At the first Tuesdays@2, we heard a very interesting presentation from Professor Antonin Wagner about Capitalism, Democracy and Civil Society. At the end it began a discussion about social entrepreneurs, and I think this could be a good place to continue that conversation.

The question that arose was if entrepreneurship could be viewed as an answer to capitalism (since capitalism has been challenged with the financial crisis) from the third sector or, on the contrary, it emerges from capitalism itself. So the next question was what do we mean with entrepreneurship?

I have not explored this topic in depth, but here are some points to begin a conversation, maybe those who are taking entrepreneurship courses can say more:

According to Merriam-Webster dictionary entrepreneur is “one who organizes, manages and assumes the risk of a business or enterprise." From this we can deduce that yes, it is linked to capitalism and businesses. Could this “business” be a non-for-profit business? Maybe… What is then a “social” entrepreneur?

Personally, I would say that an entrepreneur is someone who is continually observing and interpreting others’ needs and is capable to meet those needs through a specific venture. And sometimes s/he observes needs that others have not realized yet.  

That venture could be for profit or not, and a for-profit one could satisfy social needs, isn’t it?  Why then, do we call it a “social” entrepreneur? What does that mean to you?

Remember next Wednesday Feb, 17^th. You can hear directly from Jacqueline Novogratz: The Life of a Social Entrepreneur!!

 (apologizes for the grammar errors, my English isn’t so good yet)