Paint & Pipette: The Art & Science of Innovation Ep 05: Redefining Social Entrepreneurship with Laura D’Asaro
As an African Studies major at Harvard, today’s guest studied abroad in Tanzania. In the markets of Arusha, she purchased a caterpillar from a street vendor. Tossing caution to the wind and eschewing her vegetarian diet, Laura D’Asaro bit into her future and Chirps, a revolutionary food company seeking to transform Americans’ dietary impact on the environment, was born! Laura D’Asaro is the Co-Founder of Chirps (as seen on Shark Tank), and the co-author of Project Startup #1: Eat Bugs. While at Chirps, Laura has collected a number of accolades, including Forbes 30 Under 30 social entrepreneur, Shark Tank entrepreneur, Cupid's Cup winner, Echoing Green climate fellow, and Mass Challenge winner. In this episode, she talks about redefining social entrepreneurship, attempting to break world records for cancer research and the early influences that shaped her as an entrepreneur. She also shares some of her tips and tricks for generating new start-up ideas on an almost-daily basis, including what she calls the add, subtract, multiply, divide method. Tune in today to learn more!
Key Points From This Episode:
- Get to know Laura D’Asaro and how she ended up at Stanford Graduate School of Business.
- Hear about her early foray into social entrepreneurship at just 15 years old.
- Find out how Laura came to be the world record holder for the fastest time to crawl a mile.
- The genesis of Chirps and how Laura discovered the sustainable power of eating insects.
- Why she believes that success alone can’t make you happy; it’s all about the people.
- Laura shares why she is so passionate about redefining social entrepreneurship.
- What it might look like to build social enterprise into existing businesses.
- Why it is important to Laura to be proud of the person she is while she makes a difference.
- Laura’s tips for how she generates new start-up ideas, starting with finding the problem.
- Learn the add, subtract, divide, or multiply method for generating business ideas.
- How Laura knows when she has what Jeremy calls an idea problem.
- The power, beauty, magic, and confidence that Laura believes comes with making something of your own.
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: