Sarah Nolet
Contributed Resources
Becoming an Entrepreneur
MITx
Learn the business skills and startup mindset needed to embark on your entrepreneurial path from MIT's premier program for aspiring entrepreneurs, MIT Launch.
Access: Free
Type:
Course 
The Practitioner's Guide/Steps to Corporate Investment, Innovation and Collaboration
Fomin
A practical guide to creating positive outcomes with corporate venture capital.
Access: Free
Type:
Book / Report
Due Dilligence Checklist
Go 4 Funding
Comprehensive due dilligence checklist.
Access: Free
Type:
Article
Raising Capital From Single-Family Offices
Forbes
Article on single family office investors.
Access: Free
Type:
Article
Startup Financial Model
Startup Financial Model
We've built what we believe is the finest business planning tool available (and our customers agree) and we want to put it in your hands at a price you can afford.
Access: Paid
Type:
Calculator / Equations / Formula
Investing in Breakthrough CVC
Volans
The result of a research project undertaken to better understand how some corporate venture capital (CVC) funds are investing in deals that provide both financial return as well as social and/or environmental impact' and how more might do so.
Access: Free
Type:
Book / Report
7 Key Lessons I've Learned About Raising Capital From VCs
Venture Burn
How to raise VC in South Africa.
Access: Free
Type:
Article
What we learned from 200 startups who raised $360M
DocSend
Slide show of findings from research on 200 startups raising capital.
Access: Free
Type:
Other
Measuring Socio-Economic Impact
World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)
Feb 27, 2013
Companies are increasingly interested in measuring socio-economic impact as part of maintaining their license to operate, improving the business enabling environment, strengthening their value chains, and fueling product and service innovation. But while more and more tools are being developed to help companies measure socio-economic impact, it can be difficult to compare and choose among them....
Read More
Access: Free
Type:
Book / Report
How To Raise Capital From A Family Office With Richard Wilson
RSN Property Group
Podcast about raising capital from family offices.
Access: Free
Type:
Other
The Ultimate Guide to Prototyping
UX Pin
Learn the methods, tools, and processes for low- and high-fidelity rapid prototyping.
Access: Free
Type:
Book / Report
The Simple Rules of Disciplined Innovation
McKinsey
An article on how to use constraints to enhance creativity.
Access: Free
Type:
Article
Disrupting Beliefs: A New Approach to Business-Model Innovation
McKinsey
In a disruptive age, established business models are under attack. Discover how incumbent companies can reframe them.
Access: Free
Type:
Article
Talent for Tech: Recruiting the right people for your tech startup
MaRS
A report, based on research in Canada, to help tech startups recruit talent.
Access: Free
Type:
Book / Report
The Social Blueprint Toolkit: Social Blueprint Business Design Framework
Impact Strategy Advisors
The SB Business Design Framework is a business tool for individuals and companies building, evaluating and/or redesigning a for-profit company, product, nonprofit organization, program, or project. The tool consists of twelve business building blocks that when completed should align with each other and should be in harmony with the anchor purpose.
Access: Free
Type:
Template / Workbook / Spreadsheet
The Business Case for True Pricing
True Price, Deloitte, EY, PWC
True pricing is a new business methodology that makes it possible to better measure and manage these externalities. Ultimately, it allows companies to restore trust and retain their licenses to operate.
Access: Free
Type:
Book / Report
Value Proposition Canvas
Strategyzer
The Value Proposition Canvas helps you tackle a core challenge of every business ' creating compelling products and services customers want to buy.
Access: Free
Type:
Template / Workbook / Spreadsheet
Finding Capital for Sustainable Livelihoods Businesses
World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)
Finance guide for business managers.
Access: Free
Type:
Book / Report
The Impact Economy: The Insider's Guide to Finding Meaningful Work and Attracting Top Talent
MaRS
The Impact Economy: The Insider's Guide to Finding Meaningful Work and Attracting Top Talent explores the barriers that make it difficult for talented people to identify employment opportunities, and for organizations to recruit, engage and retain top talent. It includes a variety of tips and strategies to address these challenges, and seeks to help talented people better understand the impact...
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Access: Free
Type:
Book / Report
Reverse Innovation: Create Far From Home, Win Everywhere
Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimbl
Reverse Innovation shows leaders and senior managers how to make innovation in emerging markets happen, and how such innovations can unlock opportunities throughout the world.
Access: Paid
Type:
Book / Report
How to Become a B Corp
B Corporation
Tools and steps for becoming a B Corporation.
Access: Free
Type:
Article
Cooking in 1 Million Kitchens: Lessons learned in scaling a clean cookstove business
Shell Foundation
In this report, Envirofit shares an honest and frank account of five key lessons learned on their 8-year journey to build a clean cookstove business.
Access: Free
Type:
Book / Report
Blended value accounting in social entrepreneurship
Skoll Center for Social Entrepreneurship
This paper presents an exploratory analysis of the emergent reporting practices used by social entrepreneurs in terms of their institutional settings and strategic objectives.
Access: Free
Type:
Book / Report
Standard Financial Model
Foresight
Calculator/Excel plugin for building financial models.
Access: Paid
Type:
Calculator / Equations / Formula
Template Startup Financial Model
David Teten
Free Excel spreadsheet for buidling a financial model.
Access: Free
Type:
Calculator / Equations / Formula
The Easiest Spreadsheet for Churn, MRR, and Cohort Analysis
AndrewChen
Free Excel spreadsheet for calculating SaaS revenues.
Access: Free
Type:
Calculator / Equations / Formula
In Search of the Hybrid Ideal
SSIR
In the first large-scale, quantitative study of nascent social entrepreneurs, researchers from Harvard Business School and Echoing Green examine the rise of hybrid organizations that combine aspects of nonprofits and for-profits and the challenges hybrids face as they attempt to integrate traditionally separate organizational models.
Access: Free
Type:
Article
14 Types of Information Investors May Request as Part of their Due Diligence Checklist for Your Startup
Funding Sage
Checklist for due dilligence.
Access: Free
Type:
Article
Social Marketing in India
Shell Foundation
Social Marketing in India captures our experiences, both good and bad, over several years of running social marketing campaigns to drive adoption of improved cookstoves; and the broader lessons we have drawn for marketing social-impact products more generally.
Access: Free
Type:
Book / Report
The Difference Between Angel Investment and Venture Capital
Venture Spring
Article on the difference between angel investment and venture capital.
Access: Free
Type:
Article
Financing Your Small Business Through a Family Office
Entrepreneur.com
Family Offices are an oft-overlooked option, but they might be the key to getting your company the funding it needs. Here are some tips for raising capital from a family office.
Access: Free
Type:
Article
How to Decide Whether to Crowdfund or Bootstrap Your Business
Entrepreneur.com
A crowdfunding vs. bootstrapping comparison.
Access: Free
Type:
Article
Five Tips to Successfully Raise Family Office Capital
Locust Walk
5 tips for raising capital from a family office.
Access: Free
Type:
Article
An Introductory Guide to Startup Funding
INSTIGATOR BLOG
Overview of investment types.
Access: Free
Type:
Article
7 Things No One Ever Tells You About Raising Venture Capital Financing
INSTIGATOR BLOG
Tips for raising VC.
Access: Free
Type:
Article
10 Things Angel Investing Taught Me About How To Raise Money For A Startup
Forbes
General tips for raising money from investors.
Access: Free
Type:
Article
8 Things You Need to Know About Raising Venture Capital
Entrepreneur.com
Tips for raising VC.
Access: Free
Type:
Article
Why every company in the Fortune 2000 will have a venture capital arm
Global Corporate Venturing
Why I believe that every Fortune 2000 company will be in the venture capital business before you know it.
Access: Free
Type:
Article
Why 99.95% Of Entrepreneurs Should Stop Wasting Time Seeking Venture Capital
Forbes
Why VC may not be a good fit for your startup.
Access: Free
Type:
Article
Raising Capital: Five Things Entrepreneurs Want Their Peers To Know
Forbes
This is the first post in the Entrepreneur Xchange Series, a collection of articles that feature insights on five topics that entrepreneurs consider critical to success: investing, scaling, customer acquisition, human capital, and social impact. This first post focuses on the challenges that early-stage ventures face while raising capital ' and features five entrepreneur perspectives on how to...
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Access: Free
Type:
Article
How To Raise Capital As A Social Entrepreneur?
PWC
Dutch social entrepreneurs struggle to find capital to start and expand their social enterprises. This article aims to address this issue by supporting social entrepreneurs who are looking for an investor. Currently, the debate concentrates on the focus of potential investors'does the investor place more emphasis on social aspects or financial ones? We identify different types of social...
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Access: Free
Type:
Book / Report
Social Entrepreneurs Don't Have It Easy Raising Capital
Entrepreneur Media
How do social entrepreneurs raise money?
Access: Free
Type:
Article
Sustainability and Leadership Competencies for Business Leaders
BSR
It has become a truism among sustainability advocates that commitment needs to start at the top, or at the very least the CEO needs to 'buy in' for real change to have a fighting chance. What is often less clear is what it means for a CEO or other influential player to provide the necessary leadership on sustainability. What does that leadership look like, and how is it exercised?
Access: Free
Type:
Book / Report
ReFrame
THNK School of Creative Leadership
Learn how to think differently with the ReFrame tool. Reframing is a four-step process to rethink and generate creative approaches for life and work. ReFrame is based on the book Reframing: The art of thinking differently, by Karim Benammar.
Access: Free
Type:
Template / Workbook / Spreadsheet
Product Social Impact Assessment
Roundtable for Product Social Metrics
There is growing societal recognition that companies are accountable for their entire supply chain, downstream and upstream. As a result, the need to investigate and give visibility to all potential and actual social impacts throughout the product life cycle has become an increasingly important value driver for companies in relation to sustainability. One of the challenges is to make product...
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Access: Free
Type:
Book / Report
Wendy Luhabe: Social Entrepreneur & Impact Investor
Skoll Center for Social Entrepreneurship
As an entrepreneur, board member and investor, Luhabe combined profit and social impact before the terms social entrepreneurship and impact investing were in common use. This case explores Luhabe's approach to entrepreneurship and investment, which is equal parts intuition and strategy. Her story is a uniquely South African, yet globally instructive.
Access: Free
Type:
Book / Report
Product Design and Development
Book by Ulrich and Eppinger
A resource for students and professionals in the field of product design and development.
Access: Paid
Type:
Book / Report
How to Create a Basic Financial Model: An Entrepreneur's Guide
Founder Institute
Article with advice and steps on building a financial model in Excel.
Access: Free
Type:
Article
Business Model Innovation Grid
Plan C
This grid aims to inspire businesses to reconceive how they operate and to become more future proof. To grab the opportunities of a sustainable future, innovations need to introduce environmental and social considerations at the core of the business model. Ordered around 8 'archetypes' of business models, we present a multitude of approaches and 100 real life business cases.
Access: Free
Type:
Article
The Ultimate Pitch Deck to Raise Money for Startups
Forbes
Article about building a pitch deck, plus downloadable template.
Access: Free
Type:
Article
Funding Social Enterprises
Echoing Green
Dec 09, 2016
These profiles illustrate how four diverse social enterprises have secured seed- and early-stage philanthropic and investment capital to build their organizations. In addition, the profiles include advice and perspectives on fundraising, negotiating, and blending capital from the entrepreneurs and funders
Access: Free
Type:
Article
Transparency, Purpose, and the Empowered Consumer: A New Paradigm for Advertising
BSR
Feb 27, 2015
This paper focuses on one central question: Can the advertising industry use principles rooted in CSR to engage consumers, build trust, and secure long-term brand loyalty in today's volatile media landscape?
Access: Free
Type:
Book / Report
Business Model Canvas
Strategyzer
The Business Model Canvas is a strategic management and entrepreneurial tool. It allows you to describe, design, challenge, invent, and pivot your business model.
Access: Free
Type:
Article
The Field Guide to Human-Centered Design
IDEO
At IDEO.org, part of our mission is to spread human-centered design to social sector practitioners around the world. The Field Guide to Human-Centered Design reveals our process with the key mindsets that underpin how and why we think about design for the social sector, 57 clear-to-use design methods for new and experienced practitioners, and from-the-field case studies of human-centered design...
Read More
Access: Free
Type:
Book / Report
Talking to Humans
Talking to Humans
A guide to helping you get out and understand your customers.
Access: Free
Type:
Book / Report
Marketing Communications
MaRS
Worksheet and guidebook for developing a marketing and communications strategy.
Access: Free
Type:
Template / Workbook / Spreadsheet
Social Entrepreneurship: Social Impact Metrics
MaRS
Report attempting to provide a clear understanding around the importance of establishing and reporting on appropriate social and financial metrics, to increase the amount of capital made available to this emerging sector, including patient capital, loans or equity investments
Access: Free
Type:
Book / Report
Crafting Your Value Proposition
MaRS
Worksheet and guidebook for crafting a value proposition.
Access: Free
Type:
Template / Workbook / Spreadsheet
The Go-to-Market Approach Startups Need to Adopt
HBR
Advice on figuring out a go-to-market approach.
Access: Free
Type:
Article
Okala Ecodesign Strategy App
Okala Practitioner
The Okala Ecodesign Strategy App is a tool for designers to conceptualize new product and service concepts.
Access: Free
Type:
App
How to Raise Venture Capital
The Startup Guide
How to raise VC, including general advice about raising capital and what types to consider, when.
Access: Free
Type:
Article
Venture Philanthropists and Impact Investors: Sharing Collaboration Successes and Challenges
Shell Foundation
In this report - produced with the help of Shell Foundation - we share a number of examples of how venture philanthropists and impact investors are working together to fund early-stage impact enterprises around the world.
Access: Free
Type:
Book / Report
Reviews
The Corporate Reporting Landscape Map
Great way of quickly comparing and understanding current ESG disclosure organizations involved in standard setting and data collection.
The business of sustainability: McKinsey Global Survey results
Exhibit 7 in their report - a simple wheel diagram - provides a very helpful orientation for mapping initiatives as a preliminary step before then working on business case details. This is very helpful as well as a high level communication tool and also as part of planning exercises.
