10 Social Entrepreneurs to Watch 2021

Whenever I think of social entrepreneurs to watch in 2021, the first thing that comes to mind is change maker. Those individuals within our society who are consistently seeking to build a better world by tackling the areas that are broken or yet to be given the opportunity to be seen.

They are more than entrepreneurs, because their drive to pour into the people they are working to serve goes beyond turning a profit. Here are the 10 social entrepreneurs to watch in 2021.

Nahum McLean, Founder of the African Diaspora Dance Association (ADDA)

Nahum McLean is the Founder of the African Diaspora Dance Association (ADDA) and a winner of the 2021 Deutsche Bank Awards for Creative Entrepreneurs (DBACE.) Growing up in Moss Side, Manchester, Nahum took Hip Hop, African and Caribbean dance. At Aged 11, he received a scholarship to study Ballet at a vocational arts school. At age 16, Nahum went on to study and work in Cuba, New York City and was critically acclaimed for his performances on the West End and Internationally. He has now founded ADDA as the first examining and teaching board for dances that fall under the African Diaspora, to allow young dancers from backgrounds such as his, to have more equal opportunities in finding a career path through dance, as well as expanding the curriculums of the dance education sector. £16k of investment from DBACE will now allow Nahum to curate movement syllabuses and offer qualifications to students aged 11-16. 

Advice:

I think it’s important to dream big or to have a vision, and to take all the necessary steps you need to do to get there! Integrity is an important aspect to being a great leader, don’t jeopardize it. Don’t forget to have fun and enjoy the ride!

Charlie Blair, Founder of the Blair Academy

Charlie Blair is the Founder of The Blair Academy, a social enterprise which combats loneliness in the elderly community, promoting physical and mental health through hip hop dance. Reaching over 5,000 people across care homes, day centres and homeless shelters, the Blair Academy strengthens communities and bridges generational gaps by providing mobile and inclusive classes. Taking inspiration from her own experiences as a dancer, a homeless teenager, and working in care homes, Charlie was drawn to hip hop for its characteristic embracing of individuality. £10.5k of funding and bespoke mentorship from DBACE will support Charlie in her vision to create a digital platform comprising recorded and live streamed classes, increasing the accessibility of the Blair Academy's offerings nationally.

Advice:

The advice I would give to fellow young entrepreneurs is to remain resilient and remember your ‘why’. Being resilient to what life throws at you during your business journey, and remembering why you started in the first place is a big part of longevity and success. 

Jameisha Prescod, Founder of You Look Okay To Me

Jameisha Prescod is the Founder of You Look Okay to Me, an online space dedicated to chronic illness which reaches an audience of over 24,000 people. After being diagnosed with Lupus (an autoimmune disease) at university Jameisha was inspired to set up the platform to explore, through her medium of film, how culture, race and society influence the way an illness is experienced. £10k of funding and bespoke business mentorship from DBACE will support Jameisha in her vision to expand into a sustainable film production company, reaching a wider range of audiences. You Look Okay to Me aims to elevate the experience of living with a chronic illness and strives to change the way we discuss disease as a society, particularly within marginalised communities.

Advice:

Advice I would give to fellow young entrepreneurs is to try and push through the fear and imposter syndrome you may feel when working on your business. It's extremely difficult to create your own project or business, especially when there's no one telling you what to do. Try to quieten the voices in your head that say your business isn't good enough. Don't be afraid to experiment. Even if things don't work out right away, it doesn't mean the business is bad. Take a second, reflect on what could be better and try again. When you're passionate and truly care about your business it will always come through in anything you do.

Akua Danso, Neba Sere and Selasi Setufe, Co-Directors of Black Females in Architecture

Akua Danso, Neba Sere and Selasi Setufe are the Co-Directors of Black Females in Architecture, a social enterprise and global network, with over 400 members. Supporting women of black and black mixed-heritage, working with the built environment industry, to elevate and empower each other through social meet ups, skilled workshops, talks and design projects. BFA is currently the only community based organisation in the UK connecting black female members to clients who are seeking architecture and design services from black women. £15k of funding and bespoke mentorship from DBACE will support the Co-Directors in their vision of creating diversity, race and gender equality in the sector by fully digitising their directory and building a social interface where members can connect with the wider public, peers and clients.

Advice:

It takes a lot of sacrifice to start anything worthwhile from scratch. Take your time and be patient; good ventures take time to develop. Try not to be scared to take the bull by the horns and learn as you go. You definitely won't know how to do all the necessary things but do them anyway. Take solace in the fact that most first time entrepreneurs faced very similar struggles yet made it through and have created phenomenal businesses. Resilience and passion for what you do is key. 

Ameenah Begum, Founder of Cos Colours

Ameenah Begum is the Founder of Cos Colours, providing a beautiful and accessible way for the beauty industry to achieve their sustainability goals by transforming cosmetic waste into multi-dimensional watercolour paints. Having started as a project at university encouraging the local community to drop off old and unwanted make-up, Cos Colours now looks to partner with makeup artists, cosmetic retailers, galleries and artists, creating paint that is zero waste and eco friendly, from production to packaging. £8.5k of funding and bespoke business mentorship from DBACE will support Ameenah in her vision to cut down the €180 million cosmetic waste problem with upscaled production of her paint palettes.

Advice:

Be open to experiences that make you step out of your comfort zone and be patient. You don’t know what’s possible until you take a few steps forward. No matter how large or small your achievements might be, it’s still a step you hadn’t taken before. 

Jacob Wedderburn-Day and Anthony Collias are the co-founder’s of Treepoints

Jacob Wedderburn-Day and Anthony Collias are the co-founder’s of Treepoints, a platform that revolutionises the fight against climate change by making it easy for everyday people to take effective climate action. For less than the price of your beloved Spotify or Netflix sub you can support world class climate projects (including tree planting and ocean-bound plastic collection) and offset your carbon emissions).

A fusion of a subscription plan and external API, Treepoints allows users and businesses to achieve carbon neutrality status. With the added bonus of their reward scheme in the form of a green marketplace, which includes eco-friendly brands like Patagonia, Toms, Lush. Think "air miles", but for helping the planet.

The idea came to the pair, when their startup Stasher, valued at over $12 million and present in 250 cities worldwide, was hit badly by the global pandemic and forced them to re-evaluate the biggest issues at hand and how they could help to tackle them.

The pair both featured on the Forbes 30u30 list in 2020, and also co-host 'The Morality of Everyday Things' a podcast where two friends from college and business partners who studied a mix of Philosophy, Economics and Politics at Oxford University share their lunchtime discussions which catapulted into the top 5% of podcasts worldwide in 2020.

Advice from Anthony:

I remember before we started Treepoints, I always thought the key to success in business was to have a good idea. What I’ve come to realise is that the idea is the easy part. Once you start looking at the world through an entrepreneurial lens, you realise that all businesses exist to solve problems for people.

If you can solve a problem faster, cheaper, or better than what’s out there already, then you have a viable business. It doesn’t have to be game-changing or original, but those things help. The real challenge is in execution and like I said, you learn so much just by doing. It’s also so easy these days to build basic products online – people think you have to launch a perfect app straight away, but you can almost always start with a simple website to test your proposition.

Get your first users, solve their problems. Once you’ve got a basic product and you’ve started to sell it, you’ll be in the flow of it.

Advice from Jacob:

My advice is always, if you have an idea, get the most basic version of it live that you can, and see if you can sell it. The best piece of advice I once got was, ‘the most important thing a business can celebrate is sales.’ 

Fundraising is glamorous, but lots of companies have fundraised and gone bankrupt. If you’ve got a product people like enough that they are willing to part with their hard-earned money to buy it, then you’ve actually got a business. In the early days, that’s the only hypothesis that you need to test. It’s tempting to wait until you have “the perfect product” and overthink it… but it’s far better to start doing stuff. You learn the most that way.

Yaa Addo, co-founder of The Copper Fruit

Whilst the formative ideas and elements had been in mind for some years, it wasn't until the first lockdown that Yaa had the focus time to finally found The Copper Fruit. Her desire to better reflect gifting within the African diaspora whilst highlighting the passion, skill, art and talent of Africa and it's citizens came from a stint in Ghana running a business providing business support to small corporations and also local artists before returning to the healthcare arena in the UK.

As the champion of the family's 'gift giving culture', Yaa's Mum who is recently retired came on board as community and customer liaison and the company's art critic - a role she relishes! The range of items illustrate their experiences and perceptions of Africa - especially the mugs, gift wrap, notebooks, wrapping paper and greeting cards designed by Yaa.

Drawing on their joint years of diligently working within the NHS, corporate business and customer service, it was key for community to be at the heart of what The Copper Fruit ultimately aims to achieve. As a conduit for the makers of externally produced items to receive fair reimbursement and credit for their work internationally. Both Yaa and Mum rely on their people skills in communicating with suppliers and customers alike.

Advice:

• Write down all business ideas you have and regularly review them to chose what fits in terms of timing, resources, knowledge and passion. What is most feasible now? What will make me happy?

• Write a Business Plan – it does not need to be the next parliamentary budget, but should be clear in terms of how you want your business to run.

• Self-motivation is key for both business planning and relaxation time. Have goals for both.

• Seek out others on a similar journey to you – support networks and knowledge transference.

Sonya Barlow, founder of the LMF Network

Sonya Barlow is an award-winning entrepreneur, founder of the LMF Network, diversity business coach and motivational speaker. Her efforts are focused on bridging the skills gap and creating inclusive cultures. She has delivered two TEDx Talks and is acknowledged as an international keynote speaker. Her businesses have partnered with global companies such as Babbel, Steady, Institute of Coding, GoCo Group, Barclays, Financial Times and BMW. In 2020, she was named as one of the Most Influential Women in Tech (Computerweekly), Winner of the Women in Software Changemakers (Makers and Google), Top 50 BAME Entrepreneurs (TechRound), Future Shaper 2020 (Marie Claire) and Forbes 30 Under 30 Shortlist runner up 2021. In 2021, Sonya became a published author with her book “Unprepared to Entrepreneur” and was announced as the host of BBC Asian Network’s The Everyday Hustle. She was also recognised as 1 of 8 LinkedIn Changemakers 2021 as their Gender Equality advocate.

Advice:

Fail fast, and don’t worry about it. As an entrepreneur, you have to make failure your best friend. It allows you to be constantly evolving and working on doing things better.

Sarah Jordan, founder of Y.O.U Underwear

Sarah Jordan was inspired to start Y.O.U Underwear on a trip to Uganda in 2016, where she came face-to-face with the problems associated with not having underwear. She saw the number of women and children who were being excluded from school, work and even their communities – especially during their periods – all because they didn't have underwear. 

Instead of getting her knickers in a twist about all these issues, Sarah decided to found Y.O.U Underwear on a buy-one-give-one model with Smalls for All. This quickly became buy-one-give-TWO, and so far we’ve donated over 16,350 pairs of underwear to the charity Smalls for All. One of our main goals as a business is to donate 23,000 pairs of underwear by 2023, and we’re well on our way to achieving this. 

Advice:

If you're thinking about starting a business and aren't sure, my main advice would be to go for it! There will never be a perfect time or a point when you'll have all the knowledge or resources you need, but if you never try you will forever have that feeling of 'what if ...?'. Having said that, entrepreneurship is hard – and sometimes lonely – so finding something you're passionate about and motivates you will help on those difficult days. Surround yourself with people who will support you, ask for help when you need it, and make sure you prioritise balance and self-care too, because it's important to look after yourself and the business. Remember you're doing this to enjoy it too!

Kiran Hothi and Sonam Kaur, co-founders of NotYourWife

NotYourWife is a new media company centred around amplifying the voices of South Asian women and discussing the experiences of diasporic South Asians.

Through a combination of articles, events, workshops and social media platforms, co-founders Kiran Hothi and Sonam Kaur are committed to sharing the untold stories of South Asian women and ‘third culture kids’ growing up in the diaspora.
The platform has recently been nominated for the National Diversity Awards 2021, and has been featured in publications including Vogue, Refinery29, The Independent and more.

Advice:

Our journey so far has been a whirlwind and we've still got a long way to go. One of the best pieces of advice we could give (and that we wish we'd have received!) is to 'just get started'. Ideas alone are worth very little and you can spend so much time endlessly planning and over-analysing, without ever actually DOING. Go out and execute your idea!