Emergent Ventures

= a subset of Social Entrepreneurship. Social Entrepreneurship ventures are often about solving survival needs (Food, Water, Shelter). Emergent Ventures solve enrichment needs (Knowledge, Community, Collaboration).

Characteristics

Max Marmer:

"Defining Characteristics of Emergent Ventures:

1) They have information technology component at their core, and are connected to the Internet. This is what allows these businesses to easily benefit from complimentary products and services, rapidly scale, and quickly integrate into the fabric of society.

2) Social Entrepreneurship ventures are often about solving survival needs (Food, Water, Shelter).

Emergent Ventures solve enrichment needs (Knowledge, Community, Collaboration).

3) A portion of the value these ventures create and capture is economic and they make enough money to self-sustain, and often create a significant profit.

4) The ventures we’re talking about on this blog for the most part create a low to medium amount of economic capital. Terms 1 through 3 leave the door open open for companies like Google and Facebook, which create both a high amount of economic capital and social capital. And while companies like Google and Facebook probably could benefit from some of the discussions on the bleeding edge of harnessing social capital, they don’t need help attracting more resources and attention. (Other ventures to include in this category: Meetup, Quora, Asana,Halycon Molecular)"

Examples

Examples of companies that would be emergent ventures:

1. Kiva
2. The Extraordinaries
3. Kickstarter
4. Sandbox Network
5. The Hub
6. Sparkseed
7. Assetmap
8. Supercool School
9. Trust Art
10. Ground Crew
11. Jumo
12. The Unreasonable Institute
13. Open Action
14. Enzi
15. Udemy
16. Unclasses