065, Stuart Yasgur, Ashoka Social Financial Services | Using Market Forces for Social Good

Ashoka Social Financial Services Group identifies and supports social entrepreneurs using market forces for social good. If you heard Episode 60 of Social Entrepreneur with Bill Drayton, you heard him talking about the power of a network of leading social entrepreneurs. The Social Financial Services group focuses on social entrepreneurs who are pursuing innovative approaches to access new sources of capital and use market dynamics to create social impact.

Stuart Yasgur is just the right guy to run this group. He spent a decade working with startup and growth-stage businesses as a consultant in New York City. He obtained degrees from Cornell, Columbia and the London School of Economics. More than that, when you hear him talk, you realize, he has a heart for this work.

Social Entrepreneurship Quotes from Stuart Yasgur:

“The market determines a lot of the character and quality of your life.”

“The market has the potential to be transformative. When it works really well it, it can enable us to work together to address seemingly intractable problems.”

“The issue is that the market is not working as well as it could.”

“We’re seeing the early part of a global change for how people are using and changing finance to enable people to improve their own lives.”

“We’re on the ground in over 80 countries around the world looking for leading social entrepreneurs.”

“We’re genuinely looking for that one person out of ten million.”

“For an entrepreneur, one of the scarcest resources is their own time and energy.”

“What’s critical, you see across all of these innovations, they represent the fact that we’re not simply going to grow our way out of the challenges we face today.”

“Find changemakers. Seek them out. Find people who have given themselves permission to solve a problem and have acted on it.”

ANNOUNCEMENT:

Starting this week and going through the month of April, we’re giving away 10, 20-minute, one-on-one coaching calls to help you launch or grow your social enterprise. We’ll be drawing throughout the month. To enter to win the giveaway, go to http://tonyloyd.com/coaching

Social Entrepreneurship Resources: Ashoka Social Financial Services: http://sfs.ashoka.org On Twitter: https://twitter.com/AshokaSFS Stuart Yasgur on Twitter: https://twitter.com/StuartYasgur NEW! Enter to win a 20-minute, one-on-one coaching call! http://tonyloyd.com/coaching Try Audible and Receive Two Free Audiobooks: http://tonyloyd.com/books