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How to make your startup a social enterprise?
Prajakta Nitin Kulkarni .

Hello everyone. I am a Medical Student and Founder of 'Let's Make it Happen', a Social initiative on Mental health and well-being during the pandemic and beyond. We started this as a social media campaign in May and we got a tremendous response for this Initiative.
We could reach 2L+ people through this Initiative, have been getting Celebrity support and media coverages for the same.

Now I'm getting offers for partnership as it's a promising startup idea for everyone, today. I want to know how can this be set up as a social enterprise. (With keeping my end consumer services free, like our mental health helpline or email service, free of charge) Also, what can be the possible business models for such types of Social startups? Anyone from content space and startup combinations, please get in touch with us:)
Anyone who's interested in collaborating with us, for this cause, let us know:)

Thank you :)

Originally Posted Here
32 Comments

Asit Mohanty 

Let's connect.

Prajakta Nitin Kulkarni

Yes sure thing!:)

Gireesh Likhyani 

Let's connect

Arindam Nath

You can make videos, write blogs about mental well being. You can keep the basic knowledge information free and earn from digital monetization. This solves both the purposes.

Anish Kuriakose

Yes. That's one way of looking at this. However, the ads would need constant monitoring to ensure that it doesn't malign the image of the good cause.

Arindam Nath

Absolutely, anything worth doing needs regular monitoring. This is the easiest way to start at minimal expense.

Prajakta Nitin Kulkarni

Yes exactly. That's the plan even we are thinking as well. And that's the tricky part of not letting the ads overpower our social structure. We need a model to support our expenditure.

Arindam Nath

Anish Kuriakose What is your opinion on forming a separate NGO for my social initiative and a social startup that can fund our NGO. This will keep both the entities separate.

Anish Kuriakose

what's the objective of having 2 separate NGOs (if I got that right)? What do you mean by a social initiative 'and' a social startup? Are they both different concepts?

Prajakta Nitin Kulkarni

The NGO will be a complete No-profit organization looking after all free basic services. And premium services and therapies can be included in the social startup which will be an LLP, funding our NGO

That's the legal advice I've got. To keep the two as separate entities and safeguard my social interest and the start-up independently.

Anish Kuriakose

yes, this sounds about right. This is the way to go. One NGO and one LLP. All the best😊👍🏼

Prajakta Nitin Kulkarni

Thank you so much😊

Arindam Nath

If I may put my views they way I see about your plan the social startup must get enough traction to be precise must generate enough revenue to sustain itself and then only it can fund the NGO keeping the basic services free as you have planned. Wishing you all the best for your venture!

Hariharasudhan Jothi 

Let's connect and discuss

Abhishek Tripathi 

Let's connect. :)

Shashwat Kaul 

Let's connect

In a nut shell don't follow the buzz words ... Tr y to find one problem that can be solved using a digital media and form your business plan around it.

Pritam Chatterjee

Isn't it too early for this? probably you should let the operation float at least for 6 more months and explore the potential by focusing on the core operation.

Prajakta Nitin Kulkarni

We can't let go of the traction and momentum we have got currently. That's why we are wanting to step up.

Saketh Ram

Hi, I'm a Co-founder of an XR based start-up. We've been researching a lot on utilising VR as a tool for countering trauma and therapy. Would love to connect and discuss more.

Rohit Chakor

hi I'm an orthopedic surgeon who deals with xrays and other imaging modalities on day to day basis.. I would like to know more about your startup..

Saketh Ram

Nice to meet you here doctor. We work on creating AR and VR solutions which include simulation of a 3D object or an environment. I would be happy to connect and discuss more. Please feel free to call me on 7045072162

Anil Kumar

Prajakta, happy to read about your experiment and responses over it. Being a researcher on business model of social enterprises, I have lot of things to share. However, all the ideas and advises will be not suitable in your case. Because, I do not know the answer of some fundamental questions. What is your largest mission and trigger points to serve in this domain? To whom you see as a potential consumer of your venture services? And many more such questions...

Presently, you are thinking about the freemium business model. Which means, free for all and charges for premium services. However, from my experiences, business model can be designed based on planned activities, engagement, long term mission and goals. So, design your business model wisely. Most importantly, getting fund collaboration is not always fruitful in case of a social enterprise, because you will face a mission drift problem.

Prajakta Nitin Kulkarni

Yes . You've rightly pointed out the issue. Even we are working on that aspect.
We would be keeping all our basic services free. And therapies and premium services at an affordable rate.

Anil Kumar

good luck and best wishes for your venture.

Prajakta Nitin Kulkarni

Thank you so much:)

DrNeha Savla Shah

Since am a homoeopath n know the benefits of this on mental health... i think this shud definatelt be one of your pillars... support group being the other

Prajakta Nitin Kulkarni

yes absolutely:)

Ritvik Agrawal

Hi Prajakta,
I am also working on a similar cause where we are tackling the menace of bullying in India. It is a brand new baby, but we already have a 4 member team working on the cause dedicatedly and there are some industry experts whom we have ropedin.

I would say that keep your content free and you can earn from events, workshops, and ad placements. There will be other earning opportunities as well but that is when things get rolling.

Prajakta Nitin Kulkarni

Yes. That's exactly our plan for now.😅

Ritvik Agrawal

all the best going ahead...ping me if you have anything else.

Mohammed Ali

You should post in -Cofounders on Sweat Equity
The feedback and response from there should be good as well.

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