Social Entrepreneurship: Zipcar and Google

I had a terrific conversation yesterday with Robin Chase, founder of Zipcar.  We spoke about a talk she is preparing to give next month on social entrepreneurship.

Social entrepreneurship is a catchall phrase used to describe the creation of innovative organizations that benefit society. Robin spoke passionately about her desire to reduce the number of cars on the road, and all the positive consequences this would have for society and the environment. However, she never explicitly articulated her “green” agenda to potential Zipcar users. She never said, “the more people who use my service, the better your city will become.” Instead, she presented it is a simple, convenient, low-cost way to have a car in an urban environment.

In other words, she sold individual consumers on the direct benefits  of using Zipcar,  without jumping up and down about how great this is for society.

This got me thinking about Google and it’s declaration in its S-1 to “not be evil” and “make the world a better place.” As refreshing as this language is, it just feels a bit odd for a profit maximizing firm to explicitly state that it will try to maximize social benefit. I applaud Google for its courage -- and this mission is certainly courageous since there are substantial risks in bucking the norms of Wall Street -- but both Robin and I wonder how sustainable such a lofty mission is.