How Does a Designer Navigate Her Way to Impact-driven Entrepreneurship?
by Goldy Yancha
‘How might we…’ is an opening phrase that tells a person that he/she is about to embark on a journey to discovery. This is how design thinking transforms problems into “design challenges”. Framing a problem this way prompts the innovator that a solution is possible, as IDEO suggests. The Innovation for Social Impact Partnership (ISIP) project aims to bridge the gap that exists between the most promising impact ventures and their ability to access financing for business and impact growth. So we first asked ourselves: how might we collectively build mutual value between impact ventures and funders?
While entrepreneurs want to grow their business, investors and creditors are also making deals that will generate healthy returns. Pain points exist on both ends. On one hand, entrepreneurs are challenged with growing pains as they address their needs related to their market, product, people, governance, and social impact. On the other hand, potential investors in the Philippines are also challenged to find a substantial pipeline of compelling enterprises that fit their preferred portfolio. This is because many of these enterprises can only take in limited capital and be able to generate returns at a certain period. With these considerations in mind, we asked again: how might we enable a pipeline of enterprises that can generate both economic returns and social impact for its stakeholders?
The ISIP Impact Boost Camp brought together the country’s most promising impact-driven startup enterprises, linking them to industry leaders, potential investors and creditors, and entrepreneurship-supporting organizations. Through various learning sessions, the goal was to enable these entrepreneurs to have better appreciation of how streamlining business processes and accessing finance can scale both their economic and impact footprints.
“how might we enable a pipeline of enterprises that can generate both economic returns and social impact for its stakeholders?”
The camp is a compressed version of the ISIP Social Impact Accelerator. The learning sessions focus on topics essential to business and impact growth such as refining strategy and purpose, finding fit (problem-solution, product-market, impact-social challenge), scaling (business models, sustainability, and governance), strengthening team structure, forging strategic partnerships, and financing for growth. These were highlighted based on the key areas for improvement of our 15 social enterprises that have undergone the formal six-month ISIP Social Impact Accelerator. These were identified for the enterprises to improve on to become more investment-ready.
[READ: Empowering Filipino Social Enterprises: How We Do It at the ISIP Social Impact Accelerator]
The design thinking method employed in the camp values feedback. It is the backbone behind every “iteration” or change in a solution. Staying true to our process, the camp ends the day’s learning sessions with feedback and reflection. The daily mission is to help the entrepreneurs turn the reflections and feedback into actionable steps to move their business forward. Feedback is a gift, we always remind ourselves. Whether positive or negative, we emphasized the intention of sharing feedback; a practice fostering continuous improvement. Apart from the learning sessions and workshops, the entrepreneurs practiced their business pitches in breakout groups. Feedback drives the discussion within each group, and rich insights flowed from one entrepreneur to another. Beyond the compelling decks and crisp pitches, conversations on potential partnerships arose, initial design challenges were revisited, and current business revenue models were reviewed.
“There may be limited resources, but we can always share. And from that, we got to share successes, failures, and things to improve on. It was very inspiring being surrounded by mentors and fellow entrepreneurs,” Miggy Bautista, Founder of AccessiWheels, shared.
AccessiWheels formulating their impact value chain at the Impact Boost Camp
Another design thinking value encouraged in the camp was to embrace experimentation. It was incredible to see entrepreneurs incorporating the lessons they learned the previous day in their pitches, both from the learning sessions and the feedback sessions. Curating the most important components to emphasize in a three-minute pitch is not the easiest thing. I found it interesting to see how the entrepreneurs experimented in pivoting content, context, and form of their pitches based on the reflection sessions that changed their perspectives. Some shared how they initially thought that doing business-as-usual was already enough social impact, but being exposed to the perspectives of other entrepreneurs, funders, and the lessons from the camp have challenged them to have bigger ambitions for their business.
“The Impact Boost Camp really helped us in connecting with the different stakeholders and partners that we could work with and create a bigger impact along the way,” Jamico Jamlang, Founder of The Bamboo Company, shared.
The five-day camp welcomed entrepreneurs from different generations and regions in the Philippines with each enterprise catering to diverse sectors and industries. Most of the enterprises address agriculture-related issues like increasing income of farmers, developing products that would add value to farm produce, growing urban farms, among many others. In terms of founder composition, of the 90 entrepreneurs in the camp, 47% of the participants are female founders. It was also inspiring and empowering to see that there are enterprises in the camp run by persons-with-disabilities. Having this mix, we can say that the gains of diversity and inclusion were at work with connections built and relationships cultivated.
“The Impact Boost Camp really helped us in connecting with the different stakeholders and partners that we could work with and create a bigger impact along the way.”
It was exciting to see collaborations surfacing beyond their teams as what the camp is aiming for. A lot of the agriculture-based social enterprises explored how they can complement each other’s solutions in their respective value chain. Some dug deeper into the problems that they are trying to solve and discussed together how their businesses can further optimize their solutions. Towards the last few days, it was common to be involved in conversations where founders from different teams were talking about moving forward with their collaboration, from upselling, cross-selling, and integrating each other's solutions.
While it takes a village to raise a child, it takes an ecosystem to raise and sustain an enterprise. Entrepreneurship is not the easiest path to take. Entrepreneurs need all the help they can get to sustain their business and social impact. Bridging power gaps was one of the main things ISIP seeks to achieve with the Impact Boost Camp: connecting the 30 impact-driven enterprises from all over the country with pioneers and distinguished leaders in the impact and enterprise space. The learning sessions and networking brought many opportunities.
Impact Boost Camp participants pose with Orlando “Doy” Vea, Founder of Paymaya and Voyager Innovations
We envisioned the Impact Boost Camp strike a balance in integrating both technical and soft skill. Like moving rocks so that walls may be built, there is a need to connect the little things to the bigger purpose behind what is being built. To execute plans and follow through on strategies, we emphasized the importance of building grit among founders, to power through adversities that come with growing an enterprise. Experienced founders like Mark Ruiz, Magellan Fetalino, Krie Lopez, and Orlando Vea stressed this even more, recalling their own journeys and how they navigated their way through it.
Unlocking Lessons in the Journey
Organizing the camp provided us a wealth of realizations as we try to solve our design challenge. As in design thinking, every feedback session was an opportunity to learn deeper about how we can deliver a better program for the entrepreneurs. We adapted to changes as we go along the daily activities and receive feedback from them. Conducting pitch practices and reflection sessions in smaller groups is an example. We learned from the participants’ feedback that practicing in smaller groups enables them to get deeper insights from each other.
We observed how entrepreneurs, in the earlier phases of their business, valued receiving feedback from more mature enterprises. Building linkages between entrepreneurs seems to be a good means to learn from each other. In a similar way, it was also interesting to see how the mature enterprises valued the insights they received from investors, now understanding the financial discipline and business model robustness necessary in making investments.
Ronald Galindo pitching BIKEROAM to the panel of judges and investors at the Impact Boost Camp
Going Further the Route
“Through the camp, we have harnessed the power of “we”, as we enable an entrepreneurial ecosystem that is more conducive for entrepreneurs to thrive and scale their economic and impact footprints. ”
The Impact Boost Camp serves as one of ISIP’s pathways to support the most promising impact-driven businesses. While ISIP’s Social Impact Accelerator caters to late-stage social enterprises, the camp opened doors to early-stage enterprises. Of the 30 enterprises that participated in the camp, 50% of them have established legal entities. Eight of them are operating companies with promising revenue growth and positive impact footprints to date, making them potentially qualified to access deeper support from ISIP Social Impact Accelerator. This camp served as a collective learning opportunity both for the ISIP team and for the partners who have been consistently committed to making the project successful. Through the camp, we have harnessed the power of “we”, as we enable an entrepreneurial ecosystem that is more conducive for entrepreneurs to thrive and scale their economic and impact footprints.
Our partners in ISIP continue to invest in the project and nurture further these budding entrepreneurs. To date, we have facilitated access to funding for three social enterprises in the ISIP Social Impact Accelerator. Our work does not end there. Our collective ambition in ISIP is to continue working towards being a more effective support channel that will enable a robust pipeline of investment-ready impact-driven enterprises that are well-poised for growth.
ISIP values partnership and understands that it takes mutual effort between entrepreneurs, partners, funders, and enterprise-supporting organizations to catapult strong and resilient enterprises in the Philippines. But to enable more mutually-valuable partnerships, entrepreneurs should remember that the route to impact entrepreneurship, however arduous, is not a lonely journey. We can assure that there are institutions ready to accompany them along the way, us in ISIP included.
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The Impact Boost Camp is one of the activities of the Innovation for Social Impact Partnership (ISIP), a project co-implemented by UNDP in the Philippines and PhilDev Foundation, with generous support from the Australian Embassy in the Philippines.