The Latest in Social Entrepreneurship News

by Nathaniel Whittemore · 2010-02-15 14:06:00 UTC
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Despite the awed reactions of most who were there (myself included) the world did not, in fact, stop turning during the TED conference. Accordingly, here are four of the coolest and most important things that happened in the world of social entrepreneurship while I was away:

Grow VC launches, aims to become the Kiva for tech startups: Last December, I named "Creativity in Seed Funding" as the #1 trend that I predicted would shape our field this year. Grow VC is an intriguing new community, one that takes a creative approach in trying to crowdsource startup funding. So far, it looks like it's managed to avoid some of the traps that have stopped other companies like it in the past.

Every time an engineer joins Google, a startup dies: No, seriously. Hunch co-founder Chris Dixon writes a post about how the lure of big companies and safe opportunities reduces the amount of creative talent available to startups. His point could certainly be applied to the nonprofit sector's brain drain, as well.

Startl Design Boost and Startl Accelerator: Fred Wilson is a venture capitalist with a passionate interest in using technology to make education better. This post tells the story of Startl, an education incubator and accelerator in New York City that has partnered with foundations and design firms to create a really compelling experience.

Help Find America's Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs: BusinessWeek is taking suggestions for its annual recognition of the 25 most promising social entrepreneurs in the country. They've asked their audience for nominations, which they will then whittle down to finalists. The nomination process is open until March 26.

Anything else I missed this past week? Let me know.

Photo Credit: manfrys

Nathaniel Whittemore is the founder of Assetmap. Previously he was the founding director of the Northwestern University Center for Global Engagement.
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