New business models Twenty students were asked to develop a new business model that they believed would make a difference. All business models address real situations and real problems of real people in daily life and range from reducing waste to intergenerational dialogue and from eating more plants to making the interior of exclusive cars more sustainable to improving social housing in Africa. Many of these students were driven by situations or experiences in their own lives, for example, the passing of a grandparent or the loneliness they experienced studying in another country. Benedetta Bibiani was inspired by Hunkpapa Lakota leader, Sitting Bull, who said in the 19th century, “When the last tree is cut down, the last fish eaten, and the last stream poisoned, you will realize that you cannot eat money.” The four cases selected for this publication were chosen for their creativity, thoroughness, and engagement in rethinking entrepreneurship: • Dimitri Brugmans, Hire a Buddy • Aina Catalan, Value X Fund • Marine David, Social Coffee Place • Julia Rost, Reduco2, Eat More Plants Each of these business models is a potential small win, unveiling plausible principles for entrepreneurship toward a new economy. These pockets of future outline a vision of multiple entrepreneurships and a new narrative based on the importance of combining apples and oranges. Apples and oranges One of the issues in realizing the SDGs is that one cannot implement the goals one by one because they are interrelated. Working on one influences many others. Most companies aim for smart goals, efficient processes, and predictable outcomes.Contributing to the SDGs is the opposite of standard business practices and requires combining different purposes, diverse players, interdependent activities, and various impacts in one movement. A possible pathway to work with this complexity is weaving meshworks. Beck (2007) defines a meshwork as the integration, alignment, and synergy of multiple elements, entities, interests, and motives woven together to create healthy, dynamic, and comprehensive solutions to complex problems. In other words, meshworks combine who one works with, what one does, what one works with, and how one works together with others (or apples and oranges). The business models of the four selected cases each have its own way to rethink entrepreneurship based on this idea. 8
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