Live and Learn: The Greatest Mistakes (and Lessons) of Social Entrepreneurship

I liken being a social entrepreneur to being a New York City resident; you don’t really feel like you belong until you can show others around. After celebrating two years of being a social entrepreneur, I am thrilled to share the story of how I turned mistakes into a meaningful enterprise.

It began at the supermarket. My then three-year-old son and I were heading down that slippery slope aka the cereal aisle. It hit me that every product that was at eye level for him contained more sugar than nutrition. In fact, some boxes listed over 90 ingredients, most of which I couldn’t pronounce.

I searched for better alternatives and picked up a box of Newman’s Own brand cereal. What caught my eye was not only that it was made of four all-natural ingredients but the phrase, “All profits go to charity.” This began my journey to discover more products and companies that made the same pledge, and to then set up a marketplace for them. Hence, DoGoodBuyUs was born.

There were some immediate challenges, such as educating consumers about the need for a socially responsible marketplace and forming the right partnerships. But there were lots of bumps along the way.