goal of
bringing clean water to the billions of
people without it he will literally be
putting himself out of business brand
new champions you and are they credible
your brand is not just your logo it's
your who you are
it's your network you need more than
just your mom's a good word unless your
mom works for JPMorgan Chase um you need
credible social capital you need people
whose shoulders will allow you to stand
on their shoulders and who put in a good
word for you
and also who'd put their reputation on
the line because they believed what you
were doing has the ability to change the
world so in order to start building or
crafting your brand form relationships
with your co-workers mentors if they're
someone you admire reach out to them
cold call CO email them you need to
convince at least one credible person
that your business and impact are worthy
then more will follow
so Saul Khan was struggling to gain
traction but his vision of free
education for all inspired his earlier
adopters these early adopters
then told bill gates of Khan Academy
Bill Gates became inspired then he
mentioned Khan Academy at a big tech
conference then Khan Academy started to
gain traction raise funding now we see
Sal Khan all of these Bank of America
commercials we see him on Forbes
magazine and many of us probably use his
platform Sal Khan Scott Harrison and
Muhammad Yunus
seem like extraordinary people but
they're not they're ordinary people who
saw a problem and wanted to do something
about it
they became super successful social
entrepreneurs and you can too if you use
the bid methodology you ever to sell
potential supporters with digestible
pieces of information like your business
like your impact like your brand in
addition you also win hearts and minds
which will help you to gain traction and
raise funding you will also jump in to
building a successful social enterprise
by using a methodology that many
successful social entrepreneurs have
already used now I want to use bib in a
couple case studies with my own
nonprofit Foster's goes so Foster's goes
we're in the business of helping foster
kids to beat the odds because we believe
that every kid deserves a chance in this
world we do this by teaching kids soft
and hard life skills advocating on their
behalf creating awareness about the
issues facing kids in foster care
innovating government's approach and
ultimately creating a system of support
our impact at foster schools are
straightforward to date we've worked at
five hundred kids in foster care put on
a hundred how to's we've informally
helped seventeen foster kids get jobs
and we've developed a workforce
development program with the mentorship
of Europe in addition with Northeastern
University professors we hope to social
protest and successfully advocated for
three bills in two years and also we
leverage the innovation economy and new
technologies to build a web portal of
resources for kids in foster care
all the while highlighting on our
chronicles of youth in action blog what
success will foster youth are doing
we were able to build our brand by
having credible supporters for example
my fraternity brother introduced me to
city councilor Tito Jackson when he was
first running for office when he won he
took me to exclusive networking with
events and I met a ton of people who
provided a lot of support and were super
helpful
now also cold called cold emailed and
not so quite randomly ran into a lot of
people at events and now we have
supporters like Microsoft the case
foundation Frank and oak and many folks
who believe that foster extricates whose
part Foster's goes because they believe
that every kid should have a chance in
the world now showed you an example of
my own service focus social enterprise
but I want to show you an example with a
traditional product focus social
enterprise then believe in Betsey Nunez
grew up in a military family there my
friends
Emily participated in college ROTC she
learned that the veteran unemployment
rate in the US was twice that of the
u.s. national average so she talked to
her sister and they developed sportin
plow which is in the business of selling
fashionable materials and items out of
that made from recycled military
materials and hires millets US military
veterans through their sourcing and
manufacturing since launching in April
2013 they've had an incredible impact
they've recycled over 15,000 pounds of
military surplus generated over $400,000
in sales ten percent of which is donated
to veteran military veteran
organizations here in the US and more
importantly they created 36 part and
full-time jobs here for military
veterans in the US which is incredible
they were able to build momentum and
build their brand by pitching to anyone
who listen as a result they gained
credible supporters like TOMS
MassChallenge the White House and me who
believe that our military veterans and
here in the u.s. deserve our support
more support
emily has been building this company
while on active duty in Afghanistan she
had to do it now because her tomorrow is
not guaranteed and we should all be
thinking that way there are eight
hundred and sixty thousand seconds in a
day and my view life is too short to
build things that don't matter their
world is abundant with problems but we
all have the ability to help and try to
solve at least one whether it's building
new technologies that optimize everyday
living helping to find a cure to cancer
ending hunger or even just making
someone smell we have the power to
change the world
Dropbox co-founder once said that the
happiest and most successful people I
know don't just love what they do
they're obsessed with solving a problem
something that matters to them they
remind me of a dog chasing a tennis ball
their eyes go a little crazy
deletion snaps and they go bounding off
ploughing into whatever gets in the way
so if you have an idea to make the world
a better place instead of emailing me on
LinkedIn use the bid methodology and
bring it to life thank you
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