NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Note: This program is a Live Webinar and Q&A that is accessible from any web-enabled computer or mobile device. Premium members of Impact Entrepreneur get complimentary admission to all live and archived webinars.

Lessons Learned from Mentoring 1000 Impact Startups with Ian Fisk

Impact enterprise incubators and accelerators see a wide range of startups. The most established of these have screened hundreds of prospective businesses. Then there is the Mentor Capital Network, an impact mentorship program, which was formed in 2002 (initially named the William James Foundation). It has mentored over 1000 companies, helping them raise or earn collectively over $1.5 billion.

Few are better situated to provide useful insights into the building of early-stage impact businesses than Ian Fisk, executive director of the Mentor Capital Network. In this live fireside chat and audience Q&A, Impact Entrepreneur’s Laurie Lane-Zucker welcomes Ian Fisk to discuss the traits of successful impact entrepreneurs and the characteristics of successfully formed and scaled impact enterprises. We will also discuss the art and science of mentoring double and triple bottom line businesses in their earliest and most vulnerable stages, and the ways in which impact investors are helping the businesses succeed.

Featured Guest

Ian Fisk directs the Mentor Capital Network — more than 1,200 individuals who have built, managed, invested in, or studied social enterprises. He has supported 1,000+ companies who are changing the way the world does business, both directly and by building the field of social entrepreneurship through Net Impact, SVC, Accelerating the Accelerators, The Impact Accelerator Network and other organizations by encouraging those supporting impact entrepreneurs to learn from each other. Previous roles include designing and managing programs for Wall Street Without Walls, AmeriCorps*VISTA Entrepreneur Corps, Public Allies, KaBOOM!, Youth Service America, and Hands On DC. He founded or co-founded more than a dozen enterprises, some for-profit, some non-profit, and some non-profit on purpose. Most of which lasted for at least a decade. He has a Yale MBA, and teaches improvisation and storytelling for entrepreneurs, and is old enough to have been the 1st internet coordinator for a U.S. Presidential Campaign.

Host

LAURIE LANE-ZUCKER is Founder and CEO of Impact Entrepreneur, an impact economy business that hosts the Impact Entrepreneur Network, a 28,000 member global network of entrepreneurs, investors and scholars. Impact Entrepreneur is a cornerstone field building, research and educational player in the social impact space, and a consulting company that works with blended value companies, impact investors and academic institutions. For 30 years, Laurie has been a “pioneer” (Forbes) and recognized leader in sustainability, social enterprise and impact investing. Laurie was the founding Executive Director of the international environmental organization, Orion Society, which publishes the celebrated Orion Magazine, as well as the founder of a global sustainability think-tank, the Triad Institute, and Hotfrog, a Founding B Corporation, GIIRS Pioneer Company, and the first company ever to complete an equity transaction on an impact investment exchange.

Laurie is the bestselling and multiple award-winning publisher and editor of books and magazines on sustainability and social impact, having published, edited and written the introductions for celebrated works by Wendell Berry, Terry Tempest Williams, Barry Lopez and David James Duncan. He is the author of numerous articles on entrepreneurship and impact investing, and is the co-founder of the Place-Based Education movement, having coined the term with Dr. John Elder, and published, edited and written the foreword for the first book on that growing pedagogy. His current writing projects include two chapters (both co-written) for a forthcoming textbook, Sustainability: Business and Investment Implications by World Scientific Publishing. Laurie is also a lifelong student of world wisdom traditions and is the former Executive Director of Seven Pillars House of Wisdom, a nonprofit organization founded by Pir Zia Inayat Khan focused on advancing wisdom in service of social and environmental healing.

Impact Entrepreneur’s Luminarias Webinar Series features reflective conversations with the leading lights in impact investing and entrepreneurship.

Time: 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM EDT