Disrupt to Sustain Competition Highlights

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This December marked the first Bard MBA Disrupt to Sustain Pitch Competition! Thirteen teams from their Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Accounting, and POSM classes competed throughout the day to win the top Disrupt to Sustain prize and the “People’s Choice” award chosen via Reuben Jaffe Goldstein’s ‘16 Flockworthy platform. Alum Amy Kalafa ’16 and her team at A-Ray TV filmed the event and are putting together a short reel to pitch a “Shark Tank in Sustainability” reality show. A big thanks to faculty members Alejandro Crawford, Kathy Hipple, and Jorge Fontanez, who created and facilitated the competition. Check out Rebelbase for more information on the judges and the day’s events. Looking forward to this being an annual tradition!

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An Ecosystem Model for Credentialing Entrepreneurs

An Ecosystem Model for Credentialing Entrepreneurs

ABSTRACT

The authors propose a model for reducing job-creator loss in regions facing severe youth unemployment. Job-creator loss occurs when young, would-be entrepreneurs lack opportunities to attempt scalable ventures. To date, efforts to expand such opportunities through microcredit and entrepreneurship training have seen mixed or inconclusive results.2 Our hypothesis is that more robust results depend upon introducing market signals that enable the local ecosystem to identify and champion promising young job creators. The model is designed to test whether an entrepreneur’s credential could provide the needed market signal. By engaging local market stakeholders in qualifying events that identify promising young entrepreneurs, we aim to explore whether such a credential can ease binding constraints on job creation. If the model can be scaled, it will enhance opportunities for youth to attempt scalable ventures while retaining their appeal within the job market. The Silicon Valleys of the world provide such opportunities, but there is a pressing need to expand access to the opportunities in regions with emerging entrepreneurial ecosystems. To this end, we outline a framework for qualifying young entrepreneurs and a digital platform for demonstrating entrepreneurial capability. This framework and platform are ecosystem-based, enabling youth to showcase their potential to those whose know-how, access, and resources they need to build their ventures and advance their careers. This adds a critical element often missing in local markets—a platform for engaging market stakeholders in assessing youth skill sets. With an eye toward implementing the framework and scaling it across regions, we propose a model for accrediting local community-based organizations (CBOs) to award credentials to youth who demonstrate entrepreneurial capability. The credential succeeds when it wins market recognition for entrepreneurial experience, along with cachet comparable to that commanded by a prestigious fellowship, service opportunity, or military commission in its respective sphere. Where this works, young entrepreneurs will earn recognized credentials along with access to networks, resources, and opportunities. This has the potential to drive a multiplier effect essential to robust job growth.

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The Lost Entrepreneurs | TEDxNYU [video]

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When entrepreneurship becomes a privilege, we doom ourselves to fighting over pieces of the world invented yesterday. The stories nerds love hold a clue to reversing this trend, argues Alejandro Crawford, Managing Director of Acceleration Group and cofounder of Rebelbase. To learn to use their powers and make their ideas real, young problem solvers need access to knowledge, space and an alliance.

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Climate Change and the Economy: Sorting Fact from Fiction [video]

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Our colleague, Eban Goodstein, at Bard MBA in Sustainability presents Climate Change and the Economy: Sorting Fact from Fiction.  The talk, sponsored by the Network for Responsible Public Policy and produced by Drew University, updates his book 1999 book, The Trade-off Myth: Facts and Fiction about Jobs and the Environment.

Climate investment and innovation is the single best way to jumpstart economic growth. As Goodstein explains: ‘the idea that climate action is somehow undercutting America’s economy lies behind the Trump Administration’s rollback of climate regulations.’ That’s a recipe for slowing down innovation and giving up our best opportunity to drive growth.

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Why Teach the Entrepreneurial Mindset in Schools Now

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Managing Director Alejandro Crawford on “Developing Entrepreneurial Students for the 21st Century Economy” – what it means for students to create solutions to emerging problems, instead of just applying formulas derived for yesterday’s world. Crawford’s remarks were delivered as part of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship’s Entrepreneurial Mindset Summit. To view more highlights of this conference, please visit NFTE’s website.

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