This post is based on a Ted talk by Daniela Papi Thornton called Reclaiming Social Entrepreneurship.
This TED Talk challenges the conventional narrative of social entrepreneurship by calling attention to what’s often missing: system-level change. Using the example of a bag made from reclaimed fire hoses, the speaker illustrates how we often celebrate enterprises that turn waste into products, donate profits, and reduce harm — but stop short of fixing the systems that produce the waste in the first place.
Daniela distinguishes between two archetypes: the ‘social business founder’ and the ‘system change leader.’ While the former focuses on growing a business with a social mission, the latter works across sectors — government, nonprofits, academia, and more — to change the rules, incentives, and norms of broken systems. True system change is messy, collaborative, and often non-commercial.
The talk critiques how social entrepreneurship is currently taught, especially in business schools. Instead of guiding students to deeply understand problems, educational programs emphasize pitching polished business ideas. This results in ‘hero-preneurs’ with slick solutions for problems they’ve never experienced. The speaker argues that students should first ‘apprentice with a problem’ — learn from those affected and study existing efforts — before proposing new solutions.
In her critique of “hero-preneurship,” she argues that we too often train people to start something, rather than understand the system first. She argues that we firs tneed to understand the problem before we create solutions to the problem. She advocates for collaboration over competition.
To illustrate this, the speaker shares the story of ‘Laura,’ a student who used grant funding not to start a venture, but to learn from Maori organizations in New Zealand. She brought that knowledge back to Hawaii to support indigenous communities, highlighting a better path to impactful leadership.
The talk ends with a call to action: we need more system change leaders who are motivated not by starting businesses, but by fixing the systems that fail us. Education, funding, and competitions must evolve to support this broader and deeper vision of social impact.
From Social Entrepreneurs to Systems Change Leaders – Daniela Papi-Thornton | Ashoka U Big Idea Talk
This Ashoka U talk introduces and explores the concept of ‘system-led leadership‘ — a powerful shift from the traditional focus on social business founders and hero-driven entrepreneurship. The speaker reflects on her earlier work criticizing the ‘hero-preneurship’ trend, where students feel they must become founders to create change. Instead, she argues, solving complex problems requires diverse tools and collaborative strategies, not just building the next big company.
The speaker defines system-led leadership as designing one’s strategy — personal or organizational — in response to the system itself. The system leads us into it. Rather than trying to ‘change the system’ alone, the system leads the leader to find their unique role. These roles might include convener, educator, gap-filler, or connector — not just founder. System-led leadership requires humility, collaboration, and a willingness to build upon existing work.
She critiques current education and funding models for overemphasizing uniqueness and growth. Instead, she calls for more questions like: ‘How are you contributing to the impact of others?’ and ‘How does your work build upon the successes and failures of those who came before you?’ These questions encourage collaboration over competition and shift focus from scaling ventures to solving systems-level problems.
The talk introduces practical tools, including the ‘Impact Gaps Canvas‘ and the ‘Map the System‘ competition. These encourage students to deeply understand problems before proposing solutions. New funding streams, like ‘Apprenticing with a Problem,’ help students immerse themselves in an issue without prematurely pitching a business. These shifts aim to develop system thinkers, not just startup founders.
She ends with an example from Ashoka’s Globalizer program, where experienced changemakers spend weeks mapping systems to define ‘targeted system change.’ One group moved from simply selling insurance to envisioning a marketplace for low-cost insurance for the poor — a vision that involves competition, policy change, and cross-sector collaboration. The talk is a call to rethink how we teach, fund, and support change-making so it’s grounded in systems, not ego.
The Roles
These roles might include convener, educator, gap-filler, or connector — not just founder. Let’s dig a little deeper.
Convenor – bringing people together saying hey do we want to map system’s together want to set some collective goals we want to learn from each other
Educator – s sharing knowledge across the sector who’s sharing knowledge across the sector and so that others can build upon those things or maybe like solutions journalism educating the public or others to know what’s happening or how what issues they might want to get involved in
Gap-filler – sure I’m gonna start something new a new venture a new initiative but I’m not just starting another solar company and I’m competing with these others instead I’m starting something that’s building on what’s already there and trying to contribute to a more complicated solution network
Connector – organization called rare based in DC there are 40 years experience of doing environmental behavior change for the environment