What are the key drivers of an entrepreneur to start a business? Pascal LORNE - WikiStage ESSEC

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.