Modwagon

Background

Social enterprises (socially and environmentally oriented businesses that prioritize people and planet, not just profit) and social entrepreneurship (using market-based business approaches to drive social and environmental change) are a growing trend in the U.S. and around the world. They represent alternative ways of doing business and achieving development aims at different scales, from local to international.

 Dr. Brad Olson learned of these concepts while researching how to reduce the environmental impact of online food delivery (transport emissions and packaging waste) in Lexington. Inspired by a pair of bike-based ventures in Portland, Oregon (B-Line and Portland Pedal Power), he saw an entrepreneurial opportunity for a sustainable bike-based catering delivery business to serve the University of Kentucky campus and Lexington urban core.

 He was also aware of a local need for transitional or “second-chance” employment for those who have experienced homelessness, incarceration, and/or substance use disorder based on the work of existing organizations in Lexington (The Hope Center, DV8 Kitchen, Opportunity for Work and Learning, Jubilee Jobs). Compared to the non-profit revenue model, which depends largely on charitable giving and grant funding to survive, the for-profit social enterprise model emphasizing “profit for purpose” looked like an appropriate strategy to address both the environmental impact and transitional employment issues.

Innovation

Dr. Olson applied to the Spring 2023 “Entrepreneurs Bootcamp 1.0” offered by the UK Von Allmen Center for Entrepreneurship to explore a social enterprise start-up called The Conscious Courier (“Bike-based delivery, delivering more”). The bootcamp is a free, virtual, semester-long business development and pitch competition with weekly trainings covering the business planning process and supporting resources. The selective program is open to all UK students, faculty, staff, and Kentucky residents who can apply to be team leaders (with a business idea) or team members (without a business idea). The bootcamp ends with teams presenting a 10-minute pitch for the chance to earn prize money.

The project was also an opportunity to engage students in learning what it takes to design and vet a community-based potential social enterprise that balances environmental, social, and financial aims. Dr. Olson sought to recruit students in Community and Leadership Development (CLD) and the Social Entrepreneurship (SE) Scholars pathway at UK as they were likely to be interested in creatively addressing social and environmental issues in communities. 

Although the project did not go as planned, the project concept offers a few innovations to consider and lessons for improvement. Social entrepreneurship, and social enterprise specifically, represent an alternative mechanism for addressing community issues compared to the public and nonprofit sectors. The concept of social enterprise can be used to innovate within community development practice, community development education, and university-community engagement. 

Result

Dr. Olson and a team of two UK students (Josiel Barrios Cossio and Tiantian Li) successfully developed and pitched a business plan, ultimately earning a Directors Award and $500 to further the business idea. However, the project had its setbacks and limitations that are worth noting for those who might wish to experiment with the project concept in their own setting.

Lesson #1: Recruitment needs time and personalized attention to hand-select the team. A flyer and pre-questionnaire/interest form were emailed to students but few responded and ultimately no students from the target population participated. Recruiting those students was a challenge due to a tight timeline between awaiting a funding decision that incentivized participation and reaching students prior to the busy late fall/winter break period. Dr. Olson also learned that SE Scholars are expected to design and pitch their own social enterprise as part of the program and thus they were likely more interested in leading their own team. Four CLD students expressed interest but could not participate due to course or work conflicts. The two students who did join the team were not recruited but joined the bootcamp separately to learn about the entrepreneurial process in general. They did not have a direct connection or professional aims related to community development or social enterprise, which made connecting the bootcamp experience to community development education outcomes irrelevant. Future efforts should start recruiting earlier and continue to use a pre-questionnaire or interview to gauge students’ background and connection to the social enterprise topic.

Lesson #2: Entrepreneurship is challenging enough. Social entrepreneurship makes it even more complicated. Given the timeline and unanticipated challenges, the team pivoted halfway through the bootcamp to simplify the business model, changing the idea from a business-to-business service to a business-to-consumer manufacturing company (ModWagon – “Maximize your micromobility”). The overall goal remained the same – design a business that promotes sustainable transportation and supports transitional employment. This experience illustrated the difference between traditional business creation (prioritize and maximize profit) and social enterprise creation (balance sometimes competing environmental, social, and financial priorities). In the end, the team learned that in order for a social enterprise to serve its social and/or environmental missions, it still needs to prioritize financial sustainability first and foremost. No business, however socially or environmentally minded, is going to make a positive impact for very long without ensuring its financial stability. Nonprofits can rely on grants and charity but social enterprises must generate profits to serve their purpose. This is an obvious point to any business major but it is nonetheless eye-opening to aspiring social entrepreneurs who admirably want to emphasize social and environmental good over the bottom line.

Lesson #3: Social entrepreneurship through university business bootcamps has potential for enhancing community development education (CDE) and university-community engagement. Scholars have linked social entrepreneurship to community development practice and called for it to be included in CDE curricula. Given the importance of public-private partnerships and a systems approach to community development as well as the growth of environmental, social, governance (ESG) teams, it seems appropriate for CDE programs to expose their students to the concept. If they are not doing it already, CDE programs should (co-)teach a course internally, encourage independent studies, direct students to external courses, and/or direct them to a university or local business bootcamp. These venues are rich opportunities for promoting engaged and experiential learning, particularly when paired appropriately and respectfully with community partners. Institutions like UK that make their business bootcamps open to the public are well-poised to foster greater university-community engagement and public value. They can use their bootcamps to convene aspiring social entrepreneurs – faculty, students, and community members – to collaboratively design and test social enterprise ideas, thereby addressing social and environmental issues while spurring community and economic development – key goals that most higher education institutions aim to achieve.