Three Quick Things:
1. We’re looking for for-profit social entrepreneurs to support. Our program offers detailed feedback on business plans and connections to mentors, investors, and peer-to-peer networks. We are focused on providing support without taking entrepreneurs away from running their business.
2. If you’re on the non-profit side, check out our friends at The Unfunded List who provide similar support to grantseekers.
3. Join us in Miami! The Mentor Capital Network is working with the team at Sustainatopia (April 28 – May 1) to put together a great event around social enterprises. We’ve got a few free tickets for panelists, so if you’d like to join us, email me and I’ll see if we can work you in.
But enough from me. The best way to know what we’re doing is to hear from the folks we’ve worked with:
Just this morning, Peter Pinchot of the Ecuadorian company Whole Forest let us know that “When we entered the mentoring program, we had not raised any investment, despite working flat out since 2013 with bilateral and multilateral funds, social impact funds, and private investors…. In 2017, I took our Mentor Capital Network vetted business plan to our donor, and against his initial refusals eventually got him to start investing in our new business line, as a way to expand our conservation impact. Without the guidance and mentoring on our business model and plan, I would not have been able to achieve the subsequent $1 million to build our plant and launch the new business.”
Earlier this week, Sameer Hajee, founder of Rwanda-based Nuru Energy, told me that “Ten years after we entered your program, you are still unique in the kind of support you provide…. the MCN was the only one where we actually had access to the feedback and the the judges and it was fantastic in helping us to adapt the model.”
We support our entrepreneurs after the formal part of our program. Last year, we put four sustainable apparel entrepreneurs together for a call. Francie Wasser of the DC / Baltimore firm FranciePants said of that call — “Of all the networking calls I’ve done, is the one where I had the most in common with the other entrepreneurs. They were good people who offered me both great questions and excellent referrals.”
Thank you all for the work that you do.