Stop Pitching. Start Bootstrapping
Increasingly I am becoming fed up of the waste of time and energy involved in the social entrepreneur “pitching” model. Pitching, either to VCs or to investors, or to grant-makers, can dissipate valuable time and energy. Competitions, often led by public-sector organisations, are the same thing in disguise. These processes leave you out of control of the process, waiting, hoping, that someone else will give the green light to your idea.
Here’s a radical thought: give yourself the green light. Start. Now.
But of course - some social innovation ideas simply REQUIRE a significant capital investment to get started. The answer? Change your idea. This may mean a wholesale redesign - in the case, for example, of wanting to set up a community steelworks, unfortunately, you need a steelworks. These things are expensive, and they aren’t susceptible to cottage industry production. In that case, junk the idea and get another one. A community clothing bank, or even community steel recycling, may be much more feasible.
But it may just mean adjusting the idea - and thinking about development over time, rather than “full on, right from the start”. Even better, by thinking like this it enables the nascent idea to build capabilities and capacities, so as things get rolling, you actually know how to deliver at a level only just below the scale you’re asked to deliver at now.
Many social enterprise ideas ARE susceptible to bootstrapping. Is there a way that, on a small scale, your idea can generate a small income this week? Maybe just a handful of Euros? Okay, with that reinvested, can it generate a few more Euros next week? And the week after a few more? This is bootstrapping - pulling your idea up by its own bootstraps.
In a time of crisis, when risk-taking investment (either public or private) is virtually non-existent, or (possibly worse) comes with hampering strings attached, this is the only way. Crowdfunding, which in these cases is often simply “pre-ordering”, is a great way to unlock this. Some friends of ours raised £72000 IN THREE DAYS through Kickstarter - essentially what they did was to cut out the funder, cut out the VC, and head direct for their future customers.
We have to start looking for early income generation to move forward. And this, it seems to me, is what distinguishes social entrepreneurship from the old model of grant funding (and its bastard child: delivering public services outsourced to the voluntary sector).
So, what if your model is not designed to make income? In that case, it’s NOT A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE IDEA. It may be very laudable, and may well be very effective - but it’s not the same thing.
Summary: if we are going to pitch, then it should be pitching to customers - not pitching to third parties who have a strange (often exploitative) relationship with the value networks developed.