Larry Biehl – founder of the Bulgarian Entrepreneurship Center Foundation, which has supported the development of free-to-anyone entrepreneurship classes (MyOwnBusinessInstitute), a two-year high school innovation and entrepreneurship class (Teenovator), a Masters Degree Class in entrepreneurship at Varna Free University (Master in Entrepreneurship program) and an entrepreneurship class for artists (ARC Academy), will return to Bulgaria after a 2-year hiatus to rally support for a collaborative path to growing wealth and achieving positive social impact by encouraging citizens to do what they do best – financially motivated investors to invest, philanthropic donors to donate and innovative entrepreneurs to start and grow businesses – all to achieve mutually agreed upon, community-based, goals.
Based on his experience witnessing the birth, growth and success of Silicon Valley, Larry learned how to use “the power of one” to achieve a “victory for many”, by aligning personal self-interests with a common purpose. On this trip, he will be doing the following:
Talking to Cabinet Ministers about the advantages of out-sourcing government agency tasks to be performed by community-based entrepreneurs, initially funded by private investors’ capital, then repaid – and even rewarded – by the government if and when the tasks are completed. The methodology responsible for this collaborative approach to producing desired social results requires the using SIBs: Social Impact Bonds. Reforming Bulgaria’s secondary schools using SIBs is #1 on our list.
Informing Bulgaria’s business sector of the importance of achieving positive ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance criteria) ratings if they wish to grow and become sustainable. Investors, employees and customers all acknowledge that how a company does its business is more important than what it sells. Investing in SIBs and DIBs (Development Impact Bonds) that achieves recognizable and popular social impact, creates more loyalty, positive brand recognition and consumer preference than advertising, clever sales techniques or outright charity.
Community Empowerment Center development. This requires us to visit smaller communities within Bulgaria, listen to the communities’ leadership tell us about their communities’ priorities, strengths and weaknesses, and needs for the future. Once we hear what they have and what they feel they need, we can attempt to assemble the resources, models and expertise that we can make available to the community to assist them to achieve -through their own efforts – what matters most to them. Activities effecting children’s lives outside of school, elder care, and growth of employment opportunities are top our priorities.
Teenovator – BEC’s high school entrepreneurship has plans to double its participation form 30 to 60 schools, and 500 to 1,000 students next year, We need to attract and train more mentors from the business community to provide in-class teaching.
Participating in the May 14th Teenovator Competition among 50 student teams at Sofia Tech Park, and speaking at the Innowave Summit 2022 in Cluj, Romania and being a member of the $1M Startup Jury, May 19-20th.
Larry Biehl will be featured live on Darik radio on May 16th and 23rd, in the program “New horizons with Lilly”, where he will report about the progress of his mission. He will give interviews for other media, such as “The Recursive”.
Larry Biehl is an economist and philanthropist from San Francisco, founder of the InterCulture Foundation. His career is closely connected with Silicon valley, the center of IT and Innovations in California. He invested the money of the first hi tech billionaires and has been a successful financial adviser and publicist. He visited Bulgaria many times and initiated beneficial projects in the fields of entrepreneurship, education and culture. He started to learn Bulgarian language during the Covid 19 pandemic and has been a supportive figure in Bulgarian society.
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