In this issue: Pursuing Scale with new GSBI program; POV: Is an accelerator right for me?; Alum wins $100k No Images? Click here
Pursuing Scale: New program offers advanced content and mentorship for Tech Awards Laureates and GSBI® Alumni
by Alex Pan Miller Center is excited to announce the launch of our new partnership with the James & Rebecca Morgan Family Foundation and Charmaine and Dan Warmenhoven. This partnership aims to re-engage and support past recipients of the Tech Museum’s Tech Awards with a mentored acceleration program that combines Miller Center’s proven curriculum emphasizing business fundamentals along with advanced content focused on investment facilitation, leadership, and governance support. We call this new program GSBI® Technology Entrepreneurship for Change (TECh) Accelerator. The program represents the Center’s core value of accompanying our entrepreneurs beyond the formal bounds of our GSBI program - committing to provide continued support in order to help them reach scale. READ MORE→
It's never too late to learnHaving already been in business for the past two years with over 50 customers in 38 countries, TaroWorks CEO Brent Chism was uncertain as to whether joining an accelerator was the right next step for the company. He earned an MBA and worked in three tech startups; had he not already learned what was necessary to successfully run a social enterprise? Read more about Chism's explorations in the rise of accelerators and their impact on both budding and more established enterprises. TaroWorks is now currently a part of Miller Center's GSBI In-Residence cohort.
In the news, announcements & more
CISCO WINNERS | Congratulations to 2016 GSBI alum CareNX for winning the Cisco Global Problem Solvers Challenge, an annual initiative that aims to recognize student entrepreneurs leveraging technology to provide innovative solutions for social impact. The company’s product, FETON, is a smartphone-based fetal heart monitoring solution, enabling heart assessment anytime and anywhere. As first place winners, CareNX was awarded $100,000 in prize money. See the rest of the winners here. IMPACT AT THE MARGINS | With the world’s 22.5 million refugees and another 65.6 million forcibly displaced from their homes, it is with growing importance that entrepreneurs and investors turn their attention to helping support this “migration market”. At Miller Center, our newest program, Social Entrepreneurship at the Margins (SEM), is likely the first accelerator of its kind, focusing on enterprises that serve or are led by migrants, refugees, and human trafficking survivors. As reported in ImpactAlpha, read more about some of the solutions proposed by SEM cohort members, and why more businesses should start investing in these communities. INNOVATORS FOR THE TIMES | Two GSBI alumni, Farmerline and Downtown Streets Team, were highlighted in the recent New York Times article, When Passion and Technology Meet: Innovators are creating new ways to use technology and help solve problems. Farmerline is a 2016 alum of our GSBI In-residence accelerator. Downtown Streets Team is a 2014 alum of our GSBI Boost program. NEW BEGINNINGS | The power of open educational resources is rarely mentioned, yet for some, it can change the course of one's life. Take Trent Parker, for example, who went from being a former chemistry PhD candidate with poor computer science skills, to being offered a technical position at Google, all within the span of six months. Using 2006 GSBI alum MIT OpenCourseWare, a web-based publication of all of MIT courses, Trent was able to build a self-study computer science curriculum perfectly suited to his needs. Read more about Trent’s journey with MIT OpenCourseWare here. FINDING CLARITY | Life's aha moments tend to come at the most unexpected of times. Such was the case with Jordan Kassalow, founder of 2006 GSBI alum VisionSpring, who's moment of clarity came while climbing a mountain in Alaska. To learn more about the company's beginnings and how it has grown since, listen to this podcast from The Chronicle of Philanthropy. TRANSLATION THAT WORKS | The hybrid nature of social enterprises means that not every business practice will successfully translate to the nonprofit world. This blog post by Jim Morgan, however, outlines a few practices that do. Morgan, a longtime supporter of Miller Center, is Chairman Emeritus of Applied Materials and the author of Applied Wisdom for Nonprofits: Eight Practical Tools for Leadership. The book is available to nonprofits as a free download here. CHANGE IN THE KITCHEN | Miller Center is excited to announce Courageous Kitchen’s Dwight Turner as a member of our SEM cohort. As director of the initiative, Turner hopes to empower young leaders through the power of food, providing support for students not only in areas of cooking and nutrition, but also supplementary subjects such as language, math, and art. Learn more about the organization here.
Out & about with Miller CenterMiller Center for Social Entrepreneurship is a pioneer when it comes to accelerating social enterprises, so you'll find our team at a variety of events across the globe. We're actively accompanying entrepreneurs on their journeys and sharing our learnings with others in the ecosystem. If our paths may cross, please reach out to us - we'd enjoy connecting! Please note some listed events are not open to the public.
Research with a Mission SCU's annual Research with a Mission showcase was held on May 23. Global Social Benefit Fellows (GSBFs) were on hand to engage attendees with their findings. Following the event, new GSBFs and their families enjoyed a reception in their honor. See the photo album here. A Compassionate Career The SCU community gathered on June 4 to celebrate the contributions of Jim Koch, former dean of both the business and engineering schools, as well as our founding Executive Director. To view the photo album, click here. Missed one of our newsletter editions? Click here for Miller Center's newsletter archive. ABOUT US Miller Center's Global Social Benefit Institute (GSBI®) helps social entrepreneurs help more people. Since 2003 we have accelerated over 893 social entrepreneurs, who have raised over $662M, and positively impacted the lives of over 267M people. Headline photo courtesy of Solar Ear. Unless otherwise indicated, all other images and photography are property of Santa Clara University. |