Talking about honesty,
honestly.
What do you think are the key drivers
of an entrepreneur to start a business ?
Is it money ?
Wealth ?
Is it power ?
Is it changing the world ?
I'm pretty sure everyone has a rough idea,
but I made my little inquiry about it,
and believe me or not,
it is about 80%
of us, entrepreneurs, who's main goal
when we start a business
is to change the world.
Now the question is :
How do we change the world ?
Well, until recently,
those big tycoons of the traditional
industry, those who made billions
once they got 60, 70 years old,
had some time to retire and then
think : " Ok, how am I gonna give back ?"
" How am I gonna give back to the world
what it gave me before ?"
But in this stage of their life,
I think when you are 70, 80 years old,
you are more in a kind of passive attitude,
where you are ready to invest
as a philantropist,
but maybe you have a little bit less juice
to get on.
Now we, social entrepreneurs
from the Silicon Valley,
entrepreneurs from the IT industry,
we had the chance to work
in a industry where the velocity
is amazing.
And it gave us the opportunity,
to get access to these ...
call it whatever you want :
wealth, capital, access to network,
strategic vision and experience,
while we are still 30, 40 years old,
I believe we still have juice.
Do I have juice here ? Enough ? Ok, good !
And until now, as I said,
I think this give back situation
was more in a passive way whereas us.
When I say "us", this is not only me,
but this is again,
a vast majority of my friends
who had the chance to succeed in business.
They don't want to stop.
Eventually, they want to go back to
an ex-venture, but most of us,
believe me or not,
want to do it diferently.
Most of us now, we want to change the world
and use this access to capital,
this access to strategic vision,
this access to an amazing network of contacts
we've made in our entrepreneur life,
to do things diferently.
Now...
How to change the world ?
There is a chinese proverb,
everyone knows it...
Sorry to use that again,
you've heard it so many times.
" If you wan to feed a man, teach him
how to fish." Right ?
Ok, I am going to use this metaphore a little bit
to explain what I believe
social impact is.
Around the world,
they are millions of people
who are trying to fish everyday.
In a word, who need access to capital,
who need access to advice,
who need access to networking,
and, well they need teachers.
I think social entrepreneurs can be
considered as teachers.
Fishing teachers.
And they are millions, maybe not millions,
but thousands of social entrepreneurs
in the world: Africa, Europe, US.
These entrepreneurs who have as a goal
to teach people how to fish.
Now, us,
investors,
those who have had a chance
to get access to capital, our role is
to identify those fish teachers,
to give them access to capital,
to grow faster,
to get a better understanding and
more advice, strategic advice, and
and get access to more network.
These 3 key elements in a growth
of any project.
The growth of any project,
you need to get:
money to found it,
you need to get access to networking and
you need to get access to strategic advice.
Until recently
I believed these were exclusively reserved
for the start-up world.
IT start-ups? Yes they had access to that.
Biotech start-ups ? Yes they had access to that.
"Social" business and social NGOs ?
Not really, I mean,
in everyone's
vision,
there is still a vision like where social
business is more like a kind of dusty NGO
somewhere held around a nice table
with old women drinking tea and coffee.
No that's not it.
Social entrepreneurs today are entrepreneurs
who are moving ahead with a lot of energy
and they want to use this energy and
the capital we provide them,
the advice we provide them.
the strategical advice and the network
to grow faster.
The fisherman story,
I want to use it one more time.
You students, you in this room,
just imagine:
what do you want to do in your future ?
Do you want to sail a big ship
and with one single boat
catch millions of fish every single day
with one boat ?
Or, do you want to
teach millions of people how to fish
around the world ?
And I believe today the planet has no choice
I mean we're in danger
the planet is in danger because
there are social problems around the world,
there are biodiversity problems,
and I think there is no choice.
But you, you are young,
I think you have a choice.
Thank you.