Creating Social Impact: BCGDV and ProjectTogether
We’re looking for new ways to have a positive impact in the world. Here’s how we collaborated with social enterprise incubator ProjectTogether — and how you can get involved in our Social Ventures Program.
By Thomas Fischer, Lead Knowledge Analyst at BCGDV
At the start of 2019, we were put in touch with a young entrepreneur called Philipp von der Wippel. Philipp ran a social enterprise that aimed to empower young social entrepreneurs with the resources they need, putting them in touch with experts, foundations and investors. The aim was to overcome a specific problem: Social entrepreneurs in Germany face a fragmented, non-digital support ecosystem, which prevents them from fulfilling their full potential to affect real systemic change.
The initiative was called ProjectTogether. Philipp had a great idea and presented us with a comprehensive plan for how to realize his vision. What he needed was resources and experience. As part of our social impact goals for the year, BCGDV was happy to help.
ProjectTogether already had a highly motivated team. We aimed to help them with validating, testing, and iterating on their concept — and, once a promising concept had been finalised, to help setting it up for success.
We decided to run a six-week acceleration sprint at our Berlin office, staffed with a core DV team of a General Manager, two Strategic Designers, two Experience Designers, one Product Manager, an Engineer and three consultants from BCG.
We aimed to define and test the value proposition, build and test a prototype of ProjectTogether’s platform, draft a roadmap to MDP and solution architecture, and finalize an investment pitch and partnering strategy.
We made great progress over the six weeks. By the time our collaboration was finished, ProjectTogether had a full pitch deck that they could take to potential funding partners along with a full prototype that took pieces of their incubator program and made it possible for funding partners to understand how the platform would look in terms of application process, dashboard and more. We developed this in three, week-long design sprints, each focusing on a different element to optimize for effectiveness.
After the six weeks, we handed everything back to ProjectTogether, who now have 750 projects on the platform with 500 coaches. It has just launched a new incubator program focused specifically on reducing plastic consumption.
DV took no equity in ProjectTogether, and provided the sprint for no charge. ProjectTogether is a completely independent initiative and remains so. We see social impact opportunities like this partnerships as opportunities for us to learn about the social impact space, a sector which many DVers are passionate about supporting. Whether it’s environmental protection or social projects, DV continues to support employee-led initiatives to make the world a better place. We continue to expand our efforts in this area.
Introducing the DV Social Venture Program
“Working with ProjectTogether was a great opportunity for us to learn how we can best support social impact projects. This learning also triggered the inception of our new Social Ventures Program. For us at DV social impact is part of our DNA and everyday thinking. So I’m proud to be able to offer our resources for good causes and to protect our planet.”
— Mathias Entenmann, DV Managing Director and Partner
Our newly-launched Social Venture Program is currently looking for applicants, those successful given the chance to build and grow their social impact initiative together with a team of experts at our Berlin office. The chosen initiative will receive a free 3-month long DV sprint including a dedicated DV team and office space.
Know anyone who might be a good fit? Direct them to our applications page. Applications close November 8th.
