Becoming a Social Entrepreneur Starting Out, Scaling Up and Staying True

What?s it like to be a social entrepreneur ? not a textbook social entrepreneur but one on the ground? This book offers an explanation. Michael Gordon, leading Social Entrepreneurship expert from the University of Michigan, spoke with more than one hundred social entrepreneurs ? from six continents, young and old, just starting out to several decades in, addressing seemingly every societal problem of the day.

This book uses their words and experiences to provide a kaleidoscopic description of what it means to become a social entrepreneur. It ranges from the personal and emotional challenges they often face to the grand impact many hope to produce. It touches on the sublime but focuses on the everyday, highlighting the mistakes that have been made, the lessons learned and, especially, what advice they would give to those wanting to start a social venture.

This book presents the truth, not the varnish, and is ideal for use in the classroom with students studying social entrepreneurship, and for all new and experienced social entrepreneurs seeking real-life examples of how to overcome challenges. For anyone else, it offers a penetrating portrait of the lives of those committed to changing the world.

Part 1: Before You

1. Lessons to learn

2. Are you a social entrepreneur?

Part 2: You

3. Before they were social entrepreneurs

4. Ideas

5. Necessity

6. Join

7. Personal challenges

8. The sanities of pro-social behavior

9. Committing

10. Gaining skills

Part 3: Your Team

11. Go team, go

12. Co-founder

13. Team formation

14. Hiring

15. Compensation

16. Volunteers

17. Training

18. Culture

19. Mentors

20. Networks

21. Board

Part 4: Your Business Model

22. Two businesses

23. Know your customers

24. Value proposition

25. The economics of your business

26. Value chain

27. Revising your model

Part 5: Running Your Business

28. Small ain’t easy29. Selling your stuff

30. Operations

31. Managing

32. Legitimacy

33. Legal

34. Expenses

35. Fundraising

36. Investors

37. Fundraising tips

38. Fundraising trajectories

39. Funders’ perspectives

40. Seller, beware

Part 6: More Than You: Impact

41. Scale

42. Measure

43. Poets versus Quants

Part 7: Beyond You

44. This moment

45. Beyond scale

46. Our moment

Appendix 1: Methodology

Appendix 2: The entrepreneurs and the organizations

Michael Gordon is the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Social Entrepreneurship at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan. He is the faculty director of the Center for Social Impact, the seat of social entrepreneurship at the Ross School with connections throughout the University of Michigan.