UK: The future of social enterprise

The next generation of social entrepreneurs includes fashion designers, travel agents and media moguls. The Future 100 list – the 100 ethical entrepreneurs of the future – were named at an event in the British Library’s business centre as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week (17-21 November).

The list was compiled by Striding Out, an organisation founded by Heather Wilkinson to offer support ‘for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs’, with a triple bottom line of people, planet and profit.

Lily Lapenna of MyBnk, Dave Miller of Bikeworks, Sam Conniff of Livity, Ben Keene of Tribewanted and Kresse Wesling of Fire Hose were just some of the names listed.

Liam Black, founder of Wavelength, former CEO of Fifteen and Social Enterprise columnist, was on hand to introduce and congratulate those who made the list and said he was happy to dedicate his spare time to promoting and supporting young social entrepreneurs.

He started the evening by apologising to the crowd of around 150 for “what my generation has done to the economy”. Black added that: “There’s a lot to be depressed about at the moment. But the economy will bounce back and your businesses will grow. We need passionate entrepreneurs.”

The room heard from four of the ‘next generation’ entrepreneurs, who gave a taste of how and why they started their organisations – and a top tip.

David Curtis, director of recruitment at Women Like Us, an organisation that finds work for mums and has so far reached 40,000 mums and 125 schools throughout London, said working closely with government and employers was crucial to the enterprise’s success.

His top tip was ‘don’t get carried away’ and to stay focused on your project.

Curtis was joined by Tom Savage, managing director of Bright Green Talent, an environmentally-focused recruitment agency, and founder of Blue Ventures; Melissa Sterry, director of ethical marketing agency Societas; and Henry Warren, founder of Gemin-I, which does ‘funky stuff with IT’ to create educational tools and set up Rafi.ki, an online community for schools.

Their tips to others were to collaborate with the private sector and know your goals, with Savage offering the advice of ‘if you can make your business a for profit business and make it viable, then you really have the chance to build something that has more of a social and environmental impact’.

To see the full list of the Future 100, visit www.stridingout.co.uk/latest-news/future-100.html

 

Source: www.socialenterprisemag.co.uk