When we first started talking about this project, we both agreed that setting up a business with the sole aim of making money would not be enough. Although conventional wisdom dictates that most startups fail within the first two years, we wanted to extend beyond the simple pursuit of profit from the very beginning. Our startup had to not only help us realise our material ambitions, but also give us the chance to explore other areas we feel passionate about.
Over the years, we had discussed whether social entrepreneurship could truly be a viable business model for us to contemplate. Could we reconcile the seemingly contradictory goals of generating profits for ourselves, with social purpose? This seems particularly challenging for a nascent organisation. After all, how much can one realistically achieve with just two people and limited resources?
To achieve this, we needed to find a compelling proposition that would convince our customers and partners that this was also very much in their own interest. We felt that striking the right balance was possible – with sacrifice, hard work, and most importantly, innovative thinking.
We had been quite lucky so far - living in different countries, working in intense and varied environments, and meeting interesting people along the way. We both brought very different backgrounds and personalities to the table.
One of us had started out in a dot com, ventured into social research, and ended up working in the overseas development aid sector. The other had gone to business school and worked in investment banking his entire career. Couldn’t we somehow combine our skills and set up our very own startup?
This wasn't really a new question. We had gone through these motions a number of times before. Back in 1999, we were very keen on an university incubator project, which we concluded was not realistic. Six years later, we were debating the pros and cons of setting up motorbike taxi service à la Virgin Limo Bike. In fact, we had probably discussed at least thirty projects over the years, before deciding they weren’t right for us, for one reason or another.
This was different – and for once, the timing felt right. We were both in the right place and frame of mind to take on the risks associated with a big project. We didn’t have any commitments (such as children or a mortgage) and felt we could handle the uncertainties that would inevitably put pressure on us. More importantly, we felt we had finally found a sector that we could realistically take on ourselves. This could be our first vehicle to put our ideas surrounding social entrepreneurship into practice.
It had to be online, for the obvious reasons of cost and scalability. Although our chosen sector was unfamiliar to both of us, we intuitively felt we could learn our way around it. Together, we hoped to be able to resolve most questions that would come our way – with help from the right people at the right time. Was it naïve, or over-confident of us to think so? Probably a bit of both.
Of course, you may disagree. You may think that companies should focus on making profits, while charities and public institutions should focus on projects of a social nature. This is by no means a simple debate, with many different valid approaches one can follow. However we do think that there are ways of combining both angles such that the different objectives complement each other.
We recognise that as a startup our resources and ability to contribute to social causes will naturally be limited. We hope that we can gradually build these over time into a sustainable concept that will actually benefit our customers, our partners, and allow our company to develop in a healthy way.
What are your thoughts on the topic? Can GOOD business be good business? |
