While Sarah Richard, MBA ’15, had dabbled with the idea of being an entrepreneur during her MBA at the Ivey Business School, she couldn’t have imagined that she would be helping launch a business only a week after graduating.
Richard was visiting Ivey to speak to a group of eager New Venture Project (NVP) students and a local women’s leadership network, Lady Leaders. “I snuck into Ivey under the guise of wanting to be a consultant,” says Richard, who had worked for a major insurance firm prior to Ivey. She knew right from the start that the corporate route was not for her but her initial interests in the nonprofit sector waned the more she learned about the industry.
“I was drawn to the social enterprise space. Fundraising in the non-profit sector is such a challenge, and I was really drawn to the idea of achieving similar objectives through revenue, not fundraising,” said Richard. While admitting that there are many ways to skin a cat, entrepreneurship caught her eye.
“Business is what lifts people out of poverty and improves people’s lives… people being industrious and entrepreneurial is what moves things forward,” said Richard. She took that attitude into her New Venture Project, where her team decided to take on a project that could change people’s lives. They worked on a solution to stop people texting and driving, by offering a carrot rather than a stick. By providing incentives to drivers for not texting or using their phone, their product would offer insurance discounts and other prizes.
Having presented in front of a panel of experienced judges and entrepreneurs at the NVP Presentations, they were floored by the reactions. “I think you are going to kick yourself when someone else gets rich from this idea and it’s not you,” said one of the judges. “That was the moment that it occurred to us that maybe we had come up with something that people actually wanted.” exclaimed Richard.
While the idea connected with Andreas Souvaliotis, a social entrepreneur and longtime Entrepreneur-in-Residence for Ivey’s NVP Program, he spotted Richard’s entrepreneurial potential. “Speaking with him after the presentation, he said, ‘You know what, love your idea but I would really like you to come and help me launch my business,’” said Richard.
A week after graduating, Richard was helping launch a company with Souvaliotis and two other people, which has since grown to a team of nine. At Social Change Rewards, they are partnering with major loyalty programs to reward people for being healthier and are gearing up to launch their mobile app later this year. “The app will motivate you do things like exercise, eat more vegetables and get your flu shot, by rewarding you with points you already collect,” said Richard.
“When you’re building a business, nothing that you’re building has existed before, you’re making everything up as you go. Everyday I come up with a new process,” said Richard who can’t imagine going back to a 9-to-5 job.
“I think there’s a huge opportunity with this generation that is more focused on things like the triple bottom line and Corporate Social Responsibility and Venture Capital firms and Investors are paying attention because there’s a whole new slew of investment funds that are beginning to target socially conscious businesses,” said Richard.
She still reconnects with what she learned at Ivey, particularly the NVP template or 9-step process. “I work with amazingly talented people but nobody has all the answers out there. What you’re learning at Ivey is a framework to take to the real world and Larry (Plummer)’s job is to make sure you know that structure well.”
She encouraged students to take full advantage of all the resources and people available at Ivey. “You are not always going to have access to someone who knows how to create a financial model and who will do it for free because they are your friend or classmate. This is the place! If you are going to do it, you have everything you need at your fingertips right here,” said Richard.