National Post’s Young Entrepreneur spotlight shines on BBA ’05 Shawn Smith

December 4, 2010

Name: Shawn Smith (30) (SFU BBA ’05)

Business Name: Global Agents

Global Agents was founded by a group of young professionals, students and social change agents from Vancouver, Canada. Launched in 2006, the same year Muhammad Yunus received a Nobel Prize for his pioneering efforts in microcredit, the organization was founded to engage a generation in supporting innovative solutions to global poverty.

Global Agents’ launch project saw 21 young people cycling 3000 km from Vancouver to Mexico over the summer of 2007, raising over $30,000 to fund global microcredit initiatives. Originally intended as a one off, the momentum and energy generated from this first project was undeniable, and Global Agents was born to carry this vision forward.

Since that auspicious first ride, the “Riding to Break the Cycle” program has expanded to three separate annual tours, including the original Pacific Coast, a 4000 km Amsterdam to Istanbul route, and a 650km tour across Cambodia. Over one hundred participants on seven tours have raised over $250,000 to fund a series of entrepreneurial poverty elimination projects.

Coming to view ourselves as a social change incubator both spinning out our own projects and supporting the best ideas of others, Global Agents has also launched a series of highly touted programs, funding nearly 200 scholarships for young leaders in the developing world (Education Generation) program, and providing grants and guidance for scores of young social entrepreneurs within British Columbia working on projects with the potential to change the world.

Major accomplishments include extensive press coverage across Canada and around the world, speaking opportunities from local schools to UN conferences, and recognition and support from organizations as diverse as Simon Fraser University (alma mater to the founders), the City of Vancouver, the YMCA, the Skoll Foundation, PwC and the United Nations.

Awards for founders and the organization include a Skoll Foundation Scholarship from the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford University, Canadian Social Entrepreneur of the Year, and a Gold Quill award from the International Association of Business Communicators.

Global Agents is a social venture that creates, promotes and supports entrepreneurial solutions to global poverty, and the emerging leaders behind them.

Initially, how was your business financed?
Our first year’s operations were built on the contributions (financial and volunteer) of the founders along with key friends and family. Since that first year core operations have been funded from a combination of internal revenue, corporate and philanthropic support.

What was the biggest challenge setting up your business?
Our business was “set up” by riding our bicycles from Vancouver to Tijuana (3000km) in order to raise funds and awareness for the market focused solutions to global poverty we wished to support. I guess that was pretty challenging! Beyond the physical and mental challenge of this first project, our greatest challenge was in convincing a support network that we could build a viable entity out of connecting emerging young leaders to high impact projects. It always sounded somewhat idealistic, but we’ve always known it could work.

How fast do you expect your business to grow in the next 5 years?
We have just hit what we feel is an inflection point. From an organization that operated entirely “in the cloud”, we’ve added two full time staff positions and an office, expanded our operations (between tours and development projects) to 5 continents, and witnessed a dramatic escalation of our funding sources. Our goals for the next 5 years include:

• running 10 cycling tours on 5 continents annually for over 200 participants, raising over $500,000 annually (3 tours currently on 3 continents)
• supporting 10 groundbreaking projects annually, catalyzing game changing entrepreneurial solutions to global poverty (currently 3 projects annually)
• funding 10,000 educational scholarships for young leaders in the developing world, for $2 million (currently funded 200 for $50,000)

Do you currently have any geographic expansion plans? Where?
We are adding a cycling tour in West Africa in the coming 12 months, and likely one in Ecuador and/or Australia in the coming year or so as well. We are also adding partner projects in China, Mozambique, Haiti and several other countries regarding our Education Generation project at www.educationgeneration.org.

For more information visit www.globalafc.org

To read the complete article on the Financial Post website, please click here.