https://vimeo.com/99292387 On an otherwise reasonable evening in July, more than 1,000 people packed an auditorium…
Unreasonable InstituteJuly 29, 2014
The fifth Unreasonable Institute has come and gone. We have since synthesized what we learned and are already sharpening our offerings for our next few programs. Here's a look at what we learned and what we need to improve.
Teju RavilochanJuly 23, 2014
Unreasonable Institute fellow Divya Yachamaneni, deputy general manager of Naandi Community Water Services, explains how her company is bringing clean drinking water to rural Indian families for less than $2 per month. NCWS’s low-cost water-purification stations are now in more than 400 villages, delivering clean, safe drinking water to about 600,000 people.
Unreasonable InstituteJuly 21, 2014
Training is important, obviously, but at the typical startup, the day-to-day challenge of keeping the doors open trumps longer-term investments. But just like in so many other areas, resource constraints can be an opportunity to spark new ways to train teams and support their learning.
Jessica LaxJuly 14, 2014
Women are starting companies at a rate 1.5 times higher than the national average, but male-owned businesses receive 23 times more venture capital funding. This isn’t just sexist; it’s bad business. But these days, entrepreneurs have a new financing tool at their disposal: crowdfunding.
Lisa CurtisJuly 8, 2014
Weeks two and three of the Unreasonable Institute included entrepreneurs pitching to 800 people and a learning of how to prototype like the co-creator of Google Glass.
Teju RavilochanJune 23, 2014
In the VUCA-filled world most entrepreneurs live in every day, being agile trumps sticking to a plan. Sticking to a plan is not the same as having a strategy, and having a strategy can keep you alive and moving forward.
Rajesh AnandanJune 4, 2014
Know your mission, measure the right thing, and measure it well. Kevin Starr introduces a framework for gauging whether your company is creating meaningful impact (because if it isn't creating impact...what's the point?).
Unreasonable InstituteJune 4, 2014
Many social entrepreneurs have an ambivalent attitude towards marketing. They may think that marketing is all about deceptive advertising, but marketing doesn’t have to be sleazy. In fact, developing the marketing mindset will help you and your customers.
Chris YehMay 1, 2014
Fear of failure has prevented people from falling in love, becoming artists, telling friends the truth, and chasing dreams without apology. If we are going to continue to shy away from failure, it's time we redefined it.
Daniel EpsteinApril 18, 2014
If there is a single thing, a single activity and a single metric you should care about when building a business (or a sustainable open project – which you should run like a business anyway), it is cash-flow.
Pascal FinetteApril 3, 2014
As social entrepreneurs, we’re hardwired to stay focused on achieving impact at scale. But that’s a destination we may not achieve for years, if at all, and in the meantime, our happiness may depend on forgetting about scale, even if only for a few moments each day.
Rajesh AnandanMarch 24, 2014
Hundreds of startup accelerators are taking major equity stakes in their participating companies and not delivering. We need a change in the accountability structure.
Daniel EpsteinMarch 13, 2014
Entrepreneurship is about stepping into the unknown, discovering new possibilities, and creating change. Read (and listen to!) this post to learn why, just like jazz, entrepreneurship is proof that it’s possible to start from inspiration and make something beautiful.
Danny MeyerFebruary 17, 2014
Watch this 5-minute expert interview clip that debunks the 3 most major (and damaging) misconceptions in international development.
Unreasonable MediaFebruary 13, 2014
The intention of this series of posts is to share the story of the beginning and ending of a business. This post focuses on funding-hard or soft money and scaling-big bang or step-by-step.
Lonneke CraemersFebruary 7, 2014
Of all the forms that social innovation and social enterprise take around the world, we rarely think of art as one of them. But maybe we should.
Cheryl HellerJanuary 29, 2014