High-Impact Entrepreneurship

Thanks to a generous gift of $150 million to the Stanford Graduate School of Business, a Stanford Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies has been established to work towards alleviating poverty through entrepreneurship and innovation. The donation, from alum Robert King (’60) and his wife Dorothy, was given out of compassion for the world’s 2 billion people that live on less than $1.25 a day, and a belief that entrepreneurs in these developing economies are the engines of growth. The institute is dedicated to research, education, and support for organizations on the ground.

The institute whose acronym is “SIIDE”, but is pronounced and known as “SEED” to signify possibility and growth, will partner with Endeavor in order to amplify their impact on mentoring and scaling high impact entrepreneurs. Garth Saloner, the Dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Business said, “This initiative is an enormous opportunity for Stanford students, faculty, and on-the-ground entrepreneurs to collaborate on the design and incubation of new enterprises and solutions.” As an example of an organization achieving global impact, he cited MercadoLibre, an enterprise launched with support from Endeavor which is now Latin America’s leading e-commerce business, employing some 1,500 people.

SEED’s first research forum will be held March 5-6, 2012 to explore research opportunities in developing economies.

The press release for SEED’s launching can be found here.

And to read economist Jared Bernstein’s recent op-ed in the New York Times on the importance of new businesses and growing small businesses into larger operations click here.