Defining Philanthropreneur® and Investing in a Better City

Philanthropreneur is based on the idea of community. The idea is these are entrepreneurs that are focused on improving our community at the heart, and then Philanthropreneur is a community of investors who are enabling that. If you are a philanthropreneur, your money not only goes to support these entrepreneurs as they reach their milestones as a group, but you can decide if you want to meet with one of the entrepreneurs and become a member of their board, and you can decide as a philanthroporer if you want to make your own personal investment.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of On the Fly!, produced by Flywheel Social Enterprise Hub, a community of social driven entrepreneurs, experienced and talented coaches, angel investors, subject matter experts, and last but not least, philanthropreneurs. My name is Joan Kaup, host of On the Fly!

As a listener, you may be interested in social enterprises for the innovative thinking they bring to a problem or the solutions they offer a community. You may be thinking of launching your own social impact driven enterprise, or maybe you're dancing on the edge of becoming an investor. The idea of becoming an investor can be intimidating because you're thinking, oh, big dollar signs.

Not so fast. Let's consider a first step toward investment as that of a philanthropreneur. Just what is a philanthropreneur, you might be asking yourself. Here to answer that question is executive director of Flywheel Social Enterprise Hub, Donna Zaring. And before our episode ends, you will meet three philanthropreneurs and hear why they put their money where their mouth is.

We will listen in as Melisse May, Sandy Hughes, and Bob Ziek discuss the rewards they enjoy by investing in social impact.

Hey, Donna. Let's talk more about Flywheel's philanthropreneurs. The term philanthropreneur combines the concepts of philanthropist and entrepreneur, referring to individuals who engage in entrepreneurial ventures with a strong focus on social impact and philanthropy. Flywheel created the Philanthropreneur Impact Investing Group. They represent a network of like minded investors who understand the investing landscape and work together to make capital access more equitable in the greater Cincinnati region.

Donna, tell us more about the philanthropreneurs.

Thanks, Joan. Yeah. The philanthropreneurs is a group of like minded individuals who are passionate about entrepreneurship and social impact. And as you described, it's the perfect word to bring those two things together. And the program really serves as a connection point for those individuals that are looking to engage and support social entrepreneurs.

These are individuals who fundamentally believe that there are there's always a better way to to solve for things. So build a better mousetrap, if you will. These are curious individuals who see some of the challenges that exist in our communities and see the opportunities that entrepreneurial thinking brings to the table to try to create solutions to those challenges. And so the program allows for those individuals to support entrepreneurs who are building solutions for our communities through, financial investment, but also through networking and connections.

Flywheel is really good at networking, connections, building community. This is another example of that. How experienced are the philanthropreneurs in investing? Do they have other startup companies in their portfolio? Are they brand new at this?

Are they investing hundreds of thousands of dollars, tens of thousands of dollars?

I would say yes to all of those things. What's really great about Philanthropreneur is if even if you are somebody who's just interested in making a contribution to a startup to just get them up and running, there's a space for you in the Philanthropreneur program. If you're someone who's interested in making a bigger investment, Philanthropreneur allows you to engage with entrepreneurs at a more intimate level so you can get to understand them and their business a bit more to see if you wanna make that investment. It provides that platform for investment at any level. What Philanthropreneur is not is is an impact fund that promises a financial return on investment.

But what we do promise is that there will be a return on investment in the form of social impact. So by becoming a contributor to Philanthropreneur, you're helping early stage social enterprises get on their feet and start scaling with the idea that in several years down the road, they will be amplifying and multiplying their impact on our community. A great example is a startup like Last Mile Food Rescue. When they came through Flywheel, it was a group of volunteers that were working together to save wasted food, and they were driving that food to areas that were at risk for food scarcity. And they came to Flywheel with an idea.

How do we scale this and make this more impactful? How can we deliver more food, activate more volunteers? So years later, they're now delivering 10,000,000 pounds of food a year. It's remarkable. And so as a philanthropreneur, if you invested $5,000 in our philanthropreneur program, that money went to help Last Mile Food Rescue get their start.

And the return on investment is the tremendous impact that they're having on our community that we live in today. So that's really at the heart of of the philanthropreneur program.

Let me ask you something that gets really into the nitpicking of this. So one thing that makes the Flywheel accelerators unique is that founders earn money as they learn and participate in the cohorts. If the founder accomplishes their first milestone of progress, they earn a couple thousand dollars.

If they achieve their second milestone, they earn more. So when we talk about the Philanthropreneur, do they invest directly into that money that goes to the startups through their milestone accomplishments or something else?

When we recruit our cohorts of founders, they receive a stipend that's given to them in installments as they accomplish milestones through the nine week program. And that stipend ranges from 5 to $8,000 usually depending on the amount of money we're able to raise through the generosity of the philanthropreneurs. So what's nice is each entrepreneur participating in our cohorts, and it's usually five per cohort, receive the benefit of this funding to help them, in in many cases, implement the changes and improvements that our business coaches are advising them to do. What's also a great feature of the program is if you are a philanthropreneur, your money not only goes to support these entrepreneurs as they reach their milestones as a group, But you can decide if you want to meet with one of the entrepreneurs and become a member of their board. We've had our last cohort of Sustainable Cincy has just brought on several new board members, one of whom is was a sponsor, and another was a coach, is now serving on their board and has invested in that company.

So it gives you that exposure to these startups at a at a more intimate level to really understand their business plan, the founder, what they're going to be doing as they grow and scale. And you can decide as a philanthropreneur if you want to make your own personal investment.

I think having that additional knowledge is very valuable. I think there is real reward in that. I also think there's a great deal of personal satisfaction in being an investor or knowing that the money I invest in one of these startups is amplified for such good. You use Last Mile Food Rescue as an example, and that just has a real feel good ROI. Are there other benefits to being a philanthropreneur?

What might that be?

Yeah. So philanthropreneur is based on the idea of of community. Right? And so the idea is these are entrepreneurs that are that are focused on improving our community at their at the heart. And then Philanthropreneur is a community of investors who are enabling that.

And so one of the things that we're looking to reintroduce as a part of this program is enrichment and networking opportunities for philanthropreneurs. Look at it like opportunities to meet with other philanthropreneurs and perhaps have a dinner with somebody who might be on this podcast. So let's say there's someone who's a national expert on impact investing or someone who just did a body of research on a really interesting project and on emerging economies and the role of social impact. Those are the types of people that we will be inviting in to meet and engage with our entrepreneurs through small events. We also are introducing a new concept this year, which is kinda like a entry level philanthropreneur opportunity.

So it's for $500, you can be a changemaker. And this is essentially a group of emerging philanthropreneurs who will gather and meet with like minded individuals throughout our community who are doing really interesting projects or perhaps people that are working on something that they wanna grow into a startup at some point, somebody who's working on something interesting on the nonprofit side, but these would be pop up events that the change makers themselves can organize around the city. And so Flywheel would then support those networking events. We we find that every time we get people in a room who kind of meet that that philanthropreneur mentality of curious, a dreamer, intelligent, someone who is passionate about their community, and you put these individuals in a room together, you you almost have to, like, pull them apart because the conversation is just so interesting and so energetic. So for us, this is just a no brainer.

Like, let's find create a platform for like minded individuals to get together and share ideas. And from that, partnerships are born, startups are born. All kinds of interesting things start to happen.

We talk about Flywheel being the intersection of passion and profits, and boy, these get togethers really speak to that. $500 is a very, very low threshold to walk into the world of angel investing. So that is a very bold and bright concept for Flywheel to to develop and lead. So thank you for that.

We believe that people really do care about the community that they live in, and we believe that there's a lot of people in this area that are very creative and entrepreneurial that wanna use those talents to make the world a better place. So there should be an opportunity for people to do that in all kinds of ways, whether you're an entrepreneur, whether you just wanna be a changemaker, or whether you wanna step up as a as a visionary philanthropreneur, someone who donates and invests $5,000. It really creates a lot of possibilities for our entrepreneurs. And then you get to sit at the table with other investors and donors and the Flywheel leadership and really have a role in this how we shape our programs.

And how we shape our community.

So that's big. Philanthroporer is quite the mouthful. It's a pretty tricky word. Tell me about that word.

I love the word. I I just think it's so clever. It's this perfect mixing of, you know, philanthropist and entrepreneur. Right? It is symbolic of the the generous nature of the people that participate in this program, but also the innovative nature of the people in the that participate in this program and then the the individuals that the program serves and supports, which is our entrepreneurs.

And the word is coined by Flywheel.

Yes. It has a registered trademark. It was Bill Tucker was the creative mind that came up with it years ago. And, you know, I think when Bill came up with the philanthropreneur concept, he was looking at what other social impact funds were doing around the country.

And so there are social impact funds where you can invest hundreds of thousands that that do invest hundreds of thousands of dollars into social enterprises, and you can be investor in those as well. And we we aren't to that scale. We don't make $100,000 investments in these startups. We serve a very specific role more at the top of the funnel, but we do have strong partnerships with groups like Queen City Angels or the Miami University Social Impact Fund or other angel groups around the city. These are groups that we stay close with and that we are in making introductions when appropriate.

Some of our startups are ready to have those conversations with those larger investors and others aren't. And so we really serve that role of making sure that that introduction happens at the right time.

Great. Great. So if our listeners are interested, how would they go about becoming one of our philanthropreneurs? How would they join this Impact Investing Group?

Well, you can contact me at Donna dot Zaring at Flywheel Cincinnati dot org. You can go to our website, flywheelcincinnati.org, and there's information on the philanthropyr program there. You could come to one of our events.

Thank you for taking the time to talk to us a bit about this very unique, bright, and bold initiative at Flywheel Social Enterprise Hub. Is there anything else you want to say or share with our listeners before we step away from the microphones?

Sure. I would ask our listeners to think about social enterprise as a novel approach to solving some of our most pressing social issues in our community. And what's so cool about becoming an impact investor or a philanthropreneur is you're investing in a better way. So you're not only investing in supporting an entrepreneur that's gonna create jobs and grow wealth and prosperity in our community, but you're also investing better solutions for things that impact all of us and and could make our lives dramatically better by tackling challenges in a different kind of way. And so that impact is just amplified when you become a social impact.

Amplified is the real word for Flywheel. Well said. Thank you so much, Donna.

Thank you, Joan.

Flywheel coined the term philanthropreneur for those who invest financially in our impact in the startups as well as invest their time, talent, coaching, support in many ways. The philanthropreneur program includes investing 3,000 or more, and this money goes to funding startups with a social mission. Our philanthropreneurs get a deep understanding of the startups in our accelerator program and are a network of like minded people who believe in the power of social enterprise. They help in many, many ways, but today we're gonna dig in on being a philanthropreneur. Let's hear from our two flywheel philanthropeneur guests, Sandy Hughes

Hello.

And Bob Ziek.

Hello.

Sandy, tell us more about you and your involvement.

So my background was thirty six years with Procter and Gamble focusing on systems transformation. When I rewired in 2012, I focused on risk consulting. So risk management, what can get in your way in preparing for that, and that turned into coaching then. So as a profession, I'm a business and executive coach. I also serve on different boards and work with nonprofits through social venture partners, Queen City Angels, which brings me then to Flywheel.

I have been with Flywheel since 2019 serving as a coach and a coach trainer. I've worked with really fascinating startups like Workforce Connection, Intersect Agriculture, Moxie Girls, Be The Keeper, Eloquate, GreenLine. I worked on the hackathon. So many fascinating different businesses. And you can you can see that the common thread for all of these is that I like sharing my time and talents, but also my money with organizations to increase and strengthen their impact.

Bob, what about you?

I'm a veteran of forty six years in the consumer packaged goods industry in Cincinnati. Like Sandy, I joined P&G initially in the late seventies. I'm dating myself a little bit here, and then moved over to a Drackett division at Bristol Myers where I had an executive position in R&D, and then I went into the entrepreneurial space. I co founded our first company, I was a co founder of our first company in the early nineties. My partner and I exited that in 2003.

I then helped him get Nehemiah Manufacturing, a second chance social venture off the ground as his CTO, and that was in 2009. And I've been engaged in a lot of give back opportunities. About six years ago, I had realized that I had a lot of give back, but nothing really for the region my wife and I called home since the late seventies. And I got an immersion. I started an immersion in the ecosystem in Cincinnati, ended up with Queen City Angels like Sandy, and I've been an angel investor for six years, but I was also introduced to Flywheel at the same time, and really loved the mission and got involved as a coach and Philanthropreneur over the last six years coaching multiple companies, and also doing a lot of the one off, what they called opt ins, where we were doing consulting in situations for nonprofits and social ventures.

It's been a great experience. Both in my angel investing world and in Flywheel. The one thing I've learned is coaching and mentoring is great, but these companies also need funding. This is an opportunity to align my volunteer work with Flywheel with helping fund and provide initial funding for these social ventures.

Sandy, anything to add?

Before I was asked to become a Philanthropreneur, I didn't really know where the money came from. And so when I was asked, it's like, oh, okay. That's where it comes from. And I'm happy to continue because I believe in the mission and what we're about with Flywheel.

You know, we talked about the benefit to us as Philanthropreneur, but it's really about their founders and their innovative ideas that are helping to solve our social problems. So let's talk about the founders and startups who benefit from our philanthropiners and others at Flywheel. And can you describe the types of startups that Flywheel supports that you've been involved in? The one that you just really sparked to that you'd like to talk about.

The one that I continue to be very excited about and I was a coach for is the Cincinnati ReUse and Recycling Hub. The two founders had a passion for sustainability and reducing waste. They were extremely brilliant founders in a lot of ways, very passionate about their cause. We helped them think about their business model and getting their business off the ground. They were great, they were very coachable, and they right now are very successful.

The last time I've talked to the founders, they have 17 employees and their their facility is busy and their their model is working extremely well. That's probably the most exciting of the the startups that I've worked with here.

Yeah. That must be so gratifying. You know, we talk a lot about the double bottom line at Flywheel. The double bottom line is the social impact as well as the return to the community. Both of you invest in Flywheel and other places as well, I understand.

How do you assess a social enterprise or a founder? What do you look for in someone that you want to invest your time and your money in?

I think it's really the passion, creativity, but really the determination and stick to itiveness plus the ability to be coached. So learn from your mistakes, bounce back from those, continuous learning that comes with that. One founder that I continue to coach is Brandon Reynolds, who with B. The Keeper started out with his sustainability platform to increase pollinators, and and I continue to coach him. He's had starts, you know, with sprout and they really haven't got the big bucks coming in yet, but I believe in the potential because of that passion and that creativity.

I look for I look for the passion of the founder, Their coachability, their ability to learn, and ability to adapt as well and persevere. If you don't have that, you won't have a successful company because many founders that don't show that go off on the wrong track. And the perseverance is really, really important. For a social venture, I also look for the real passion about making an impact.

I like it. I've heard the saying, you can bet on the jockey or the horse. You can only do one bet on the jockey. Okay. So we've had some really nice examples from you on social enterprise and the value that they contribute.

And you've talked about the double bottom line for you, investing your time, talent, and money in a start up that helps the community and also looks for ways to grow revenue for their business and sustain it. Let's switch a little bit and talk about the broader benefit to our community. There certainly is benefit to you personally. There is tons of benefit to our founders as you invest time and money, but Cincinnati and our community as a whole also benefits from what we do at Flywheel. Can you talk a little bit about that?

I think about an earlier social venture that I coached for Flywheel, which was Brick Garden. They had a dual focus that impacted our community. One is teaching self sufficiency and skills to underrepresented parts of our population, plus dealing with urban food deserts that was a critical need.

Brandon Reynolds with B. The Keeper and Sprout and I was working with the Civic Garden Center. This Brandon, with his knowledge and his enthusiasm and passion, is often called upon to be a speaker and educator with schools and other organizations about the value of sustainability of our environment.

Those are great examples. And, you know, another one that comes to mind is EcoShell, a member of our accelerator at Flywheel and doing great things in the community. So these organizations have real social and real economic impact in Cincinnati. Okay. So having covered benefits to you, to founders, and to our community, let's just have some fun with being a Philanthropreneur and the topic. Is there anything that has surprised you about being a Philanthropreneur?

Just the attachment that you get to some of these founders and the passion that they instill in me for some of their topics is just a benefit that keeps on giving. You know, it gives me my jollies, quite frankly.

How they put the money to work. They use it very efficiently. Flywheel introduced basically a revenue based financing model that allows Flywheel to receive a return as these companies become successful both for their impact and for making themselves sustainable businesses. So that was a pleasant surprise to see how little money they needed to really get their businesses off the ground.

So many great things about Flywheel and being a philanthropreneur. The program is only accelerating and expanding. Well, you can hear how fortunate Flywheel is to have such involved and talented supporters like Bob and Sandy. Thank you so much for being with us today. Great conversation.

Thank you, Melise.

Thank you, Melise.

On the Fly is produced by Joey Scarillo with music composed by Ben Hammer. Recorded at 1819 Innovation Hub in Cincinnati, Ohio, courtesy of the University of Cincinnati.