Accidental Entrepreneurship, Intentional Scale

Dr. Laura Stachel didn't intend to be a social entrepreneur. While observing maternal child health in Nigeria in 2008, however, she noticed how a lack of power was undermining the ability of nurses and doctors to do their jobs. Teaming up with her solar engineer husband, Stachel designed a solar suitcase, the demand for which was so high, it became a new nonprofit. But as demand grows for this accidental entrepreneur's product, she now faces the challenge of very intentional scaling.

In 2008, Stachel was observing a hospital in Nigeria. She saw how the inconsistent access to electricity challenged health workers, even forcing doctors to complete an emergency C-Section by flashlight. When she talked with her husband, Hal Aronson, the engineer suggested using solar as a renewable energy source. When he designed a full clinic solar installation, Stachel instead asked for something smaller that could go through customs without any special declaration.

When she arrived back at the hospital in Nigeria with the suitcase, the clinicians were so enthusiastic about the access to power for small devices like LED lights and walkie-talkies, they asked her to leave it with them. Word spread, and Stachel and her husband began to get requests for the suitcases from all around the world. To meet the demand, they founded WE CARE Solar, and have been producing the suitcases ever since. Most recently, Dr. Satchel was delivering suitcases to Haiti to enable clinics that still had little or no power in the wake of the January earthquake to serve their patients.

The story of WE CARE Solar is exceptional, but not unique. Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention, and the seed of new social enterprises often comes when someone in the field identifies a gap in service or a need not being met by current products.

But what do those entrepreneurs do when the demand explodes? Where do they go for help? It seems to me there could be a growth edge for education programs -- accredited or not -- that jump straight into the meat of jumping from accidental entrepreneurship to intentional scale.

Like most organizations WE CARE Solar is working to find money. The solar suitcases are ultra portable and simple to use, but still cost $1,000 to assemble not including the labor. They've gotten creative about using volunteers to take care of that labor, but $1,000 doesn't come from no where. They're currently participating in an Ashoka Changemaker contest, but that's just a start. Where can they connect with help and advice on fundraising?

Eventually, they'd like to get to a place where local clinics were sourcing the parts and assembling the suitcases themselves, in order to lower costs. Where can an organization like WE CARE build the networks and expertise to bring about such a shift?

These are just some of the examples of what a growing organization needs. While there are great generalist resources out on the web, and an increasingly large number of formal academic programs about social enterprise, something in between that is formatted learning but organized a la carte and on demand may be just what the doctor ordered.

Learn more about WE CARE Solar at their website or support them in their Ashoka Changemakers contest.

Photo credit: bkusler