Why social impact startups are set up to fail | Clara Brenner | TEDxSanAntonio

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. We all know innovation is crucial to solving our community's toughest social issues—public transportation, urban poverty, and more. But today's urban impact entrepreneurs are faced with a catch-22: investors demand results before deploying capital, yet entrepreneurs lack the funding to produce early results. So how do we change the dynamic? And how can we provide early stage social entrepreneurs the capital they need to fix our cities?

Co-founder and CEO of Tumml, a nonprofit urban ventures accelerator, Clara's mission is to empower entrepreneurs to solve urban problems. In 2014, Forbes listed her as one of its “30 Under 30” for Social Entrepreneurship and The San Francisco Business Times named Tumml “Best Startup” at its Tech & Innovation Awards. Her work energizing urban impact entrepreneurship has been featured in numerous publications, including Forbes and the San Francisco Chronicle. Clara has a background in urban real estate and sustainability. She worked as an Associate with WestMill Capital, a real estate investment start-up focused on alternative financing and merchandising mixes authentic to the local area. Notably, she developed and edited content for two WestMill web platforms (Popularise.com and Fundrise.com) to interact with the community about local real estate projects. Clara earned her MBA from MIT Sloan and her BA from NYU. She sits on the MIT Sloan Alumni Board.

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