Welcome to the February BfE newsletter! 🎉 | |
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Dear BfE family,
I hope this email finds you doing well. It's difficult to ignore the tumultuous events from the past week, so I thought I'd add my two cents. Russia's military invasion of Ukraine has sent shock waves around the world, unleashing a full-scale European conflict many experts thought was unlikely to occur. Millions of innocent Ukrainians are now paying the price, fleeing into neighboring countries as refugees, hiding in underground metro stations serving as bomb shelters, or taking up arms to defend their homeland. Meanwhile, the world's deepest sanctions regime is being imposed on Russia, causing the rouble to lose significant value and inflicting financial hardship on millions of Russians.
These consequences of conflict are, unfortunately, all too familiar. Whether in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Palestine or elsewhere, normal everyday people bear both short and long-term scars from war initiated by politicians. Conflict should never be the go-to mechanism to settle disagreements, and there needs to be better global checks and balances to ensure fewer conflicts break out in the future. My heart goes out to those suffering from senseless conflict, whether in Ukraine or elsewhere. If you'd like to take action, I encourage you to educate yourself, join a protest, donate to Ukrainian causes, and speak up among your friends/family.
While it's true that the number of interstate global conflicts have declined over the past 50 years, we still have so much more progress to make as a global community. To put it simply: sustained peace is essential for long-term sustainable development. War inflicts long-term damage that increases poverty and reverses economic development progress, often by years at a time. Consequently, such damage can be a major detriment to organizations empowering those with entrepreneurial solutions to uplift others from poverty. As a non-profit rooted in the belief that social entrepreneurship – as a tool – can build a more vibrant future, achieving our mission necessitates having sustained peace across the countries our entrepreneurs operate in. Thus, our operations are not immune from the long-term effects of conflict. Though we don't serve entrepreneurs in Ukraine, we do serve entrepreneurs in other countries where conflict is sometimes an intractable aspect of daily life. As members of this wonderful organization, we should all acknowledge how much of a privilege it is to empower entrepreneurs dedicating their life to building a more vibrant future for their communities – especially those overcoming major obstacles, like conflict. Always remember that the work we do, while seemingly menial at times, has a real impact.
My hope is that by reading this, you gain a little more empathy for those experiencing conflict around the world. Let's do our part to continue being kind to one another, supporting causes we feel passionate about, and standing up for those less fortunate than we are.
For now, I wish you all a happy and healthy March! Please reach out to me if you ever want to chat.
With lots of gratitude,
Jordan |
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Missed something within BfE this month? Here's what you need to know:
- BIG NEWS! BfE Co-Founders Shaun and Tanya are launching our first-ever charity FUNDRAISER! They are walking 150km around the perimeter of Singapore to help raise money for providing grants directly to the social entrepreneurs in our Incubation Programme. Interested in donating or learning more? Check out this link or email shaun@bridgesforenterprise.com
- ICYMI: If you're interested in learning tips on how to present BfE externally, check out this helpful workshop conducted by our Startup Recruitment team here
- ICYMI: The BfE Tech Division hosted two successful product townhalls earlier this year, which showcased UI/UX mockups of the BfE Intranet. For many attendees, it was their first time seeing the sleek designs. Missed the event and want a sneak peek at what BfE Tech is building? Rewatch the recordings from the townhall on volunteer management workflow and the other on startup recruitment workflow at this link
- We're co-hosting an event with our partner, Lagos-based ESG consultancy CliMatr, on 18 March! Come join us to learn more about how early-stage startups can embed sustainability/ESG principles into their business to build a more sustainable impact model. Register here
- We've launched our new Coffee Chats initiative. Join us to connect with other BfE members across chapters and divisions in casual 1:1 chats facilitated over Slack. See more information below
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We've continued to make steady progress on various initiatives at the global level. This month was a busy one. Here's what each division was up to:
📊 Incubation
- Richa (Global Consulting Manager) has produced a proposal deck for the pre-Incubation Programme Diagnostic Phase initiative. Our next step is to engage with BfE Advisors to concretise the content
- As part of the BfE Academy initiative led by Arnas (Global Academy Manager), we have produced an onboarding training deck for new incubation associates within BfE Chapters. We will next solicit feedback from chapter leadership teams to prepare for launch in the upcoming Spring Cohort
- Jeremy (Global Finance Advisory Manager) and Richa have conducted mid-engagement checkpoints with our current consulting engagements. They had fruitful discussions on how to better leverage our professional mentor pool to benefit the Incubation Programme, and will now work with the Global Operations Division to have deeper conversations on this
🤝 Outreach
- Partnerships: No new updates for this month! Stay tuned for more in March
- Communications:
- We successfully co-hosted another event with Stepchange Africa on 18 February! The event featured four speakers and covered the benefits of startup accelerator programs for African founders. Watch the event here.
- We're in the process of creating a global events calendar, which will become the go-to place for finding out about BfE events. There will also be a way to submit your chapter events to the calendar. Stay tuned 👀
- We're launching our first cross-chapter, cross-division coffee chat initiative on March 6! This program randomly pairs up BfE members through Slack for 1:1 casual chats. Interested in signing up? Learn more below or contact Melissa (Global Events Manager) at melissa.paldano@bridgesforenterprise.com
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🔋 Strategy & Operations
- Strategy:
- New Chapter Handbook: Currently in the works, with an anticipated release in March
- Chapter Presidents & VP's Meeting: Held the Chapter VP and P meeting with the Global Incubation Division in February
- Annual Impact Report: Met with Global Heads to divide work, with a goal for publication by Q2 2022
- Student Testimonial Video Project: Almost complete but [ON HOLD]
- Operations:
- Our Autumn 2022 cohort application deadline is coming up on 1 April. Know any startups that should apply for our Incubation Programme? Direct them to our application
- We onboarded a new Global Mentorships Manager! Based in Munich, Jimena Mendez will be driving our mentorship engagement and recruiting new mentors from Latin America. Welcome to the team 👏
- Mun Keong (Global Compliance Manager) is in the process of crafting a new Terms of Agreement for professional mentors
- If you're interested in learning more about how to present BfE externally, check out this helpful workshop conducted by our Startup Recruitment team here
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👩💻 Impact Research
- We are collaborating with the Communications and Strategy Divisions to produce BfE's inaugural Annual Impact Report. Our focus has been on analyzing and outlining impact metrics for the report, which we've been gathering through internal feedback responses as well as from student and startup testimonials
- We are continuing to develop BfE's first-ever Impact Wheel – we are now seeking startup founders' perspectives on our initial proposal, and are looking forward to incorporating their feedback into the final version
⚙️ Technology
- We are thrilled to announce that we will be onboarding David Lizano as the new Global Product Manager overseeing the BfE Intranet product roadmap, planning, development and execution strategies! David has worked in different functions related to technology, from support roles to consulting, most of the time in the financial services industry. Later, he moved to Product Management functions where he helped to build a digital online platform or a services start-up. We look forward to working with David on exciting product initiatives for the BfE Intranet
- The BfE Intranet Features Roadmap used for feature planning, prioritising and documentation of the BfE Intranet can be accessed here. If you have any questions about existing features on the roadmap or suggestions for new useful features, please approach @Brenda (Global Technology Head) or @David (Global Product Manager). Development projects are taking place across the Singapore Chapter and the Global Division
- We are also actively looking for a Global Tech Talent Manager for tech volunteer and mentor management. Please feel free to reach out to Kathi (Global Tech Programme Manager) if you have any internal referrals
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Our chapters have been busy this month, with the academic year kicking off recently.
🇬🇧 Cambridge
- Accuracy Financial Modelling Workshop: We had great attendance at our annual financial modelling workshop with Accuracy, with the Finance Advisory (FA) team in particular getting some great training for this terms projects
- New Social Media: The Communications team have put together new Instagram and LinkedIn accounts for the chapter, helping to boost online engagement. Follow us!
- Market Research Workshop: In collaboration with Cambridge Resolution, the Growth & Partnerships team organised a great in-person market research workshop, providing an invaluable training session for the incubation teams
🇺🇸 New York
- Programme Development: Our Startup Recruitment teams have undergone interview and outreach training, and have begun to conduct interviews with startups and contact organizations with connections to suitable startups for our Programme. Meanwhile, our Growth & Partnerships and Communications teams each had their first in-person meeting on Sunday! G&P has been working on many events, including the chapter social and future professional and design workshops. Comms has been reviving the BfE New York Instagram page with member highlights, sustainability news, and story takeovers
- Incubation: Our Consulting and Finance Advisory teams had introductory calls for all three incubation teams and are making steady progress with their deliverables. We have strong relationships with all the teams and have been in contact with them on a regular basis. We also have strong input from our professional mentors who provide an informative perspective and are extremely engaging
🇸🇬 Singapore
- Team Updates: Our teams are all working hard to support our clients this semester, with our advisory teams embarking on their mid-point calls. Our Startup Recruitment team is also currently doing research on the Southeast Asia startup landscape before starting their outreach to the region. Lastly, we're planning for our all-chapter Townhall 2 to take place on 5th March!
- Internal Cohesion: Our Chapter-wide Bridging Buddies (BB) Cohesion Initiative has officially kicked off, and our members are currently working on their creative posters for why they love working in BfE! We're excited to see what they'll come up with by the end of this semester 💪
- Members' Initiatives: We're grateful that some of our members have taken the initiative to propose conducting CV/Interview workshops for our Chapter, and we're excited to see it come into fruition soon
🇨🇦 Vancouver
- New Member Onboarding: Shoutout to our 9 newly onboarded team members for joining us on our journey! Feel free to connect with them on LinkedIn below 👇
- On the Communications team, we have Ethan as our new Co-Director, and Sofia and Henry joining us as associates
- Our consulting engagement will be directed by Soham, and our crew of new associates are Alex, Doris, Michelle, Saori, and Sika!
- We hosted a welcome session/virtual get-to-know-each-other social, and are currently in the process of organizing our first in-person meet-up!
- Consulting: We enjoyed our first pre-introductory call with Dorothy from Beyond Solid Waste Management (Kenya), which helped us better understand and set the scope for the engagement. Soham and our Senior Associate, Ryan, also held our first kickoff and training session for the team
- Communications: The team is currently working on developing our social media content calendar and strategy, and is also in the process of updating our Vancouver website with new members. Stay tuned for our updated bios and headshots!
🇮🇳 New Delhi
- Consulting: We held our first offline full team meeting, wherein we had a fun little introduction followed by a discussion of the project scope. Additionally, we held a meeting with our professional mentor, Tag Yujie, who helped us better detail the case problem. Lastly, we organised a focus group discussion with Ladewin to get more accurate insights into practicalities of their operations
- General Updates: We wrapped up a knowledge sharing session for new chapter recruits. Also, we had a fruitful discussion of our global case competition idea with the chapter leadership
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We are so grateful for the outstanding contributions made by the following BfE members this month. Thank you and well done! 👏 |
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 From BfE Cambridge: Shoutout to Ryan Convoy (Finance Advisory Director)! A real financial wizard, Ryan has provided quality support to the FA teams on their projects, having previously worked as an FA Associate last year- 🇸🇬 From BfE Singapore: We'd like to commend our Growth & Partnerships Co-Director Yi Ning for her hard work in making the BB Cohesion Initiative a success so far, as well as renewing our partnership with Sealed Network!
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We're co-hosting an event with our partner, CliMatr, on 18 March! Interested in learning how startups can embed sustainability principles into their business? Tune in to hear Henry Ukoha and Benjamin Udokwu discuss ESG integration for startup founders. |
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🗞 News, Resources and Jobs | |
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