Social Entrepreneurship Startup

2003 Spring

Course

• Course Information
• Course Schedule

Project

• Project Information
• Team
• Advisors and IDEO Coaches

Final Presentation and Reports

• Final Presentation (pdf)
• Reports
  • Global Business Plan (pdf)
  • Technical and Design Report (pdf)
  • China Business Plan (pdf)
  • India Business Plan (pdf)
  • Mexico Business Plan (pdf)

Press

• The Light Brigade. Stanford Magazine, 2003 Sep. (pdf)
• LED Lamps Light the Way for Social Entrepreneurs . Stanford Business, 2003 Nov. (pdf)

Epilogue

The work of this project was made freely available on its website for anyone to use. The technology has since seen widespread adoption. Some examples include:

• Light Up the World, our nonprofit partner during the course, has programs in several countries.
• Alums from this course founded the company Ignite Innovations, which manufactured solar-powered LED lights in India. This company merged with a partner in India to form Cosmos Ignite.
• Alums from the 2006 offering of the course built on this work and founded the company d.light.
• Many other organizations now use this technology to create products that can bring affordable, clean lighting to those without electricity in the developing world. VeraSol maintains a database of products that satisfy quality standards.

This was the first offering of a class that has continued and evolved and is now called Design for Extreme Affordability. The course website has a database containing the projects the class has undertaken.