Richi Social Entrepreneurs: Dat’s adventure into Social Entrepreneurship
Ever since its inception, Dat Ventures has had a double mission:
“ …to be the gateway for international startups to enter the United States, while helping generate an economic and cultural impact in their countries of origin.”
During the last year-and-a-half we’ve attempted to tackle the first part of our mission working with more than 45 international startups, an accomplishment that has got us featured as one of Boston’s budding accelerators, among other press mentions.
The second part, however, has been somewhat more difficult to tackle and measure, and we think it’s time to change that.
As Dat Ventures pivots into a “startup studio” (we’ll be sharing more details soon) we also want to take advantage of this period of change to tackle the second part of our mission.
How? Through Social Entrepreneurship.
Richi Social Entrepreneurs
To put things a bit into context, let me first introduce you to the Richi Childhood Cancer Foundation, or Richi Foundation for short.
The Richi Foundation was created 3 years ago by Ricardo García, an experienced entrepreneur who, overnight, had to move to Boston leaving behind his life in Barcelona to save another life: his son’s.
As a foundation that fights against childhood cancer, the Richi Foundation’s mission is:
“…to ensure that all children who suffer from cancer have the best prognosis and quality of life.”
However, Ricardo — an entrepreneur in nature — has a vision on how the foundation should impact society that goes beyond its core mission.
As part of a truly innovative and entrepreneurial fundraising model, the foundation has launched several initiatives that operate as quasi-independent social enterprises that impact society in different areas (Education, Music, Entrepreneurship…), as well as help finance the foundation’s core mission.
One of them is Richi Social Entrepreneurs (RSE).
“Richi Social Entrepreneurs is a Boston based initiative on a mission to catalyze and foster the development of international social entrepreneurship ecosystems.”
At Dat Ventures we are well-aware that building and growing an organization (for-profit or non-profit) in the US as an international founder is not an easy task.
As such, we strongly agree with Ricardo when he says that part of his success in creating and growing the Richi Foundation is due to Boston’s unique social, entrepreneurial, innovative, and collaborative ecosystem.
Hence, it makes sense that RSE’s first step to tackle its ambitious mission is to launch a 1-month immersion program for social entrepreneurs in Boston. As you may suspect, Dat Ventures will be a strategic partner in the execution of the program, contributing to fulfill its own mission too.
