As much as it might pain them to admit it, luck plays a large part in an entrepreneur’s success: being in the right place, saying the right thing, meeting the right person.
It makes complete sense, then, for a young entrepreneur to take the luck out of luck by making sure meeting the right person is no longer accidental.
Robyn Scott (pictured above), a serially successful social entrepreneur, grew up in the Botswana bush. Smart and determined, but home-schooled until 15, she has an intimate understanding of the challenge of being an outsider, trying to get a foot in the door.
She was determined ‘to make it easier for smart people, whatever their background, to make transformative connections.’ With her brother and a friend, she founded OneLeap, an online community in which business leaders – corporate executives, investors, experts – can be contacted by serious entrepreneurs, without being inundated.
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To contact a member, the entrepreneur has to commit a modest fee, typically the price of a few coffees, to show they’re serious. When they get a reply, however, 80 per cent of that fee goes to the business leader’s chosen charity.
Pictured below: OneLeap’s homepage
These are connections that would never have otherwise been made. Being a recipient of a OneLeap message is wonderful, and not just because you’re donating to charity. You get to hear from some of the world’s most exciting social or commercial innovators.
These asymmetric connections (the ones that really inspire great leaps forward) are in fact, in the words of one executive, ‘a two-way street’.
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Robyn recently added a service connecting corporates to leading innovators, through bespoke introductions and entrepreneur councils. This was a direct response to corporate members asking her for more introductions to entrepreneurs, fresher perspectives, innovative thinking and deals.
You can connect with Robyn Scott at oneleap.to/robynscott
This is the first in a regular series by Will Bentinck
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