| I’d like to share a decade’s worth of lessons learned with you. Since 2007, the Mentor Capital Network has been obsessively tracking how to best support social entrepreneurs to make a better impact on the world. We’ve learned many things, but four of them have stuck with us, and have been fully integrated into our programs in a way that I think makes one of the most effective programs in the world. Build Peer-to-Peer relationships. Founders want to talk to other founders who are addressing the same challenges. One advantage the MCN has in working with so many companies across so many countries is that we can make sure that these are non-competitive peer relationships. Build long-term relationships.We create mentoring relationships that are designed to last far beyond the length of our formal program. I regularly get reports from mentors who have had the joy of watching the companies they met through us grow and flourish. Keep the entrepreneurs focused on their businesses. The MCN is dedicated to supporting society’s leaders without taking them away from running their businesses. Share the lessons and responsibilities of the ripple effect. As our friend and adviser Tami Kesselman says, one of the differences between an entrepreneur and a social entrepreneur is that once you disrupt a system, a social entrepreneur is responsible for what else happens because of the changes you make. We have thousands of lessons learned in that area, and are sharing them through our program. We know how to do this. But these things don’t happen on their own. Which means we need your financial support to keep strengthening both our alumni and the next generation of amazing entrepreneurs who will pass through our program. Please donate today. Every individual donation helps, and if you’re in a position to make a larger gift that you’d like to be focused around a particular industry or country let me know. Your resources and our team can make the world a better place to live. Sincerely, Ian T Fisk Executive Director The Mentor Capital Network |
| Alumni in the News Folia Water has been awarded a Transform Grant from Unilever and DFID (UK AID)! The 18 month project is titled is “Demand creation using FMCG Folia Filters as the bottom rung on a water filter product ladder.” The 18-month project funds a sales test in Bangladesh and is an opportunity to work with Unilever’s Bangladesh’s PureIt water team. Unilever’s PureIt is the world’s #1 selling water purifier. |
| Sara Polon and her mother, Marilyn, launched SouperGirl more than a decade ago and received an award from us as she was just getting launched. Now, she has almost $3 million in annual revenue, and two retail locations. Their soups can be found at 25 Costco warehouses and more than 50 Whole Foods stores. |