Sharing at the Program for CSE at Seattle Pacific University
Matthew Overton
This past Saturday I had the privilege of heading up to Seattle Pacific University to participate (very briefly) in their "Program in Christian Social Entrepreneurship". The program is a 10 day initiative that brings in folks from around the United States into an Incubator type experience. It was a small group of about a dozen folks or so, but it is worth adding that this was their first launch.
The program is pretty awesome in terms of content from what I can tell. It astounded me that the program lasted a full ten days, but when I looked at the content I could tell why. Here are the things that they covered:
-Missional Ecclesiology
-Elevator Pitches
-Multiple Site Visits to Social Entrepreneurships
-Business as Calling
-Basic Business Plan coaching
-Coaching
These sorts of programs are starting to spring up around the country and are really cool. I went to one at Princeton Theological Seminary just after I had started up. I would recommend them for anyone! Both programs that I have experience with seem to be helpful to folks who are up and running and to folks that are simply at the partially formed idea phase. Perhaps the best part is the fact that you get to have folks critique your ideas and give you feedback. This is pretty critical to any social entrepreneurship.
My role at the event was simply to share about Columbia Teen Enterprises for about an hour and take questions from the floor. We talked a bit about theology, how I got started, what my daily routine looks like, and the barriers to growth. If you or anyone you know is interested in starting an entrepreneurship I would look up one of these initiatives as soon as you can.