When we started Acumen’s San Francisco chapter last fall, we knew we wanted to do something that had a distinctly Northern Californian flavor. So we took a page from Silicon Valley’s tech community and held a pitch night last month where five emerging social enterprises gave their best business plan presentations to a panel of Bay Area venture capitalists and veteran entrepreneurs like Premal Shah of Kiva.
More than 200 people came to see entrepreneurs like Shah and Leila Janah of Samasource share the lessons they learned from building their nonprofits from the ground-up.
Whether facing cost constraints, building a new brand in an unknown market or creating traction in an online marketplace, all of the speakers shared a common commitment to approaching long-standing problems with innovative technology solutions. It was an incredible opportunity to hear from individuals who are so boldly championing social enterprise as a solution to the economic and social disparities endemic to global poverty.
The second half of the event was dedicated to showcasing some of the pioneering social entrepreneurship happening in the Bay Area through a VC panel and social entrepreneur pitch session. After sharing her experience working with D.light in India as a 2009 Acumen Fund Fellow, Heidi Krauel graciously moderated the VC panel and pitch session. Each social entrepreneur was given five minutes to pitch their business models to the VC panel and then responded to five minutes of Q&A from the panelists. The social entrepreneurs’ pitches – spanning businesses in microfinance, water, cleantech, international development and web – underscored the incredible level of commitment it takes to launch a social enterprise. Their excitement and dedication was truly inspiring. We hope the critical questioning from VC panelists Wes Selke of Good Capital, Beaudean Seil of Hunstman Gay Capital Impact and Esther Park of RSF Social Finance, will help them refine their business models as they work to build their organizations.
We partnered with Hub Bay Area and SOCAP10 at the Hub’s new downtown SoMa location. Just a few hours before the event, the Hub was still buzzing with activity with members dispersed throughout the 8600 sq. ft. of communal workspace. But, by 6 p.m. the Hub’s staff had expertly transformed the interior from a sea of modular work islands, designed to foster radical collaboration and idea flow, into an event space soon to be filled with 200 attendees. The wine was flowing courtesy of our sponsors Y&B Wines and The Bubble Lounge.
Following the pitches, we were thrilled to be approached by other social entrepreneurs interested in similar events in the future. For us, this was a true measure of the event’s success. We hope Social Enterprise from Scratch is just the beginning of SF for Acumen’s potential to serve as a resource and inspiration for our community.
Join SF for Acumen and Nuru Project for DIGNITY, a photo auction and exhibit benefitting Acumen Fund. The event will be held on Saturday, August 7th at Gallery 16 in San Francisco, and will feature 30 prints by renowned photographers for auction. All tickets include open wine/beer bar and hors d’oeuvres, and proceeds from the event will support Acumen Fund. Register here.
Mediha Abdulhay and Kim-Mai Cutler are co-leaders of the SF for Acumen chapter. They organized the Social Enterprise from Scratch event at Hub SoMa in San Francisco in June 2010. Learn more about SF for Acumen on our Community site.







