Many tech startups are seeking to have a positive social impact, while also locking in revenue streams.
The purpose of hackathons will be familiar to many readers – a diverse group of people comes together to share their ideas and develop potential businesses over the course of a weekend.
Perhaps less well known is a subset of those educational events and innovation incubators, focused on the social impact side of technology development and startup community activities that strive to make the world a better place.
One such example is the upcoming Startup Weekend Perth – Social Impact event being coordinated by Spacecubed and Skills of the Modern Age as part of the Social Impact Festival in June.
“All startup weekend events follow the same basic model: anyone is welcome to pitch their startup idea and teams organically form around the ideas that most resonate with people,” the festival’s website says.
“This event will focus on developing ideas that solve social issues. Given the broad definition of ‘social impact’, we’re not putting bounds on what you come up with – the sky’s the limit.
“To get you started in coming up with your ideas, some example social impact themes are:
• promoting sustainability and green living;
• championing equality and diversity;
• enabling disadvantaged groups; and
• encouraging communities and belonging.”
Profit is not a dirty word
Having attended my fair share of hackathons since launching the very first Startup Weekend in Perth five years ago, I have observed an increasing trend of participants pitching social enterprise and sustainability oriented business ideas.
At a time when Facebook, Uber and their ilk face a tide of discontent (and impending regulation) after their persistent abuse of consumers’ privacy and the negative impact of such addictive technology, aspiring founders seem less inclined to develop the next platform to ‘take over the world’. Instead, they are increasingly motivated to apply their problem-solving mindset and skills to have a positive social impact.
A hackathon focused exclusively on ideas genuinely intended to make the world a better place is a logical and welcome next step.
When it comes to teams validating their social enterprise ideas at this event, most will face the same challenge that their peers in not for profits face (and, as it happens, many startups) – how to make money.
Highlighting a problem, mapping out a digital solution and identifying potential beneficiaries is the easy bit. Like traditional business, however, even NFPs can’t afford to just put purpose before profitability.
The first step is identifying possible revenue streams, going beyond government grants and handouts to generate real income that ultimately helps to make their project sustainable. This might be a challenge for a socially motivated founder, but many are becoming more aware of the importance of creating genuine cash flow.
As well as validating their idea and ensuring its longer-term sustainability, this releases teams from the endless cycle of grant application and acquittal forms so they can focus on what really drives them – addressing the social need they came together to fix in the first place.
Paying it forward
Another trait of the startup community that feeds social enterprise and impact-oriented events is the pay it forward mindset championed by community leaders such as Annie Parker, who co-founded CodeClub Australia and is now Microsoft’s global head of startups.
“Every single time I have helped people it has come back to me 10-fold,” Ms Parker says.
“And if you are getting all that help you need to keep paying it forward yourself, if you can make somebody just smile or have a slightly better thing than they had the day before you met them, what a wonderful thing to do.”
It is that mindset that led Ms Parker to co-found TechFugees Australia, to connect the technology and startup ecosystem (and all the valuable skills that go with it) with recent migrants and newly arrived refugees to help solve some of the problems they face.
Maybe it’s because so many are on the same journey of discovery – taking the leap of faith to launch their business on an inherently uncertain trajectory. Maybe it’s because the environment is less competitive, more focused on growing the pie and baking new pies, rather than fighting for slices. Or maybe it’s a product of the aspirational nature of startups and the audacious visions their founders have to, as Steve Jobs put it, make a dent in the universe.
Whatever the case, this mindset of paying it forward within startup communities is a very good thing and something that our industry and political leaders should all learn from and support.
