Social entrepreneurs require capital to create impact, and impact investors with capital are

looking for investment ready deals. But what does it really mean to be investment ready? That

was the question posed at a session this afternoon. With a vibrant panel representing a range of

perspectives, there were some great nuggets to take away.

One of the key points reinforced throughout the panel discussion, was that being investment ready

can mean a variety of things – all of which are wholly dependent upon where the enterprise is

located along the process of development. That idea was encapsulated most wonderfully by Tevis

Howard, the Founder and CEO of Komaza who shared with the audience that as an entrepreneur

he was investment ready from day one. The real question that he had to answer was, “what kind of

investment am I ready for?”

During the earliest stages most enterprises are only ready for investments from family and friends.

They are then able to graduate to the next stage and continue to climb the investment ladder,

from seed funding to raising different rounds of capital. Consequently, to be investment ready the

entrepreneur must understand where they stand in the funding cycle, the demands of each stage

and most crucially, when to graduate to the next stage.

A more in depth and structured look at the different stages of investment readiness was presented

by Andy Lieberman of GSBI – Global Social Benefit Institute at Santa Clara University. They have

been working on a paper entitled the “Social Enterprise Stage Assessment Tool” which presents a

tool they have developed to guide the development of a social enterprise from conception to full-
scale implementation. The social enterprise lifecycle is described by four stages through which it is

possible to assess the readiness of an investment.

The four key stages identified are:

i. Blueprint – Developing the blueprint for the future business

ii. Validate – Testing and refining the business model

iii. Prepare - Enhancing the conditions required for scaling

iv. Scale – Rolling out the model to reach large numbers of customers and / or suppliers

One of their roles as an accelerator is to help ventures work out which stage they are at and help

them to prepare accordingly. The session was completed with clear pieces of advice from the

investor perspective and the key questions social entrepreneurs should be asking themselves in

order to ensure that they are investment ready. Some highlights were:

• A clear ask: know how much money you are trying to raise, what it would be used for and the

type of capital you are seeking

• A smart ask: know where you are in the life cycle of an enterprise and approach appropriate

investors who are interested in investing in that stage

• The Team: have you built the right team with the right dynamics to make your venture work?

• Competitive advantage: make sure you understand your competition and your competitive

advantage. You must be able to answer the question “what is your competition?” with

something other than “we do not have any competition!”

• Metrics: Ensure that you can explain in depth the numbers which feature in your presentation

Danielle Abraham is the Co-Founder of ID2 Invest for Impact – an Israeli venture facilitating the

connection between impact capital and Israeli enterprises with technological solutions for the BoP

and emerging markets.

By: Danielle Abraham

Do not underestimate the determination or resilience that is required to realise your vision and meet with success. That was the message sent out this morning to the budding social entrepreneurs sitting in the audience.

An inspirational case study in determination and resilience was presented during this morning’s early plenary session through the story of Leila Janah - the founder and CEO of Samasource. An innovative social business, Samasource connects women and youth living in poverty to dignified work via the internet. Samasource is now an award winning 501(c)(3) non-profit with support from leading individual donors and philanthropic organisations including The Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation, the U.S. Department of State, and Google.org, just to name a few.

Such success, however, did not come easily. During her conversation with Kevin Jones, they recounted the tough early years she faced trying to get Samasource off the ground. Kevin recalled that when they first met he gave her $50 a month as a protein donation because she was only eating ramen!

Leila shared with the audience that at the beginning she received a lot of negative feedback about her idea. People were not convinced by her vision, politely informing her that women from the slums will never be able to do computer work. Convinced that the problem was not with the intelligence of these women but the lack of opportunity, Leila pressed on, her determination and resilience shining through.

During those early stages her real validation came from the people on the ground. Alongside that validation Leila was aware that the most worthwhile ventures are usually the hardest, and it was in this context that her grandmother’s motto “Fear Not. The world is beautiful. Trust the world” made so much sense to her.

However, solid determination, resilience and trusting the world alone will not lead to success. It is just as important to pair such qualities with an understanding of when you should stop or change direction. As Leila suggested, the trick is to know when to adjust and pivot and not to give up too early! So how do you know?

Kevin probed Leila to share with the audience the advice she would give to aspiring social entrepreneurs on this point. Her key pieces of advice were:

1. Set clear goals and targets. If you are not meeting them you should begin an evaluation process, see what is going wrong and adjust accordingly.
2. Along with such metrics it is important to remember that every model has an incubation period. Most initiatives cannot get off the ground or gain traction for three years - so ensure you have enough funding to really give it a good run.
3. Don’t quit before adjusting or pivoting.

Leila’s final words of advice were to the young social entrepreneurs who would like to follow in her path. “The most important thing is to clarify your core values and then when you have decided on a model embrace it with grace, grit and optimism.”

Danielle Abraham is the Co-Founder of ID² Invest for Impact – an Israeli venture facilitating the connection between impact capital and Israeli enterprises with technological solutions for the BoP and emerging markets.