Whilst the aims of social ventures and enterprises are aligned, the venture model is more entrepreneurial, with founders like myself innovating new products to help solve specific human challenges.
Mission led businesses in the UK are on the rise increasing from 5,300 in 2003 to over 130,000 in 2023, employing around 2.3 million people.
I have been leading an all female team at Asan since 2021 and I am not alone. According to the 2023 "Mission Critical" report by Social Enterprise UK, 58% of social enterprises have leadership teams that are at least half female . This is significantly higher than the proportion of women-led small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK, which stood at 15% in 2023.
How I got started
I was inspired to launch a social venture directly through my experience growing up in Southern India. I witnessed first hand the psychological and cultural challenges many females of all ages faced around periods.
As a teenager, I travelled around the country playing basketball for my state team. Due to a lack of public dustbins, I had to carry soiled pads in my bag for days, leading to shame and embarrassment. Still today, lack of access to safe period care means many women miss up to 5 days of work a month, creating unnecessary economic hardship.
But it wasn’t only economic hardship I was concerned about. Each year over 200 billion period products are thrown away worldwide and over 120 billion tampons are used and disposed of every year too.
Most of this period product waste ends up in landfill or oceans.
What’s more, it's not just the waste of period products. It’s the entire supply chain from manufacturing to packaging, transport and distribution which is hugely wasteful and damaging to our planet.
How to Grow A Social Venture: Tips for Success
Why launch a social venture?
Positive impact. That’s the key word that often distinguishes the true values of a social venture from a fully commercial business.
If you are exploring options, ask yourself these two questions. Are you invested in creating meaningful social, economic or environmental impact with your business? Does that mission take equal priority to customer sales? If the answer is yes, a social venture that combines scale and impact is a good model.
I wanted to create a business where my products were made accessible not only to those who can afford it, but also to those who need my products the most.
Asan combines direct-to-consumer sales with a subsidised wholesale model, where we sell to NGOs and factories across South Asia and Africa. The Asan Cup works well in this workplace environment because women can wear the cup for 12 hours without leaks - and don't need to find bins to dispose of anything.
What’s The Problem?
To anyone setting up a social venture, my advice is to focus on the problem first - before thinking about the product.
There are many innovations that don’t scale because they are not solving a real-world problem. My advice is to keep your customers and their needs front of mind in everything you do.
I often spend time with communities across the world who use Asan’s period cups. I value the real time feedback and the experience gives me an even better understanding of their lives. It not only helps me keep connected to my customers but also helps me innovate new solutions too.
Build Your Village
By their very nature, social ventures don’t focus exclusively on consumer sales so financial and market support has to be sourced from other places. Your social venture can't help anyone if it can't stay afloat so financial stability is critical!
Alongside grants, donations and partnerships, aligned investors are critical. I've had incredible support from investors, that goes way beyond providing capital. Also thanks to Asan's social mission, we've been able to attract mission aligned investors who also serve on our advisory board.
My community of investors have helped generate new sales opportunities, new product lines and new areas for growth. I work hand-in-hand with them which I know is rare in the start-up world, so I consider myself incredibly fortunate in this regard.
I have also secured support from startup accelerators, awards and foundations. I graduated from the Amazon Sustainability Accelerator last year and am a Cartier Women’s Initiative Fellow, which has provided incredible support for growing both my business and our social impact.
Pioneer & Protest
One of the most unexpected barriers and ‘lows’ we continue to face is period taboo in the most "developed" and urbanised markets. Many people think periods are hugely taboo in remote overseas villages but the truth is I've faced a lot of backlash to my work even in the UK.
We receive daily social media and direct messages from people telling us that our menstrual cup shouldn't be mentioned or advertised.
For many social venture founders, we need to be prepared to educate the marketplace which means we take longer to scale than a standard SME. Any change can face resistance and part of my role is to champion our cause and educate consumers and their influencers. Periods are just a natural, normal part of daily life, but sadly it has become normalised to think periods are embarrassing.
My team has designed our website to easily answer any FAQs and make periods a normal topic of conversation. After all, two billion people worldwide menstruate every month! I also undertake talks and share thought leadership articles like these to help tackle misperceptions.
Your story is your impact. Your impact is your success.
Never forget that a social venture needs to tell the world about its work. If social impact is a core value of your enterprise - then share your success in compelling and exciting ways.
We create regular impact reports and case studies to help illustrate the difference we have made. We make these accessible and easy to read and we tell human centric stories.
For example, over 30,000 women in Kanakapura, Karnataka, India have switched to Asan menstrual cups as part of the world’s largest menstrual cup adoption programme.
Our Impact Report shares personal testimonials and powerful statistics showing how we are making a difference. In this particular project, we have helped create 7 million more paid work days, saved the community over 6 million US dollars otherwise spent on pads and stopped over 1,000 tonnes of waste going to landfill.
I hope to meet many more social ventures over the next few years and hope these insights have helped guide any decisions!
Ira Guha is the founder of Asan, an award-winning social venture committed to ending period poverty and reducing period product waste.
