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What makes a great city for social entrepreneurs?

What makes a great city for social entrepreneurs?

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What Makes A Great City For Social Entrepreneurs?

Where are the hotspots for people seeking to drive social change? And what is it about certain cities that makes such a good place to be a social entrepreneur? Along with Thomson Reuters Foundation and Deutsche Bank, we debated this question last week as part of the London launch of the Best Place To Be A Social Entrepreneur. This major poll, conducted by the Thomson Reuters Foundation in partnership with UnLtd and Deutsche Bank’s Made For Good programme, surveyed almost 900 experts in the world’s 45 biggest economies to determine where social entrepreneurship was thriving around the world, and establish trends, opportunities and challenges for social entrepreneurs in 2016.

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Lisa Rossi, UK Institutional Cash Management Head and GTB UK Accountable Program Head, Deutsche Bank and Monique Villa, Chief Executive of Thomson Reuters Foundation, opened the event with an overview of the poll. UnLtd’s Chief Executive Mark Norbury then chaired a powerful discussion around the results, joined by an expert panel made up of Norbert Kunz, (Social Impact), Karen Lynch (Belu water), Servane Mouazan (Ogunte), and Jon Pearson, Director of Deutsche Bank Innovation Labs. Here’s what they had to say.

What are the ingredients of a great hotspot for social entrepreneurs?

A key theme for the event was role of cities in creating social entrepreneurs, driven by opportunities for funding, networks and opportunities.

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Berlin, London and Hong Kong were named as three major hot spots. But, perhaps more surprisingly, the Santiago and Nairobi were also pinpointed as two of the five most exciting places for social ventures. Santiago in particular emerged in the poll as a place with a strong ecosystem, with the government offering entrepreneurs funding, working spaces and mentoring opportunities in an effort to boost social entrepreneurship. Throughout the panel event a clear theme emerged – the importance of learning. All the panelists agreed that it was important for cities around the world to learn from places where social entrepreneurs are succeeding. Kelvin Cheung, Chief Exec of UnLtd Hong Kong, explained he was impressed by the success of the Buy Social and #SocialSaturday campaigns in the UK, and he is now keen to adopt some of the best ideas from other cities as part of his work. The importance of learning across borders is behind the Global Social Entrepreneurship Network. GSEN is the leading international network for organisations supporting early stage social entrepreneurs and is there to support and share best practice, empowering social entrepreneurs to create lasting change.

In Europe, Berlin has the X-Factor

Panellist Jon Pearson, who works across global innovation for Deutsche Bank, explained: “London is more mature, but Berlin is more friendly. There’s a spirit of collaboration there and people are more open to engaging across specialist sectors.” Norbert Kunz said: “It’s difficult to compare London and Berlin, but Berlin is really a start-up mecca. We have a lot of incubators and accelerators and social ventures are “sexy”. But it is hard to find investment there, but we do have a very specific atmosphere and culture of collaboration in between start-ups.”

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Are women social entrepreneurship’s secret weapon?

We shouldn’t be focused on cities, instead it’s important to focus on opening further access to the sector and raising profile of the great work being done by women, according to panellist Servane Mouazan. Servane is dedicated to putting individuals at the heart of change and helping women social entrepreneurs become better connected and. She said: “The next hot-spot is women! When I think about hotspots I actually think about women, who know how to grab networks and opportunities.”

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Social entrepreneurs can’t do it alone

The poll underlined the importance of collaboration for social entrepreneurs – with a role to play from everyone from Government to corporate partners. The panel debate sparked conversation around the connections between the corporate world and social ventures, including how to align business models and social mission. Karen from Belu Water in particular highlighted how social entrepreneurs need to compete with major brands to access great talent, using their values as a lever. She revealed how her venture has successfully worked with corporate partners.

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Where are the future hotspots?

Looking forward, the panel were asked to predict the future hotspots of social entrepreneurship.

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Jon suggested Copenhagen, while Karen pointed to Glasgow’s ‘special energy’. Servane suggested Brazil was the place to be for social entrepreneurs. A little closer to home, Norbert highlighted the potential of Sofia in Bulgaria and the city’s uniquely exciting position between Eastern and Southern Europe.

Join the conversation

The event may be over but there’s still an opportunity to join the discussion. You can see the full conversation by searching #SEPoll – or explore the full results.