FINAL WEEK

 
 

It all started when…

I began teaching this class in 2019. Social Entrepreneurship was still largely about doing good—starting initiatives to address social, cultural, and environmental problems. That was 1.0. But the world has changed—and so has this class. Today, we’re in the era of 2.0: systems-level thinking, tackling root causes, and designing frameworks that are inherently good—not just well-intentioned.

But this course is so much more than entrepreneurship. We explored the Metacrisis. We wrestled with Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau. We questioned altruism. We studied post-traumatic growth, and we normalized failure as the forge of real leadership.

Each year the demands shift—because the world keeps shifting. I’ve now taught through three consequential presidencies, a pandemic, a geopolitical realignment, and now the rise of AI. This class evolves because we must evolve. The world doesn’t need more founders. It needs founders who understand what’s coming.

This year’s cohort is another testament to that fact. 

It’s been my privilege. Please stay in touch and let me know if there is anything I can do to help.

Thank you, BGES441 Spring 2025!

Onward.

PC

MANDATORY GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP QUESTION REQUESTED BY DR. RUNGE

📥 Click the button below to download your BGES441 Omnibus document.
This is your personal synthesis companion—a reference guide for future work, interviews, ideation, and reflection.

This end-of-semester omnibus is a curated synthesis of everything we’ve explored in BGES441—from the shifting legacy of philanthropy to the deep, systemic reimagination of what social entrepreneurship must become in a world gripped by the Metacrisis.

We move from Social Entrepreneurship 1.0—well-meaning but limited philanthropic models (à la Carnegie)—into 2.0, where students are challenged to design ventures, selves, and systems resilient enough for complexity, ambiguity, and collapse.

The document draws on thinkers like:

  • Daniel Schmachtenberger (Metacrisis)

  • Timothy Morton (Hyperobjects)

  • George Price (Altruism as sacrifice)

…and introduces frameworks rooted in systems thinking, post-truth ethics, regenerative capitalism, and identity reinvention. Through philosophical debates (Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau), cultural examples (Tony Stark’s arc), and real-world case studies (Yvon Chouinard, José Andrés), it offers a scaffold for composing not just enterprises—but ethically attuned lives.

We are not here to merely "do good."
We are here to prototype in paradox, metabolize collapse, and compose meaning.
This document is your post-semester field guide.

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