Andrea Silbert (MBA '92): Bringing Entrepreneurship to Women in Need
Social Enterprise Newsletter, Winter 1998
"I love what I do. I run my own business, I'm continually challenged to think analytically and creatively, and I am surrounded by smart and talented people. I get to help women start their own businesses. I can't imagine doing anything else."
In October of 1995, when Andrea Silbert decided it was time to start the organization that would fulfill her dream of creating a career helping low-income women, she hardly expected things to take off so quickly. In fact, just three short years later, the Center for Women & Enterprise (CWE) has served well over 1,000 entrepreneurs and is now helping nearly 600 women per year, many of whom are repeat clients. "My vision is that we will become the most comprehensive and effective business development center in the country—a model for national replication," says Silbert. "But the biggest challenge I face is how to financially support growth. In a for-profit business, if you have a good product it pays for itself. In my business, the better your product, the more funding you need. The need for fundraising never ends."
But the benefits these funds create are substantial to a population that clearly suffers from lack of skills and education. CWE seeks to empower women to become economically self-sufficient and prosperous through entrepreneurship. By providing comprehensive business assistance and resources to women who are starting and/or growing their own businesses through coursework, networking opportunities, and ongoing consulting to clients, CWE develops deep and lasting relationships. CWE also has two new initiatives, a pilot program that targets women on welfare, and the Venture Center, an initiative to help rapidly-growing businesses access growth capital, which allows them to broaden the range of help they offer.
An entrepreneur at heart, Silbert ran Harvard Student Agencies as an undergraduate of Harvard College (AB '86), and received a deferred acceptance to HBS during her senior year. After two years in mergers and acquisitions at Morgan Stanley, she felt compelled to explore career choices that focused on societal issues, which brought her to Costa Rica for a year researching and writing cases about international economic development. Silbert then began a joint degree program at HBS and the Kennedy School of Government. During her second summer, Silbert worked at Cultural Survival, a nonprofit that was helping indigenous people to harvest Brazil nuts in the Amazon. "I had a wild summer. . . and by the end I knew I would pursue a career directly helping low-income women."
After graduating from HBS, Silbert was awarded an Echoing Green Foundation grant to help Brazilian "street girls" start their own businesses. After a year and a half of difficult work in an economically unstable environment, Silbert's mission had become even more clear: "I was going to start a center for women entrepreneurs." A year later CWE was born.
While Silbert was committed early on to working in social enterprise, finding other like-minded MBAs to join the center has not been easy. "Hiring is always a challenge. I can't always afford to compete with the for-profit companies for talented people. But I can offer more than a big paycheck. We attract talented people because we have a powerful and meaningful vision, but the 'call to action' for social enterprise is more than 'doing good work.' Working as a manager in the sector is an incredibly rich and exciting experience. You will never get the same level of responsibility as quickly in the corporate sector, or the growth opportunities, or the opportunity to be entrepreneurial so early in your career. My job is incredibly challenging and fun—and on top of all that, spiritually rewarding."
Silbert's HBS experience has helped her immensely in her entrepreneurial pursuits, and she remains very connected to the School. "Though I learned the nuts and bolts of running a business on the job, HBS taught me to be systematic and analytical in my thinking, to approach problems with a clear methodology, and to ask the right questions." CWE has been the subject of an HBS case addressing the issue of when and how to hire a director of development. "Having a case written about us, and sitting in on the class discussions really helped me reflect on the business." This year Silbert also hopes to work with an HBS field study team to write a strategic plan to achieve CWE's ambitious growth vision.
While several HBS faculty and alumni now sit on CWE and Venture Center advisory boards, Silbert also gives back to the School in a number of ways. She serves on the Social Enterprise Club's Advisory Board and the Board of Advisors of the HBS Association of Boston. She has been a guest speaker in the course Entrepreneurship in the Social Sector, as well as at the Women Student Association conference "Shattering the Glass Ceiling." Silbert is also an active alumni advisor, counseling current MBAs on career options in social enterprise. "I love talking to the social enterprise-oriented HBS students. They are bright, talented, and fascinating. I honestly believe that the HBS graduates with a true interest in social enterprise can and will change the world."