Social Impact Startups ACCELERATOR

This course begins by the students choosing an existing social venture to build, launch, and grow. The class is taught from a practitioner’s point of view designed to be both collaborative and interactive. Students will be placed in teams that will explore the various phases of business development.

The first phase is building the business. This is the infrastructure and organizational part that is required to launch the business. Second, we execute the launch of the business as a fully functional established operation. We then explore the growth and expansion phases. The course concludes with the maturity phase that includes exit strategies such as acquisition, merger, or liquidation.

Industry Professional Bio: Larry Spera

Lawrence Spera is the managing partner of Road Angel Capital, LLC, adiverse investment company that specializes in real estate related activities as well as seed funding and early-stage financing to companies that focus on community impact through social innovation. Currently, he mentors and advises early-stage start-ups through the Keller Center’s eLab Accelerator program at Princeton University and social impact start-ups at North Carolina State University’s Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program.