Lessons from a Failed Social Entrepreneur

What started as an MBA project quickly turned into a social enterprise that failed before it ever got off the ground. But what I learned propelled me to find success beyond my failure.

When I moved across the country from Vancouver to a quaint island off of the East Coast of Canada in January 2017, I set out to complete a MBA in Community Economic Development. I moved to a stormy, snowy, tiny island knowing no one and set out to take on the world and do something to change it for the better.

I started by attending every event I heard about. Whether it was a conference about reconciliation and consultation in Membertou, a weekend bootcamp for the United Nations Active Citizens Social Enterprise initiative, or a lip sync battle at the campus bar, I showed up. I was always nervous about going alone or worried that I would be a fish out of water. But I went anyway and it got better with each new event (except the lip sync; that was awful). I learned that showing up puts you ahead of every person who doesn’t.

When you show up, you meet interesting people and have engaging conversations and you inevitably get ideas. That’s how I came up with an idea for a social enterprise. It was an app called ChipIn that would connect millennials with the world through volunteering (aka Tinder for volunteers). I had always loved volunteering and wished that I could inspire my friends to love it the same way, but they thought it was too difficult or time consuming to fit into their lives. ChipIn was going to solve that problem. I learned that if I saw a problem in the world, I should take the initiative to solve it.

Once the idea hit, everything went so quickly. I worked with a social enterprise incubator, Common Good Solutions, got support from Cape Breton University’s Island Sandbox, and funding from the “CBIFF” investment fund. I designed a survey to better understand volunteers and the needs of community organizations. I met with charities to find out how I could help them. I put together a lean business model canvas and full business plan. I even met a software developer who designed and coded the app for me, pro-bono. I learned that there is a community of support out there for those who seek it.

I launched the minimum viable product in October. I listed volunteer opportunities on the app and set up a booth at school to encourage students to connect and volunteer. I was pitching to investors and promoting to people. It was all so exciting, but there were problems: I had yet to connect anyone to a volunteering opportunity successfully, the app was flawed because I hadn’t set up a way to collect data for validation nor had I discovered effective channels to onboard volunteers, and, as far as I could tell, no one was using the app and it wasn’t solving anyone’s problems. On top of that I had applied for a second round of funding and an incubator program but didn’t make the cut. Just as quickly as ChipIn launched, it failed. I learned that failing is the quickest way to learn hard lessons.

If I could go back and change one thing, I know exactly what I would do differently. I would have started small. I would have connected one volunteer with one organization, directly. The best minimum viable product is the simplest one that solves the problem — I was the minimum viable product. My ability to connect a person with a community organization would have given me a vast amount of feedback to build off of. I would have used their feedback to connect one more person with one more organization. Instead, I was ready to scale from the get-go without any validation. I was trying to paint a masterpiece, forgetting that it all starts with a single brush stroke. The most important lesson I learned was this: Do one thing, no matter how small, and do it well. Don’t get caught up in the grandiose idea of changing the entire world all at once. Start with one person.

Do something small.

Do something good.

Do something.

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