Summit Series: Capitalizing on ideas?
Katharine Herrup is the Opinion Editor for Reuters.com. This is the last of a three-part series on Summit Series. Read Part I: “A new kind of currency” and Part II: “Entrepreneurs set sail”.
Every member of Summit Series sold their belongings or shipped them back home to their parents’ place so they could travel with just one suitcase and live in different cities every six weeks. The idea is to meet “interesting” people face-to-face who are doing something good.
“It’s a time in our life to see the world,” Summit Series co-creator Elliott Bisnow said. “And to do that and to live with your best friends and work with them is incredible.”
“It’s cheaper to travel and rent places than live in a city,” added Josh Zabar, one of Summit Series’s members.
Part of their travels include aid missions. In the spring of 2010, the group went to Haiti with actress Kristen Bell and Bobby Chang. They gave out 1,000 LifeStraws, a couple hundred Incase backpacks and $10,000 worth of school supplies from Staples, which has been a sponsor of previous Summit Series events.
Just several weeks ago, the group went to Jamaica with Neil Blumenthal of Warby Parker eyeglasses to provide 216 eye exams and 160-plus glasses to residents of Kingston.
Summit Series: Entrepreneurs set sail
Katharine Herrup is the Opinion Editor for Reuters.com. This is the second of a three-part series on Summit Series. Read the first part here.
The first major Summit Series event happened in May of 2010. Just after starting the company two years ago, the team of seven young men between the ages of 24 and 26, were able to get President Bill Clinton, media mogul Ted Turner and co-founder of the Carlyle Group David Rubinstein to come and speak. They were a part of an impressive group of 750 attendees.
“We hosted the country’s most innovative young minds and thought leaders from presidents to astronauts to social media gurus to photographers to celebrities,” Josh Zabar, one of the original seven members, said.
For three and half days, Summit Series guests had access to a slew of leading professionals in their fields. They also participated in activities such as rock climbing, yoga, a casino night and jamming with musicians.
“One of the reasons why I think it’s taken off the way it has is because of the experience,” said Thayer Walker, who is the director of reconnaissance for Summit Series and one of the four co-founders of it. “We get people out of normal day-to-day business events, and provide intellectual conversation and discussions and physical activity.”
With so many kinds of experts and people, it begs the question: what is their goal?
“Our focus is to build a community of the most innovative, incredible, ambitious young people to make positive change in the world,” Walker explained. “We organize the most impactful people on the planet to catalyze them to do more and we’re doing that through a peer group of inspiring young people.”
Summit Series: A new kind of currency
Katharine Herrup is the Opinion Editor for Reuters.com. This is the first part of a three part series on Summit Series. Read part two: “Entrepreneurs set sail”.
Who doesn’t want to be an entrepreneur these days?
The end result sounds ideal: doing exactly what you want to do. Of course getting a business up and running is incredibly tough work that mostly ends in failure, but if yours is one of the rarer ones to succeed, then you have accomplished what every person dreams of — being your own boss.
Elliott Bisnow and Brett Leve, 25 and 26, created Summit Series, an event-driven company that brings together social entrepreneurs in their twenties and thirties to share their ideas and hopefully achieve a greater impact. As the name implies, Summit Series is all about gatherings.
“If you want to meet the most amazing people from the United States in their twenties and thirties that’s what Summit Series is for — and we do it in a really fun way,” said Bisnow.
The first summit, in the early spring of 2008, was just a small gathering of 19 young entrepreneurs. It was a 3-day ski trip in Park City, Utah that included Ben Lerer for Thrillist, founder of TOMS shoes Blake Mycoskie and Josh Abramson and Rick Van Veen of College Humor and Vimeo.
Initially, the conferences were a bunch of smaller ones that happened every 6 months or so, but they became so popular and successful that in just two years, the one in D.C. in May of 2010 had 750 attendees including President Bill Clinton, media mogul Ted Turner, co-founder of the Carlyle Group David Rubenstein, and many more big names. Now, with that number of guests, Summit Series puts on just one annual summit.
Yeah this Summit Series is a HUGE Scam the founders charge TONS of money to startup entrepreneurs that can’t afford the trips but they want to network so badly so they spend it. The founders of Summit Series take a large margin and just use it to travel around the world and party. Both times I met a founder they were drunk, off the money that many times bootstrapped entrepreneurs spent. They say this is invitation only, however they will invite any entrepreneur that is willing to pay the thousands they charge. Trust me, they will ask if you have any entrepreneurial friends,or if you ask can my friend come he has a startup that launched last week. They will absolutely let them in. They use the invitation to make it feel exclusive so you would actually think about paying 3-6k. Look at the attendees list every year, there are hardly any repeats. I went to Aspen, and will never do it again. Do entrepreneurs guys lower the prices so they are at cost, drop the amount of luxury involved in the trip. Let entrepreneurs network, that is all they want to do.
Don’t get me wrong some of the speakers are impressive but its not worth 3.5-6K to go on a 2-3 day trip. Go to europe.
from PopTech:
The future of microfinance?
The way Ben Lyon sees it, the finance world is in the middle of a revolution, and the simple text message is at the heart of it.
Lyon created a system to bring formal financial services to microfinance institutions and poor entrepreneurs via a mobile phone. He believes the new software, to be launched by the organization he founded, FrontlineSMS:Credit, could change the world of microfinance by changing the way the poor interact with the institutions.
The self-described “ideas man” will be among the first speakers at this week’s annual PopTech conference, held in Camden, Maine.
“We’re in the middle of a financial revolution,” Lyon said. “The way the global poor interact with the global financial system is completely shaking up the world. It’s changing everything. There’s nothing more anonymous than a cash transaction. As more people find it useful to use mobile money, the data from those transactions will be housed forever and it’s no longer anonymous so we become less susceptible to fraud and all sorts of efficiencies and transparencies are gained.”
In Africa, over 300 million people have cell phones but for many access to banks is quite limited, or non-existent, especially for those living in remote regions.
So far, there are over 13 million users of a mobile phone-based service in Kenya called M-PESA that allows users to open a virtual bank account, send money, check balances, pay bills, and save. An average of just under $2 million is transferred through M-PESA each day, mainly in small amounts ranging around $20 per transaction.
A chaotic kind of love: starting a successful non-profit
This is part of an ongoing series of interviews I am doing with women entrepreneurs, and part of the kickoff to a series on social entrepreneurship.
Recently, I spoke with Linda Mornell, (pictured at left with a Summer Search student) the founder and former CEO of Summer Search, an educational and character building program that gives low-income students the opportunities and support to transform their lives. Linda, A former psychiatric nurse, spoke about the challenges of starting a non-profit organization, which now has seven offices. She also addresses the potential hazards of being too invested in your company.
What is Summer Search? Summer Search essentially became a leadership and character development program. We look for kids who shows signs of altruism. The alumni are incredibly self-aware and empowered individuals who are very committed to their own personal growth and helping others.
I got the idea in 1989 and the first group of students in San Francisco went out in the summer of 1990. I was 45 years old and my youngest had just started college. It began during a transitional part of my life.
What was your strategy for making your idea work? As I reflect back nothing seemed to be on purpose. It was just so random and chaotic. I was a nurse. I followed orders. I never thought in a million years that I would be an entrepreneur. I had no idea what to do with these kids. There was one program, Global Routes, that wanted one student to go to Bali. So I put him on a plane over there, to the horror of his school teacher. It was his first time ever on a plane. I hoped for the best.
John Osterweis, who was the first president of the board, was able to tolerate the craziness and change, which allowed me to go in 10 directions at once. He rolled with it. My goal was to have 50 high school students a year. The first year I interviewed around 20 kids and the second year I had about 50. By year three, there were 87 kids in the program. Now there are 800.
What contributed to the initial chaos? I couldn’t get the schools to nominate kids for the program. They didn’t understand it and they didn’t trust me initially. What I didn’t realize is how many people try and access public schools for their own gain. Everybody has a different program. By year three, I had four individual teachers that were committed to the program and referred individuals every year and that list continued to grow. Also, there was a language barrier — some kids didn’t speak English.
A chaotic kind of love: starting a successful non-profit is not only a timely piece for me but also inspiring as I am in the midst of starting The Character Building Project (CBP). Linda in her efforts with Summer Search displayed many virtues, not the least of which is perseverance. How might CBP learn further from linda and Summer Search?
Thank you,
MJK
Gen X vs. Gen Y entrepreneurs
Matt Wilson, co-founder of Under30CEO.com, is a digital marketing strategist at Shadow Concepts LLC. Follow him on Twitter as he urges people to start businesses they are passionate about. This is part of the kickoff to a series on social entrepreneurship. The views expressed are his own.
When it comes to starting a business there are advantages and disadvantages to taking the leap at various points during your lifetime and there are distinct differences between entrepreneurs from different generations.
Gen Y entrepreneurs, also referred to as “millennials,” are famous for their .com start-ups like Facebook and College Humor, but equally as infamous for their entitled attitudes and over-exuberance. These young entrepreneurs are fresh out of school (some because they’ve dropped out all together) and have decided to take the world by storm, with or without their parents support. For millennials there is little to lose: no mortgages, no families, and not a whole lot of obligations. Besides, if you find yourself unemployed, ski towns out west are always hiring. Try doing that when you’re 36.
The generation born after the baby boomers knows better than that. Gen X entrepreneurs aren’t looking to risk it all on a roll of the dice. Instead, their business plans are much more thought out, not just to impress investors, but also to prove to their spouses and families that dropping half of the dual-family income will work out in the long run. Entrepreneurs at this stage in their life have a lot more to lose and the opportunity cost of the salary they’ve been accustomed to will weigh heavily on their minds.
Fed up with their 9-5 job and tired of being pushed around working for someone else, Gen Xers have been saving for the opportunity to start their own company. Which means they often they have their own capital to start with and can also look for funding from friends who trust their track record. Whereas Gen Yers look to start businesses on a shoestring budget or look to their parents for start-up capital.
Millennials aren’t concerned with their non-existent track records, either, which is part of the reason why they catch flack for being a bit arrogant. They are sick of their elders saying: “You can’t possibly know business if you’re under 30.”
I am a GEN X (1973) Entrepreneur and GEN Y has nothing, absolutely NOTHING on us OR our Baby Boomer parents! We started it all! We created it all! We built it all! We suffered it all! We carried it all! We fought it all! We outlasted (and still outlasting) it all! We GEN Xers and B-Boomers, man, we are SURVIVORS! Our parents had to survive and they taught us how to survive and we took it and thrived. Even in failure and setbacks, we — GEN Xers are relentless, persistent and invincible. Because we were raised with CORE VALUES, CORE BELIEFS it drove us (it continues to drive us) to withstand every temptation to give up, sell out, quit and fail. GEN Y are pathetic! These kids had everything with a “touch of the button.” No, we still had to figure out how to put a RECORD on the HI-FI, not how to cruise the Web on VIA WI-FI. TV did not play all night because it went off at midnight. We created all the cool, slick dance moves these kids do! Our parents and WE created all the timeless music that these GEN Yers just keep sampling, rehashing, reworking and rewarming over and over and over. GEN Y are not CREATIVE. You CREATE out of “lack” out of “survival.” When you are “handed” and “entitled” you simply REUSE, RECYCLE and REDEFINE. I am glad to be a GEN Xer and extra glad to have come from B-Boomers! I am glad that I am an ENTREPRENEUR so that I will NOT have to work for a GEN Yer and perhaps can hire them and teach them — what they lack — Real business, real work ethic, real life.
Starting a new career at 60
The following is a guest post by Marci Alboher, vice president at Civic Ventures, a think tank making it easier for millions to find encore careers with personal meaning and social impact. This is part of the kickoff to a series on social entrepreneurship. The views expressed are the author’s own.
Mark Goldsmith created Getting Out and Staying Out, a program that reduces the recidivism rate of young men released from prisons and jails. Elaine Santore founded Umbrella of the Capital District, a service that pairs retired handy people with aging homeowners who need help with small home repairs. And Adele Douglass (see above photo) created Humane Farm Animal Care, the nation’s first program to certify that farming practices are humane from birth to slaughter.
They are all social entrepreneurs — creative, inventive, enterprising individuals who bring their talent and passion to solving the problems of our day — and they are all over the age of 55.
Instead of slowing down, they’re just starting up. With nearly 80 million boomers beginning to enter their 60s, we should expect to see more of these innovators.
According to a 2009 Kauffman Foundation report, the highest rate of entrepreneurial activity over the past decade has come from those between the ages of 55 and 64. In a time when so much attention and hopes are placed on bright, young minds, these older entrepreneurs bring a most valuable asset that is too often overlooked — experience.
Mark Goldsmith, 73, in below photo, says that his 35 years as an executive in the cosmetics industry helped him treat his nonprofit like a business from the start. “In the nonprofit sector, we’re still looking for the bottom line; we’re just characterizing it differently,” he says. “It’s about starting to see the light in someone’s eyes.”
what a very wonderful idea the same as my honey’s plan for our future
Social entrepreneurship series
This package kicks off a series centered around social entrepreneurship, leadership and innovation. With less of everything –- jobs, money –- we are confronted with what to prioritize and, therefore, are forced to think about how we want to spend our time. Is it with family? Is it changing careers? Is it contributing to a greater good?
This series capture what social leaders and innovators are doing now in order to improve the quality of life –– not just their own, but other people’s as well. It also provides expert advice on these matters.
We have three pieces for each topic and a video to go along with one of them: the difference between GenX and GenY entrepreneurs, how to launch a socially conscious second career that has personal meaning and impact, and how to start a successful non-profit that is complimented by a video of a Summer Search grad, Jabali Sawicki, who is now a leader in his own field.
The idea behind and time peg for this project is how to make the most of a recession. When times are tough, economically, many people attempt to start their own business and/or start a second career. They tend to rethink their life’s goals and values.
What keeps us up at night has changed. We don’t just worry about who can bring home the bacon, but moral dilemmas as well. What affect am I having on people around me? Are people responding to what I am doing? What drives this generation of entrepreneurs? What do older people do when they don’t feel like retiring? How do you start your own organization? How can I start a second career?
The pieces and video in this package attempt to address these questions.
The package captures what leaders and innovators are doing now in order to improve the quality of life – not just their own, but other people’s as well. It also provides expert advice on these matters.
