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Post-Growth Entrepreneurship

• This field focuses on creating and managing businesses that are not focused on maximizing profits, but instead on sustainability & social well-being.
• A key aspect is avoiding extraction and maximizing ethical practices.

Individual Assignments

• Part 1 (due Feb 5th): Students must design a fictional non-extractive company including:
  • A Sustainable Business Model Canvas
  • An MVP Experiment Canvas for the Minimum Viable Product
  • A 500-word bootstrapping plan (1 A4).
• Part 2 (due Feb 5th): Students must submit a 1500-word report (not including references) detailing how they would redesign the University of Amsterdam's entrepreneurship curriculum (3 A4 pages total).

Impact Investment

• Impact Venture Capital funds social enterprises.
• This can include funding organizations aimed at underserved communities.
• Current problems with Impact VCs mirror those of commercial VCs: similar fee structures ("2 and 20" structure).
• "Carried interest" fee structure embeds a focus on growth into social enterprises. This could be problematic.
• Fee structures can be reformed (e.g. using Snowball IM).

Impact Exits

• Selling a B corporation to a large corporation (e.g. Unilever) is a form of exit.
• Celebrating exits is ironic when it relates to the claims made of businesses aiming for long-term societal good.
• Selling can sometimes result in greater social impact given the larger reach available through the acquiring corporation.

Philanthropy and CSR

• Philanthropy is used to justify hoarding wealth.
• It does not guarantee fair or efficient redistribution of money.
• This type of philanthropy is often seen as a form of reputation laundering or a means of tax relief.
• Charitable giving often serves as political donations.

Eliminating Extraction

• Every company, regardless of how it labels itself (social enterprise or not), should be evaluated based on its level of financial extraction.
• Financial extraction can be used to determine the priority of a company’s mission as well as the nature of its impact.
• Eliminating extraction could make every company more focused on its social mission.

Creating Bespoke Solutions

• The social enterprise ecosystem lacks unity and coherence, somewhat like the parable of blind men and an elephant.
• Approaches to social enterprises require evaluation based on strengths and weaknesses and avoid internal tribal clashes.
• Collaborative efforts are encouraged for developing bespoke solutions.

Post-Growth Entrepreneurship (Part III)

The Limits to Growth

• In 1972, the Club of Rome and MIT published "The Limits to Growth".
• This report used World3 computer simulations to show how exponential economic and population growth with limited resources would lead to constraints by 2072.
• This showed there are limits to growth given the current conditions.

Post-Growth Economics

• Post growth Economics is a subject dedicated to studying alternatives to the growth-focused economy.

Degrowth Movement

• Thought leaders in the degrowth movement include 19th-century anti-industrialists, as well as Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, André Gorz, Serge Latouche, E.F. Schumacher and Jason Hickel.

Doughnut Economics

• Kate Raworth developed Doughnut Economics, proposing a model for sustainable economic development.
• The model consists of two concentric circles (a "doughnut"): social foundation (no one falls short on basic needs) and ecological ceiling (mankind does not exceed ecological boundaries).
• The goal is to remain within this "doughnut" of sustainable norms.

New Economics

• Thought leaders in new economics include those already mentioned and Douglas Rushkoff, Charles Eisenstein, Christian Felber, Mariana Mazzucato, David Graeber and others.

Definition of PGE

• Post-Growth Entrepreneurship (PGE).
• Definition: The practice of creating and operating non-extractive businesses.

Main Elements of PGE

• Three main elements are:
  • Supporting Entrepreneurs through Bootstrapping techniques.
  • Flat Growth (as opposed to exponential growth)
  • Non-Extraction of resources

Beyond the SDGs

• Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) serve as blueprints for a sustainable future for organizations.
• Many companies focus on achieving the SDGs.
• Broader consideration is needed for businesses outside this niche focus.
• Everyday, mundane businesses that are not necessarily aligned with SDGs are another area of focus.
• All organizations need to evaluate options for social impact.

Ethics By Design

• Companies should build ethical practices into their design from the start.
• Unethical practices are difficult to correct, much like band-aids on systemic issues.
• In today's economy, maintaining ethical standards from the beginning (by design) is critical.

Compensation Caps

• Financial extraction can be reduced by putting caps on compensation.
• It is important to consider financial fairness and an ideal compensation structure for optimal happiness rather than just achieving profit maximization.
• "Fair Compensation" in the context of CEOs can be complex to define.
• The optimal compensation structure may vary based on industry and location.

Who is PGE for?

• PGE applies to several types of entities: startup founders, established corporations, governments, NGOs, incubators, and the creative sector.

Bootstrapping

• Bootstrapping in entrepreneurship is a vital part of sustainable enterprise practices.