Eric Carlson - Building a Successful Social Venture: A Guide for Social Entrepreneurs

Praise for Building a Successful Social Venture

From Social Entrepreneurs

Where else can one find out how to go about developing a business plan with both impact and profit in mind? Where else does one find a guide to convert intractable social problems into opportunities for realistic dreamers to tackle through effective social ventures? Jim Koch and Eric Carlsons book Building a Successful Social Venture provides a powerful guide for social entrepreneurs like me, who must permanently battle the tradeoffs between social impact and sustainability. The book is a treasure.

Martin Burt, PhD, founder, Fundacin Paraguaya (2005 Skoll Awardee), Poverty Stoplight, and Teach a Man to Fish

The information found here is detailed and pertinent, with real-life insights into the origins and functioning of social enterprises. Step-by-step guidelines, examples, and charts offer a critical but encouraging perspective on building and scaling social impact.

Neelam Chibber, cofounder and Managing Trustee, Industree Crafts Foundation (2011 Social Entrepreneur of the Year India Awardee), and Schwab Fellow

The term social venture has been notoriously ill-defined over the past decade. The authors bring much-needed definition to the space. This will be helpful for investors, regulators, and entrepreneurs alike going forward. At Kiva, we benefitted greatly from the Global Social Benefit Incubator in getting started. This work can help us take it to the next level!

Matt Flannery, cofounder and former CEO, Kiva (2008 Skoll Awardee), and cofounder and CEO, Branch.co

The knowledge captured by the book is amazing. I wish we had a book like this for reference in 200203 when we went about setting up Ziqitza. Back then there was no concept of social venture. I believe this is a good foundation for anyone who is looking to start a social venture. Attending GSBI was a great experience for me; I learned so much in the short time I was on campus.

Ravi Krishna, cofounder and Director, Ziqitza Health Care (2013 Times of India Social Impact Awardee)

A comprehensive guide and tool kit for these times. Koch and Carlson illuminate the field with research, case studies, and critical specification checklists. Their work makes it clear that social entrepreneurship has a vital role to play in the personal and collective transformation required to create a more harmonious and equitable world.

Ronni Goldfarb, founder and former President and CEO, Equal Access International (2016 Tech Awards Laureate)

Carlson and Koch have written an informative guide that shows readers the unique opportunity that social entrepreneurship offers to address complex societal challenges and offers specific, engaging, and practical guidance for those of us eager to create financially sustainable and beneficial social ventures.

Sara Goldman, cofounder, Heart of the Heartland

This book is the culmination of James Koch and Eric Carlsons dedication to mentoring hundreds of social enterprises, from formation through scale. Theres never one right way to build a company, so they have aggregated and analyzed the different lessons learned from many organizations. This book is well worth the read for any aspiring or practicing social entrepreneur!

Lesley Marincola, founder and CEO, Angaza (2018 Skoll Awardee and 2016 Tech Awards Laureate)

I have had the honor of learning many of the concepts presented in this book directly from Jim and Eric at Santa Clara. I applied many of these concepts at Husk Power Systems and raised funding to scale. This book does a phenomenal job of providing a very detailed and easy-to-follow framework for launching and scaling successful businesses focused on solving the worlds biggest problems. Concrete case studies are presented in a succinct way to illustrate how these frameworks can be applied effectively. I would highly recommend both social entrepreneurs and leaders of successful social enterprises read this book and use it as a reference to continually evolve.

Manoj Sinha, cofounder and CEO, Husk Power Systems (2009 and 2013 GSBI alumnus)

An inspirational, holistic, and practical resource with real-world lessons and examples. A must-read for early stage ventures as well as ventures moving along the path to scale. I admire Jim and Erics completeness of vision and their true and unwavering commitment to building social ventures and mentoring the social entrepreneurs who lead them.

Elizabeth Hausler, founder and CEO, Build Change (2017 Skoll Awardee)

From Academic and Industry Experts

Complementing and extending prior Base of the Pyramid work, Carlson and Kochs book provides something new and important: a business planning paradigm designed specifically for the unique opportunities and challenges facing B P entrepreneurs. The outcome is an entrepreneurs road map for building better social ventures.

Ted London, Adjunct Professor, Ross School of Business, and Senior Research Fellow, William Davidson Institute, University of Michigan, and author of The Base of the Pyramid Promise

This excellent workbook takes the reader through the steps in the process of developing and running a social venture. The examples are richly described and make the concepts come alive.

Madhu Viswanathan, PhD, Professor, Diane and Steven N. Miller Centennial Chair in Business, and founder of Subsistence Marketplaces Initiative, Gies College of Business, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and author of Bottom-Up Enterprise

Carlson and Koch have crafted a rare primer that offers inspiration and guidance for every stage of the entrepreneurial journey. Building a Successful Social Venture shines as a text for undergraduate and graduate students of social innovation. The authors offer deep experiential wisdom and theory-driven frameworks built upon the practice of hundreds of social ventures. The stakes for social innovation are high for us all, and the authors place commendable emphasis on execution with a social consciousnessincluding actionable tools for investors, managers, and entrepreneurs who care about meaningful social change. This book is invaluable.

Geoffrey Desa, PhD, Associate Professor of Management and Social Innovation, San Francisco State University

What a wonderful overview of the field with amazing tools for not only understanding conceptually but also moving the ideas of social innovation and social venture into practice.

Adrienne Falcon, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Public and Nonprofit Leadership, and Director, Master of Advocacy and Political Leadership, Metropolitan State University

I feel very privileged to have been part of the first ten years of the Global Social Benefit Incubator at Santa Clara University in Silicon Valleyas a mentor, coach, friend, and teacher. In their book, Eric Carlson and James Koch brilliantly capture the lessons learned from the first ten years of their accelerator, informed by a unique combination of the Jesuit commitment to social justice and Silicon Valleys entrepreneurial and innovation-driven culture. This is a must-read for all social entrepreneurs serious about scaling their impact.

Charly Kleissner, PhD, cofounder, KL Felicitas Foundation, Toniic, 100% Impact Network, and Social-Impact International

The authors have decades of experience on what it takes to build a social enterprise. It is no easy feat, and this book provides a detailed manuscript for entrepreneurs, with examples, exercises, and resources touching on each aspect of building a business. In the age of fail fast, this is a book on build it to last. The authors also trace the arc of shared experience and the original thesis behind creating social impact to guide both new enterprises and todays corporations in creating a better tomorrow.