Interview with Teju Ravilochan, Connections Strategist and Co-Founder of The Unreasonable Institute

This week I had the opportunity to interview Teju Ravilochan, Connections Strategist and Co-Founder of The Unreasonable Institute. I found out about The Unreasonable Institute through Social Earth's Twitter feed and was intrigued by the name. Some of the people I admire most consider themselves unreasonable, those who push boundaries, who work toward building a world that is far better than the world as we know it today. They strive and thrive on their creativity and imagination. Teju and the team at The Unreasonable Institute fit this bill perfectly. The Unreasonable Institute's mission is to provide intensive training, effective collaboration, and expert guidance to Unreasonable social ventures that give them the momentum to take flight.

Christa - What inspired The Unreasonable Institute?

Teju - The Unreasonable Institute emerged from both inspiration and frustration. 4 years ago, Daniel Epstein, our President and Co-Founder, traveled to the Czech Republic to attend a global youth leadership program. Dan was thrilled to interact with "future leaders" from all over the world, but frustrated by the opportunity cost of the program. The program did not produce measurable impact nor lead to the development of viable solutions to the world’s challenges. Determined to create a place where young people could learn "how to change the world" practically, he decided to create a similar program in Boulder, Colorado (where we all attend/attended college). Along with partner Mike Forte, Dan brought 17 students together from 14 different countries (including Sierra Leone, Pakistan, and Colombia) in the summer of 2008 to study leadership, but still found he was unsatisfied with the outcomes. Suddenly, he realized the value of combining the convergence of driven, young people from around the world with social entrepreneurship.

In the meanwhile, I was in India conducting research about effective NO practices in addressing rural poverty and learned about the consistent failure of charity-based models to produce outcomes. I found that effective organizations viewed the poor more as customers and entrepreneurs, instead of recipients of charity (to borrow a line from one of my heroes: Paul Polak of International Development Enterprises and D-Rev: Design for the Other 90%). I brought this view back to the US and Dan and I became incredibly excited about the potential for business to address social and environmental challenges. The concept behind the institute emerged from the intersection of our experiences, shared over cups of hot chai and breakfast scrambles.

The name for the organization came from George Bernard Shaw's assertion that "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man [and woman]." We read this quotation in the book The Power of Unreasonable People and secured permission from one of its authors, Pamela Hartigan (now director of the Skoll Centre) to use "Unreasonable" in our name. The Unreasonable Institute was born!

Christa - There are a lot of group out there that support social entrepreneurs; many of them are your partners. What makes you different from groups like Social Edge or Acumen Fund?

Teju - We provide young social entrepreneurs with EVERYTHING. We pair them with mentors, align them with seed capital, provide skills training, offer them free legal consulting, web hosting and development, access to premier research, and a global network of support. Additionally, we have very specific goals. We incubate social ventures that will:
1.) Effectively address a social or environmental challenge;
2.) Become financially self-sustaining (do not require external financing) within 1 year;
3.) Scale outside their country of origin within 3 years, effectively addressing a global issue on a global level;
4.) Be open for replication (copylefted) 4 years after launch;
5.) Meet the needs of at least 1 million people

Many organizations dedicated to enabling social entrepreneurs are grant agencies, foundations, or traditional non-profits. We hold ourselves to the same standards outlined above. Finally, our institute is developed by, directed by, and dedicated to young social entrepreneurs from all over the world between the ages of 20-30.

Christa - 2010 will be your first institute. What are you goals for the first summer institute? What do you hope to learn in the process? Will this be an annual program?

Teju - We are unbelievably excited to host our first summer institute next summer. Our major goal for the first institute is to rally some of the most brilliant, young social entrepreneurs we can find and "give them wings." More concrete goals include:
1.) 70% of the ventures incubated at the institute meet the objectives outlined above on time and 95% to meet them no more than a year later;
2.) 50% of the mentors at the institute serve on the boards and/or invest in at least one social venture (Unreasonable Venture) incubated at the institute;
3.) Financial sustainability for the Unreasonable Institute after the 2010 Summer Institute (i.e. no reliance upon external financing)
4.) Fundamentally, our goal is to demonstrate the power of bringing together young people with big ideas along with seasoned changemakers to create ventures that can effectively address the world's biggest problems in a way that is sustainable, scalable; and replicable.

Christa - What do you hope to learn through the 2010 Summer Institute?

Teju - We hope, first and foremost, to learn from our Fellows what is possible and what the world might look like if their ideas can become successful. We honestly believe that the caliber of ideas we will attract to the Institute can paint a picture of a world we never before imagined. We hope to learn from Mentors and from our Board (The Unreasonable Council) the concrete steps required to create this world.

We hope to learn a lot about the investment opportunities created by the ideas incubated at our institute. How much profit will they be capable of generating? Will they be able to produce profits & dividends for shareholders while effectively addressing poverty or social injustice?

We hope to learn about the how our Fellows and the Institute at large can change the way we create change. Will traditional business recognize the vast, untapped markets available to them in under-served populations? Will traditional nonprofits appreciate the opportunity cost of their charity-based models? Will these institutions adapt in order to create systemic impact? What will it require us to create this change?

We will take what we learn and apply to our future Summer Institutes, which will indeed occur every year!

Christa - You site says that Unreasonable Institute supports social entrepreneurs ages 20-30. Do you support entrepreneurs outside that age range as well?

Teju - Our focus is 20-30 year old social entrepreneurs. But it's not a hard and fast rule. We're after systemic social change and we hope to support that in whatever way possible. We believe, however, that there are barriers for entry for young social entrepreneurs in this age group and that an Institute like ours fills a unique, under-served niche. We also believe that it is the members of this demographic who are on the verge of taking the reigns of the world's future and that we cannot afford to send them into the world unprepared to deal with increasingly urgent global threats like poverty, climate change, and the oppression of women.

Christa - Last question. Could you tell me a little bit about the team members who run The Unreasonable Institute?

Teju - At the moment, we have 5 team members: Daniel Epstein, Nikhil Dandavati, Vladimir Dubovskiy, Tyler Hartung, and myself.

Daniel Epstein (President and Co-Founder): Daniel, the light of our organization, embodies the entrepreneurial spirit. He's relentlessly determined. He graduated in December 2008 from the University of Colorado, Boulder with a degree in Philosophy. In the summer of 2008, He co-developed and directed a 5 week institute in Boulder that brought together 17 young, aspiring social entrepreneurs from 14 countries to study global issues and the skill sets needed to address them them. In addition, Daniel is the co-founder of two Boulder based companies, Tuition Specialists and SWAE Sports. Tuition Specialists is focused on making quality education affordable and SWAE Sports is a social venture focused on conservation through adventure and on re-branding the adventure sports industry. He is currently on a 3-month long bike trip from Canada to Mexico to sign partners for SWAE (Snow. Water. Air. Earth.) Sports and is meeting with the most innovative people and organizations along the west coast on behalf of the Unreasonable Institute. If you ask him, Daniel will tell you that he has holds a fundamental belief that entrepreneurship is the answer to nearly all challenges we face today.

Nikhil Dandavati (Market Strategist and Co-Founder): Nikhil is a finance major at the University of Colorado Boulder and in the middle of training for his first ever triathalon. Like Dan, he's unwaveringly determined to do whatever he sets his mind to. In addition to working for the Unreasonable Institute, he is working for a company he helped get off the ground called Tuition Specialists, aiming to make higher education affordable. Nikhil handles everything financial for the Institute, largely because of his ability to process high volumes of detailed information quickly and propensity for impressing "adults."

Vladimir Dubovskiy (Creative Expert and Co-Founder): Originally from Russia and studying applied math at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Vlad is currently in India conducting research and developing partnerships for a social enterprise he started called Greenlighted. Greenlighted aims to change the way business does business by empowering consumers to make socially and environmentally informed purchases. Impassioned by the power of business to create social change, Vlad joined up with the Unreasonable Institute while living with Dan and became the mastermind behind our website. Since then, he has worked diligently to broker partnerships for us with organizations like BeyondProfit Magazine and ChangeFusion Nepal.

Tyler Hartung (Commuity Tactician and Co-Founder): If there's anyone on our team who knows how to execute, it's Tyler. You can trust him to get the job done. Currently in Uganda for 6-months working for a Microfinance Institution, Tyler has been working on a massive database of potential collaborative partners. As Community Tactician, Tyler is largely responsible for the event planning and detailed oversight that running Summer Institute day-to-day will require.

Teju Ravilochan (Connections Strategist and Co-Founder): Teju currently works for D-Rev: Design for the Other 90%, which was founded by Paul Polak to create a revolution in the way that designers create solutions to the problems faced by $1-$2/day consumers. He is leaving the organization shortly, however, to work full time for the Unreasonable Institute. As Connections Strategist, Teju is responsible for building relationships with potential mentors, applicants, and partner organizations as the organization's Twitter account, press relations, and the blog (soon to be released). Teju is deeply interested in the application of mobile phones for addressing poverty, primarily by bridging the gap between isolated rural consumers and traditional businesses. He's been exploring how to "connect these dots" through an organization he started called  The SHARED Element.

For more info: The Unreasonable Institute