Aha! I think eliminating the “social venture” label and participating instead in the general business world is a great and strategic plan, with the end goal to redefine business-as-usual. Just because you have a “good cause” doesn’t mean you have a “good business.” And inefficiencies—even when they have good intentions—still create drag. . .something that a competitive market generally corrects for.

There is one thing that I think is particularly individualized for social ventures that traditional for-profit ventures do not necessarily deal with: effectively measuring (and valuing) social impact. How do you compare businesses working on social and environmental issues without a measurable baseline (something impact investors should and do think about)? Definitely fodder for another post!

“Now, the next step is finding out what are the limiting factors for development of start-up social ventures.”

What if we stopped looking at it as a “social venture” all together? A lot of the same problems we face in the social space are the same problems that ventures face in the for-profit space. They have problems getting funding, collaborating, growing, etc just like social ventures. 9 out of 10 startups fail too. Maybe we should encourage healthy competition and a culture of innovation? Not everyone can play together in the sandbox. I think once we start looking at social ventures as regular ventures, great things can start happening.

The onus to change that paradigm of inefficient redundancy perhaps falls to that group of organizations and individuals who will re-think the sector and challenge inefficiency in order to positively impact society. But maybe another question is: Is it an onus or a privilege?

-Lauren

To your last question… “What are the limiting factors?” There are, of course, many. One critical factor is the lack of real “integration” in the space. All are doing amazing things to solve major social, economic, and environmental issues, but too often doing them in their own silos. They cooperate, as they did at The Feast, but don’t coordinate.

As long as social enterprises are spread about the globe in different communities, serving different needs through disparate means and supply chains, we won’t be able to create the virtuous circles and systems that will allow social ventures to flourish. We need to find ways for social enterprises to feed off each other and create critical mass within communities and regions. If we can do that, we will be successful!