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comes from BBVA. Another mentor is typically a veteran of the relevant industry and an ESADE alum. As a final departure from the GSBI model, Momentum's mentor teams include ESADE students as well. Hands-On Development GSBI's relationship with ESADE has been primarily a passive one— after observing our work at the GSBI, Vernis and colleagues exe- cuted the adaptation themselves. But our relationship with Villgro in Chennai, India, has been far more hands-on. Villgro was launched in 2001 by Indian social entrepreneur Paul Basil, who believes that rural artisans and farmers are best posi- tioned to find solutions to agricul- tural problems. In 2011, Villgro received a grant to create its Social Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development (SEED) program. SEED offers six-month programs that help early-stage social entre- preneurs refine their business mod- els and raise their first rounds of funding. Although we originally thought the GSBI model would work in India as it had in the U.S., we soon realized that it would be impractical to ask SEED entrepre- neurs to attend a two-week inten- sive training session in a faraway city, as GSBI participants do. Says Basil, "For many of our entrepreneurs, it's extremely costly to travel to Chennai and remove themselves from their work and families for a two-week period." A solution to this dilemma could be our GSBI Online platform (see "Taking GSBI Online" on page 34). Created to meet the overflow demand for our GSBI program, GSBI Online aims to allow more social entrepreneurs to receive train- ing and interactive mentoring. SEED assigns mentors to pro- vide strategic guidance and fellows to work with its entrepreneurs and help them hone their execution. The fellows are mid-career profes- sionals who have worked in large corporations and want to transi- tion to social enterprise, says Basil. SEED is a work in progress—the first cohort started in September 2012. Villgro has no alumni com- munity from which to recruit men- tors and investors who can help select, guide, and fund promising enterprises. But, as Villgro's CEO, Basil can draw from a wide profes- sional network of government offi- cials, service providers, executives, and investors. A Culture of Social Enterprise Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines launched its incubator shortly after Rudy Ang, dean of the AM School of Management, and colleagues visited Santa Clara to observe the GSBI. The Ateneo Center for Social Entrepreneurship (ACSENT) has become an incu- bator aimed at promoting social entrepreneurship among young professionals in the Philippines. But so far that has proved chal- lenging in a country unaccustomed to the idea. "People come to us and say they want to be social entrepreneurs, but most of them don't really understand what that means," Ang says. "They often think, if I start a business and hire poor people, I'm a social entrepre- neur. We try to explain that the product or service itself should improve the lives of the poor. That's been a struggle." Like SEED and Momentum, ACSENT has a large pool of potential mentors, many drawn from its faculty, and it also has the support of the larger university, which has made the social entre- preneurship program a priority. "This is a matter not just of intel- lect but of heart," says Ang. It may be years before ACSENT demonstrates a significant impact on the lives of the poor. As we help them adapt the GSBI for their needs, we're also looking at ways GSBI alumni enterprises can offer their products and services in the Philippines. If a social enterprise has achieved meaningful social impact in, say, India, its same prod- ucts or services might be able to benefit the poor in the Philippines. Scaling Up So far, we have been pleased with GSBI's success rates. Ninety-five percent of more than 200 enter- Kirsten Petersen, a 2013 MBA graduate, trains Ugandan women to install and repair solar systems through Solar Sister, a startup that provides solar lighting to Ugandan villages. 33 BizEd July/August 2014