Session Description
This session builds on insights from our earlier Elephant in the Room sessions, where many incubators'Incubator' refers to any organization whose programs primarily focus on vetting and selecting, promising social enterprises, and providing them with a comprehensive range of support services aimed at building and growing them to achieve maximum sustainable impact. surfaced challenges in navigating investor dynamics. Now, we’re shifting from tensions to bright spots—spotlighting relationship-building models that have worked, especially from the lived experiences of incubators'Incubator' refers to any organization whose programs primarily focus on vetting and selecting, promising social enterprises, and providing them with a comprehensive range of support services aimed at building and growing them to achieve maximum sustainable impact. across the Global South. It’s about learning from what’s possible—and replicating what’s powerful.
Goals of this session:
- To surface diverse and tested models of relationship-building between incubators'Incubator' refers to any organization whose programs primarily focus on vetting and selecting, promising social enterprises, and providing them with a comprehensive range of support services aimed at building and growing them to achieve maximum sustainable impact. and investors, showcasing peer-led experiences from different regions and contexts.
- To extract practical, actionable tips and lessons from real-world initiatives that can inform participants’ own relationship strategies with funders, investors, and capital enablers.
- To collaboratively assess and adapt strategies through a guided plenary application activity that helps participants explore which models might work best in their specific contexts.
Speakers
- Nicola Greene, Director – Opero Services shared how her organisation built a WASH-focused accelerator to bridge a gap between funders and their need a strong pipeline of organisations to invest in. Rather than chasing funding reactively, they solved a problem for investors, creating a model that aligned with their thematic interest in WASH and addressed pipeline challenges.
- Bijon Islam, CEO, LightCastle Partners highlighted how they used data, demo days, and angel syndicates to design investor-friendly strategies. By adapting tools to local contexts, they met investors where they were.
- Paul Belknap, board member of Pollinate Impact, reminded us that relationships with investors hinge on learning and adapting. Capture the “no,” understand it, and show you’ve evolved—because trust is built over time, not just through the pitch.
