Gumball Capital

I continue to struggle with the issue of what is a ’social’ entrepreneur. The ‘debate’, if you can call it that, is weak at best. Social means anything from “improve society” to “not primarily benefit an individual”. So here’s a question to get a pulse on what the ’social’ in social entrepreneurship means – If I started a porn studio in a developing country, would I be considered a social entrepreneur? To get rid of the immediate concerns, I will qualify the business by saying that it will 1) pay the actors fair wages, 2) will not force anyone against their will, 3) will create jobs for the locals in all facets of the company, 4) the profits will be community owned rather than individually owned, and 5) for the sake of this argument we’ll assume it is very successful at making a profit.

I know most of you might think I’m crazy for saying this, but I LOVE to run. I used to be on the cross country team in high school and did a pretty good job at it considering my build (I don’t have the runner’s physique). Since then, I’ve gone on and off with running, usually starting at 4 mile runs and occasionally getting up to 8 or 12 miles.

The biggest question that I have been thinking about over the course of my past year at Stanford is why social entrepreneurship is so important. I came to Stanford excited about doing a startup, and not just any startup, but the next Google. The problem for me has been that I don’t simply want to make an iPhone applications company or insert-buzzword-here company. I want to make a difference. I want to make the world a better place. And I know I’m not alone in this feeling.

I just wanted to let everyone know that I’m no longer going to be writing for Gumball University. I’ve started my own blog, Change Charity, and you can continue to read my posts there. The blog will expand on my work here, but focus more on the philanthropic sector. Essentially, it aims to encourage donors [...]

After David Roodman posted his Kiva critique “Kiva is not quite what it seems,” bloggers responded in a flurry of comments defending Kiva, condemning Kiva or just flat out rejecting the accusations. After I posted a document on this blog illustrating Kiva’s actual method of operation, in contrast to the one on their site, the [...]

David Roodman, on his microfinance blog, recently posted somewhat of an expose on Kiva, causing a raucous debate in his comment section and on other blogs. Basically, Roodman stated that Kiva doesn’t function the way it claims. (Since this post, due to outrage on the internet, Kiva has updated its “how Kiva works” page. An [...]

David Roodman at the Center for Global Development has published another summary of recent studies on microfinance’s efficacy. Most of the results do not support microfinance as a catch-all poverty alleviation tool, with no studies showing microfinance projects significantly increasing incomes or lowering poverty levels and the only real impact coming from other non-business focused [...]

You may remember Courtney and Casey’s debut post this last May entitled “Skin in the Game.” Following up on the personal sacrifice and unyielding drive involved in starting a social venture, the founders of Wokai now share with us the logistics of managing and growing an idea into something concrete.

Q.) What steps did you take [...]

The evidence supporting microfinance has long been critiqued as anecdotal or not scientific enough, but last week, the first randomized-controlled trial of microfinance was released as a working paper. I won’t go into too much detail here, as the Center for Global Development has an excellent summary of the article, but the findings are less-than [...]

There is a new Malcom Gladwell article that is making the rounds called “How David Beats Golaith” and it’s all about the characteristics of underdogs. It’s filled with typical Gladwellian fare: a handful of cute, impressive stories that you’ve never heard of, all driving home a few simple points.
One story is about an immigrant father [...]