This article provides an interesting statistic: “Currently, women make up 39 percent of traditional entrepreneurs in the U.S., but 49 percent of all social entrepreneurs.”

The article discusses the compelling story of Yasmine Mustafa, whose unique experiences inspired her to create ROAR, “the social good company that makes discreet-yet-sleek jewelry items for women that double as alert systems in the face of violence.” For example, “The first product, called Athena, is as big as a quarter, can be worn on a necklace or belt, and sends a signal to friends and family alerting them that you feel unsafe or are in a dangerous situation when you push it like a button.”

The article also discusses the definition of “social entrepreneur,” stating that one definition is “based on criteria offered up by researcher Greg Dees in 2001. The ventures are formed to create and sustain social impact. Founders have a deep sense of commitment to the people they serve and the outcomes they produce — all while pursuing tenets typical of all strong, nimble businesses, with investments in product innovation, adaptation and a conscientious use of resources.” We’ve read about Dees previously, and it was interesting to see how his definition aligns with social innovators in reality.

Not sure if anyone is from the Tampa, Florida area, but this article discusses the rise of the “Tampapreneurs.” It’s especially interesting in that it discusses how the city itself has influenced the services and products that have been recently innovated, as opposed to the idea that an entrepreneur can create a product that automatically fits in all communities.

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2017/04/tech_companies_need_a_supreme_court_patent_law_history_lesson.html

A very interesting read and well-written article!

“Undoing the Motion Picture Patents Co. decision would embolden companies to build up bigger and more powerful monopolies to control the technologies we all use today—just as the Patents Co. was emboldened to dominate the fledgling film market until the Supreme Court stopped it.”

This is an interesting summary on the types of misconceptions people have about entrepreneurship. I think the most interesting is under the heading, “Time is your own.” We often think that business owners have time to do as they please, however, that is often not the case. Growing up in a family of entrepreneurs, my family was always on call – this article sums that up nicely.

That’s a hard no. Time is always limited, so no one can say they own their calendar, including CEOs of huge companies like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. A carefree attitude about time management is over once you’ve entered the entrepreneurial realm.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com//report-on-business/small-business/sb-managing/six-misconceptions-about-entrepreneurship/article34073679/?cmpid=rss1&click=sf_globe

https://e27.co/social-entrepreneurship-key-sustainable-inclusive-growth-asia-20170315/

This article talks about how social entrepreneurship can become the solution and benefits to a cause or social problem that is occurring in Asia. Although there are low levels of social entrepreneurship in Asia at the moment, there is a sudden shift of focus towards using the concept of social entrepreneurship as a means to an end.

“While education is the catalyst to social entrepreneurship, a solid eco-system of public and private partners must come together to breathe social entrepreneurship to life. At the most basic level, this means addressing common barriers faced by youth entrepreneurs: access to capital, lack of business and management skills, and lack of mentorship support.”

http://georgiastatesignal.com/georgia-state-offers-georgias-first-b-s-degree-social-entrepreneurship/

A step in the right direction. Maybe more universities can soon follow the steps of Georgia State!

“Social entrepreneurship is about augmenting the government’s ability to solve these problems with some unique, innovative solutions,” Markl said. “Some of these things can be simple – an app that sends a text to someone to remind them to take their medication. That could save thousands or millions of lives.”

I thought this article made some interesting points. My favorite excerpt was as follows: “How many times in business have you felt sure of something and ignored your intuition? Maybe your gut told you that a new client would be a time suck, or that taking on a particular project would cost you more money than it would make. Next time, believe it. Trust your gut.” While I believe that many entrepreneurial skills can be taught, I also think that there are certain things that can’t necessarily be learned in a classroom. I like how this article focused on some of these aspects in a unique way.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/allbusiness/2017/04/02/4-entrepreneurship-lessons-the-great-outdoors-can-teach-us/#6b28e6d8651a

http://www.publicfinanceinternational.org/news/2017/04/governments-must-take-action-unleash-entrepreneurship-says-imf-head

We speak frequently in class about the role of government in fostering entrepreneurship. From easing regulations to making access to additional financing more readily available, government plays an pivotal role in cultivating entrepreneurship.

This article highlights a recent speech given by the head of the IMF. In the article, Christine Lagarde talks about the delicate role that governments must balance. She advocates the role of government in providing funding to certain technologies, while cautioning government to be aware enough to remove unnecessary barriers to competition and cut red tape. She advocates for providing more state funding to R&D and pushes the notion that it would boost GDP. The intersection of public and private financing in entrepreneurship and the competing policy agenda’s that stem from these divergent financing schemes provide for an interesting debate.

The law school curriculum is largely rooted in academia, with minimal focus on acquiring the “soft skills” necessary to excel beyond the basic, entry-level job expectations. This Forbes article presents four things we can all do within the first few weeks at a new job to excel beyond expectations. Although these are (hopefully) common-sense, I wonder if our generation could be doing more of these “entrepreneurial” tasks when we walk into a new role. The concepts identified by the author (asking questions, interacting with colleagues one on one) are simple, and perhaps easily overlooked by those of us who walk into more-complex entry level roles. Interviewers and supervisors of mine have been quick to point out that it takes showing initiative to stand out in your role, skills that we can only begin to practice in the limited amount of skills/intensive courses offered here at NDLS.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffkauflin/2017/04/03/four-things-to-do-in-your-first-30-days-on-the-job/#138caf0d1231