Business Boot Camp: Social Entrepreneurs From Around the World Come to Santa Clara U. to Grow Their Business

Business Wire, July 21, 2005

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Armed with the knowledge that good intentions do not a successful venture make, 15 grass roots innovators from around the globe will come to Santa Clara University and Silicon Valley this summer to immerse themselves in a two-week "business boot camp." Mission: To emerge with a cohesive business plan that will bring their ventures to resource-strapped regions of the world.

Starting July 31, entrepreneurs and technology innovators will participate in a two-week incubator program that will allow them to network with Silicon Valley foundations, technologists, and business executives.

The intensive residential program (July 31 to Aug. 12) is aimed at helping successful technology innovators to scale up their endeavors and achieve sustainability. Sponsored by the Center for Science, Technology, and Society (in collaboration with SCU's Leavey School of Business), the Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI) supports the work of innovators and entrepreneurs who have demonstrated their commitment to applying technology to address urgent human needs throughout the world.

"These are award-winning innovations from diverse international communities with proof of concept ideas, not pie-in-the-sky dreamers," says Patrick Guerra, program director for Santa Clara University's Global Social Business Incubator.

The ventures range from tech training in Guatemala and Cameroon; to micro-loan corporations in rural Paraguay and frost-damage solutions for fruit growers in Uruguay; to low-cost day care in Bangladesh.

Begun in 2003, the camp recruits award-winning innovators from around the globe, and arms them with business strategies to help them develop business models that are more likely to attract funding and achieve long-term success.

Innovators like Kristine Pearson: In her travels across sub-Saharan Africa, Pearson was moved by the strength and struggles of people living with poverty and political turmoil. One of their greatest needs was to be connected to education and information.

Pearson's organization, the Freeplay Foundation, filled the information and education gap by distributing durable wind-up and solar powered radios across Africa.

Freeplay's latest program will distribute 10,000 more Lifeline radios to local NGOs and other organizations helping the economically disadvantaged of Kenya.

"All the innovators who come to us are mature, but are stuck in the mud: they need a viable strategy for scaling up," says Guerra. "They have a passion for moving beyond conventional philanthropic grants and charity, and we give them strategies for attracting other sources of funding, generating revenues from the value that their innovations provide to direct and indirect beneficiaries."

Living and learning together, participants develop know-how in the areas of marketing, finance, business planning, and organizational capacity building. The incubator combines classroom instruction, case studies, and best practices with carefully matched mentoring on the sustainability challenges of each participating organization.

"The entrepreneurial spirit and rapid development of technology that characterizes the best of Silicon Valley is propagated through this program," said Jim Koch, management professor and executive director of the Global Social Benefit Incubator at Santa Clara University. "The incubator brings together grass roots innovators and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs with university faculty to support technology applications that serve the common good all over the world."

Koch added that like many Silicon Valley companies, incubator participants have been successful in uncertain business climates and against staggering odds. "Using creativity and a deep understanding of their local markets, they find new solutions that create hope and opportunity," he said. "All promising technology innovations confront the challenge of growing their capacity. Non-profit organizations need to become self sustaining if they are to grow over a period of time. Social benefit entrepreneurs in the developing world are cut off from knowledge resources that support innovation in places like Silicon Valley."

On August 12, the final day of the two-week program, class participants will present their business plans for "scaling up." "We hope the resources of our region will advance their promising technological innovations in service to humanity," Koch said. "Much of their work is happening in emerging markets and in settings ignored by conventional approaches to technological design and market development," Koch said.

Some of the recruits who will participate in this year's business boot camp are:

--Cognisense Labs Inc., California -- Solves environmental problems with science, software and sensing, focusing on removing land mines from farmland. (www.cognisenselabs.com/projects/html)

--Asociacion Abj'atz' Enlace Quiche, Guatemala -- Enables indigenous peoples to reach their full potential through the innovative use of information and communication technologies. (www.enlacequiche.org.gt)