A theory of zombies? :) Slides from NYU paper on walking dead social ventures

1. Wanted Dead or Alive?
Modeling the ‘Walking Dead’ Social Venture
Jennifer Woolley, Santa Clara University
Norris Krueger, Entrepreneurship Northwest
these slides: http://goo.gl/cUJ8H

3. Math problems…
• Social Venture 1: Feeds 100 people a day with
an annual budget of $100,000
• Social Venture 2: Feeds 250 people a day with
an annual budget of $75,000
• Who do you invest in?
• Who do you keep investing in?

4. And what about beta?
• Social Venture 1: Feeds 100 people a day with
an annual budget of $100,000
• Social Venture 2: Feeds anywhere from 50 to
150 people a day with an annual budget of
$100,000

5. Are “Zombies” a Joking Matter?
The back story of this project
• “walking dead”/“living dead” from venture
finance
• Impact investors?
• But when could a zombie = GOOD thing?
• And when do we….

6. A few questions that we need to ask:
Misallocated resources or misunderstood role?
• What causes an organization to become a
‘walking dead’, but not exit or scale?
• When do the ‘walking dead’ create value and
if so, how?
• Under what circumstances is the status of
‘walking dead preferred?

7. For Impact Investors & Other Funders
• Who should be encouraged? Who should be
discouraged?
• What are appropriate metrics?
Deeper Issues
• Should we re-allocate resources away from the
‘walking dead’?
• When (and how) do we intervene with the
‘revivable’ ‘walking dead’?

8. Theory of Zombies?
• Who are they? Really…
• How/Where/When do they matter?
• How will we know?
• And perhaps… how to fix them?
– Assuming that they need fixing…

9. Scaling & Investment
• Diagnostics for “failure” to scale?
– Want to grow [controllable?]
– Know how to grow [fixable?]
– External constraints [??]
Scaling usually means higher beta
Is that true for social ventures?

10. Community embeddedness
• Stakeholders –what is their role(s)?
• Connectivity -> nonlinearity in returns
• Portfolio theory issues?
– For impact investors
– AND
– For communities?!
– Why not apply MPT, etc. here?

11. • Social Venture 1: Feeds 100 people a day with
an annual budget of $100,000
• Social Venture 2: Feeds 500 to 1500 people a
day with an annual budget of $1,000,000
• I love gamma but shouldn’t there be two
terms? (two alphas, two betas?)

12. Back to research questions
• But are they the right ones?
• <more shameless pandering to audience>
Misallocated resources or misunderstood role?
• What causes an organization to become a
‘walking dead’, but not exit or scale?
• When do the ‘walking dead’ create value and
if so, how?
• Under what circumstances is the status of
‘walking dead actually preferable?

13. For Impact Investors & Other Funders
• Who should be encouraged? Who should be
discouraged?
• What are appropriate metrics?
Deeper Issues
• Should we re-allocate resources away from the
‘walking dead’?
• When (and how) do we intervene with the
‘revivable’ ‘walking dead’?

15. Thanks!
• Want in?
• these slides: http://goo.gl/cUJ8H
• Jennifer “Michonne” Woolley
– jwoolley (at) scu.edu
• Norris “Shaun” (or “Shaun’s Friend”?) Krueger
– @entrep_thinking
– Norris.krueger[at]gmail.com