Cynthia Hellen is the Founder & CEO of SMPLCT Lab (pronounced “simplicity”) an innovation laboratory creating sustainable solutions for people and planet.
Hellen regularly gives keynotes, hosts lectures, seminars and workshops at conferences, corporations, universities, nonprofits, and community groups on gender equality, social entrepreneurship & storytelling worldwide.
In 2013, she launched socentech, an online community where she investigates social entrepreneurship, and low-cost technology for poverty reduction. In 2012, she became the recipient of a Bloomberg Businessweek and Sandbox Network Fellowship for empowering women in a remarkable way. Her work has been profiled nationally and internationally.
She serves as Chapter Leader of New York Women Social Entrepreneurs (NYWSE), nonprofit promoting young women social entrepreneurs. In 2018, she became a prestigious scholarship recipient of Reality Impact Fellowship, a Schusterman Initiative. In 2017, she was honored with the “Mayor’s Award For Outstanding Civic Contribution” for her work in entrepreneurship and technology. In 2016, she was honored with the “Phenomenal Women Award” by Baruch College. In 2015, she was awarded The Coaching Fellowship.
She is a mentor at Harvard, Columbia, Princeton Universities. She is also an active volunteer at Project Sunshine, a nonprofit that creates fun activities for children living with medical challenges in hospitals.
In an exclusive interview, Cynthia Helen shares with Marie Banu the scene of Social Entrepreneurship
in USA.
About the Social Entrepreneurship scene in USA and contrast it to what is happening in India?
In the USA, we are seeing some great examples of Social Entrepreneurship from students to even former corporate individuals who are fully focused on making an impact through business. These Social Entrepreneurs, may have the resources they need to launch, sometimes this doesn’t mean their idea will take off because at the end, you will need more than just having a solid idea, you will need dedication, execution, a team, and last but not least thorough understanding of the problem, and/or customers. This could also be said for the Social Entrepreneurs in India.
The Social Entrepreneurs in India that I have met, are aware of the problems that exist in their communities and are creating a business to tackle these problems. The fact that they have creatively found a way to launch even without any resources, has been impressive to say the least. This tells me that the Social Entrepreneurship in India not only have solid ideas but are dedicated, believe execution and team is key to scale their idea into a startup.
I am inspired by the amount of love that each of these men and women Social Entrepreneurs in India have for their community.
India has a great advantage to be innovative because when you have lived with the problem your whole life, you have a better understanding of it. No textbook or statistic will compare to real life experience of perhaps your own village lacking water or electricity. This need will not only motivate you to persist but become more creative until you have found a long-term solution. Necessity is after all the mother
of invention.
Any cross learning opportunities?
India has an impressive and a great power to play the leader in Social Entrepreneurship, because in order to build a business that would make an impact, you need to have an understanding of the problems. This means engaging with the community and learning amongst them.
I believe, both cities, New York and Chennai, have their own strengths, and their weaknesses. Both can learn a lot from each other, from looking at the problems in their communities, cities, country from different lenses in order to come up with creative solutions to collaborating on these problems that may not only affect one city, but
perhaps both.
You seem to have many social entrepreneurship projects focused on women. Has this being consciously done?
There is no doubt in my mind that women are as creative, if not more so creative than men. But it shouldn’t be about who’s better. It should be about how both genders can work better. Certain projects I have developed may have started as an idea, but without my teammates, who are men and women, the idea wouldn’t have fully developed into the projects we now have today. Some projects are for women but this does not mean men aren’t playing a role in
these projects.
We don’t intentionally develop projects for women only, we intentionally develop projects that are sustainable and scalable.
Can you tell us about Social Entrepreneurship education in
The US?
Now more than ever, we are seeing more and more programs on sustainability and social entrepreneurship. From organization, such as Young Women Social Entrepreneurs, (ywse.org), which is an international nonprofit that supports the next generation of women change makers, and I happen to be President and Chapter Leader of the New York Hub of YWSE, where the NY team develops workshops and talks on social entrepreneurship and sustainability to Universities like Columbia Business School’s The Tamer Center for Social Enterprise, in New York, USA, which educates leaders to use business knowledge, entrepreneurial skills, and management tools to address social and environmental challenges.
We also have conferences like Harvard Social Enterprise Conference in Boston, USA (socialenterpriseconference.org) which brings people together to engage in dialogue around the field of Social Enterprise. As well as online platforms like Acumen Fund’s (plusacumen.org) “Social Entrepreneurship 101” that anyone and everyone can log on and learn about Social Entrepreneurship.
About SMPLCT Lab?
SMPLCT Lab (pronounced “simplicity”) is an innovation lab creating sustainable solutions for people and planet. We are a multi-disciplinary team from diverse backgrounds with experience in developing innovative strategies, creating sustainable businesses and accelerating a product’s path to market. We use human-centered, design strategy, fieldwork, storytelling, exploratory design, and prototyping – we deliver products, and experiences that change not only the way we tackle local and global challenges but break perception on poverty. We work with visionary leaders, Corporations, Government Agencies, Nonprofit Organizations, Institutions, Social Enterprises and Foundations worldwide, because in today’s globalized world, it is essential to know how to collaborate with people from different cultures across a broad spectrum of industries, including education, energy, healthcare, media and technology to evaluate problems, spot opportunities, and create environmental and social change.
Founded in 2013, SMPLCT Lab is headquartered in New York, NY. In 2012, I returned to my native country, Peru with one purpose, to challenge myself and live on less than $2 a day. For 3.5 months I lived in rural, urban communities and villages where I learned from my neighbors the value and simplicity of life. While living in Peru I collaborated with nonprofit ODS, PCP Bank of Peru, ALAS Peruanas Engineering University, and a for-profit recycling venture in Pisco, Peru, a community that was affected by a 7.6 earthquake. This inspired me to pilot SMPLCT Lab which focuses on creating cross cultural collaboration between communities, design low-cost solutions for those living on less than $2 a day; and educate society on sustainability.
Our mission is to create cross cultural collaboration between communities between artists, designers, technologists, scholars, researchers, policy-makers, and citizens worldwide; design low-cost solutions for those living on less than $2 a day; and better educate society on sustainable living.
We value culture, collaboration and creativity. We value a good design especially when it benefits the world’s poor.
