Impact: From Idea to Enterprise

This class is for students who want start or work at an impact venture, or to invest in or grant to such an enterprise. The class deals with situations from the perspective of the entrepreneur/manager, and the funder.Students will: - Learn to evaluate impact and business opportunities in social enterprises - Understand the potential tension between impact and revenue/profit in impact enterprises and how to manage it - Start, grow, and manage a team and a board of directors for a social enterprise - Become versed in the landscape of impact funders - Be introduced to how entrepreneurs create social change - Be exposed to the personal journeys and careers of impact entrepreneursFor purposes of this course an impact venture is 'an organization whose mission is to provide a sustainable solution to a social problem.' The focus on mission makes impact enterprises different in kind from commercial enterprises. That said, it is the instructors' views that, in most ways, impact ventures should be treated and managed like commercial ventures, and this course reflects this perspective. Even so, there are some important differences which are critical to understand to effectively launch, manage or fund an impact enterprise. We will highlight these throughout our sessions. All the cases and class discussions will be exclusively about enterprises and organizations in the impact venture space, some for-profit, and some non-profit, but all run more or less like commercial businesses, e.g., the enterprise focus is on delivering solutions for 'customers' or 'recipients; to solve a social problem, create value and generating revenue (and/or profit). Impact: From Idea to Enterprise is integrative and will allow students to apply many facets of their business school education. We will have a mixture of case discussions, lectures, student-led exercises, panel discussions, and guest speakers. The final project involves engagement with a current impact venture and its management. The instructors, Laura Hattendorf and Russell Siegelman, are both Lecturers in Management at GSB with practical experience in the startup and impact venture space.