Social Change Nation

Hey Change Nation, we are back with our series featuring the ‘Best of SCN’! This series is focused on taking you back to some of our early days in podcasting and sharing the inspiring and challenging stories of our early entrepreneurs! This week we are featuring an entrepreneur who found his calling and purpose for changing the world through entrepreneurship. CEO and Co-founder of EdenWorks, Jason Green, was able to use his background knowledge of bioengineering and physical sciences to create a sustainable, healthy way for growing food in urban cities. Just like his mantra says, “Everything … Listen Now!

Hey Change Nation, we are back with our series featuring the ‘Best of SCN’! This series is focused on taking you back to some of our early days in podcasting and sharing the inspiring and challenging stories of our early entrepreneurs! This week we are featuring an entrepreneur whose social business model actually provides the gift of clear sight to those with vision impairments! Founder of Panda Sunglasses, Vincent Ko, speaks about the start of his social venture and how it is impacting the sight of the world! Panda Sunglasses creates unique, hand-crafted sunglasses that then provide medical … Listen Now!

Over the years, I've been pretty involved with community service... I devoted a year of my life to AmeriCorps (the domestic equivalent of the Peace Corps) worked for 3 years at my college's community service office, served indigenous farmers in Peru, and have been involved with Habitat for Humanity and World Relief for a number of years now. But, despite this seemingly solid record of giving back - I have to admit it was all a fairly scattered attempt at serving my community.  While I learned a lot, I can't honestly say that I deeply impacted the lives of the people I volunteered with.  Was … Listen Now!

Hey Change Nation, we are back with our series featuring the ‘Best of SCN’! This series is focused on taking you back to some of our early days in podcasting and sharing the inspiring and challenging stories of our early entrepreneurs! This week we are featuring an entrepreneur who is not only a pioneer to many other startups and change agents, but also is one the individuals who has helped shape and inspire me to become more involved in the ‘social good’ space. Get ready to meet... Jared Angaza! This guys has devoted countless hours to serving others and finding innovative ways to adapt as … Listen Now!

I've interviewed hundreds of social entrepreneurs from around the world and one of the most important questions they face when starting is this: should I weave a cause into my business right away or should I wait until my business is off the ground? This is a reasonable question for even the most passionate social entrepreneur. After all, the only way you'll be able to help others is if you create a sustainable business that generates revenue, jobs, and profits. So, it might seem sensible to wait to add a social good component. Anything you add to your business costs has the potential to … Listen Now!

Hey Change Nation, we are back with our series featuring the ‘Best of SCN’! This series is focused on taking you back to some of our early days in podcasting and sharing the inspiring and challenging stories of our early entrepreneurs! This week we are featuring an entrepreneur who found a new use for an old product- a great way to be innovative! Co-founder Zach Holzapfel and his team realized that by implementing a social mission into their business, they could not only impact consumers of the product, but also others in the world who need resources for a better livelihood, thus, Mission Belt … Listen Now!

Last week in social entre 101 we talked about crowdfunding. (if you missed it, click here to check out the audio version) If crowdfunding platforms are an amateur sport, venture capital is where the professionals go to play. That’s not to say you shouldn’t explore this option as a new startup, but it is a game that is played by a vastly different set of rules than the crowdfunding game. If you’ve never heard of venture capital before, it’s essentially where someone (or some business) has a lot of free cash to invest.  They then give you that cash so you can build a product, pay salaries, … Listen Now!

Welcome to Friday. Last week, I asked you to ask yourself some questions that will help you figure out how you want to fund your social venture. If you missed that, or any other lesson in Social Entrepreneurship 101, you can always click here for the audio lessons. During the next few weeks, I’m going to walk you through the top resources I know about that are specifically geared toward funding purpose driven startups. These are the organizations that I learned about from talking with hundreds of social entrepreneurs, but there are more popping up every day.  Go … Listen Now!

Hey Change Nation, we are back with our series featuring the ‘Best of SCN’! This series is focused on taking you back to some of our early days in podcasting and sharing the inspiring and challenging stories of our early entrepreneurs! This week we are featuring a special guest, Kenn Kelly of NeverSettle.IT! NeverSettle contributes IT knowledge to empower businesses and entrepreneurs through the tech industry. However, Kenn also Co-founded a different business that impacts the world through social entrepreneurship partnering through a specific product. The Osana Bar. This product actually can … Listen Now!

As we roll forward in social entrepreneurship 101, it's time we started chatting about how you'll fund your social venture. This is the question I'm most frequently asked about. Next week, I'll start getting you some resources to find funding, but first, I want you to start by asking some questions of yourself:  One of the largest challenges I see cause based entrepreneurs face is how to raise the cash needed to launch their businesses.  In the early days, you’ll be refining your story, developing your process, and linking up with your customers.  So, it’s highly likely that you will need some … Listen Now!