tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3868816609624444975.post2467159020106865946..comments2023-09-14T06:22:27.855-05:00Comments on Little Devices That Could: Is Social Entrepreneurship a Ponzi Scheme? Too many buzzwords, not enough nuts and boltsJosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270981158961851849noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3868816609624444975.post-82436734633262909892011-12-10T14:09:53.232-05:002011-12-10T14:09:53.232-05:00Great comment. The high bar is important, and I ag...Great comment. The high bar is important, and I agree there's a lot of social enterprise vaporware out there. What's worrisome is that there's a lot of regular enterprise vaporware, and THAT's getting funding. So what institutional funders should be aware of is that people indeed have choices, we do the next XYZ Save the World, Inc. or we can do things like this http://us.blizzard.com/store/browse.xml?f=c:5,c:33<br /><br />Virtual Pets anyone?Josehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09194821061085769816noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3868816609624444975.post-1105609460863977112011-12-07T11:55:00.232-05:002011-12-07T11:55:00.232-05:00I too think this is an important and courageous pi...I too think this is an important and courageous piece. And I totally agree that there is much more talk than action in terms of funding new social endeavors. Funding at the "mezz level," once a "model has been proven," to take things to "scale" are all frustrating constraints to burgeoning social entrepreneurs.<br /><br />At the same time, I am also frustrated by the number of individuals who christen themselves "social entrepreneurs" without adequately analyzing whether a social enterprise is the best model for their endeavor or worse, without an actual venture in mind, market to serve, product to sell. In classic entrepreneurial activities, most folks have to start by bootstrapping, taking out personal loans and using credit cards. They take on the risk. For some (certainly not all) in the social space, there seems to be a feeling that since they aim to do good, they should have easier access to funds. <br /><br />I need to think about this more, but I wonder is perhaps the high bar is serving a purpose. The market is making a rational choice. It's that we (the royal we) don't really believe that social enterprise will work...but we don't want to admit it because we don't have an alternative.Amyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09462596049240197190noreply@blogger.com