We are thrilled to reconnect with Stefan Chichevaliev, an IMPACT Fellowship alumnus who has recently embarked on a new journey by founding his company, SENIC. With a rich background in social entrepreneurship and a passion for creating meaningful change, Stefan’s story is an inspiring example of how research and innovation can translate into impactful business ventures.
In this interview, we explore Stefan’s motivations for launching SENIC, the role of the IMPACT programme in shaping his entrepreneurial journey, and his advice for current and future fellows aiming to bridge the gap between academia and entrepreneurship.
What inspired you to create SENIC, and how does it align with your academic and professional journey in social entrepreneurship?
My inspiration came from my urge to support and help entrepreneurs working towards social impact reach their potential and accomplish their goals. In my more than a decade professional journey in social entrepreneurship, I have had the privilege to communicate with more than 2,000 social entrepreneurs globally and learn about their pains, challenges, and needs, which made me wonder how I can ease their path and way ahead.
The idea of SENIC started when I came to Brussels as a scaling process of the Social Entrepreneurship Observatory, a think tank which I founded working on the development of social economy ecosystems in South-East Europe. And now, the Social Entrepreneurship Observatory is a part of SENIC.
Additionally, as part of my academic journey, I researched how to develop social entrepreneurship ecosystems to become more enabling by creating support structures through policy, regulations, institutional support and funding. This part of my journey has brought me in-depth knowledge of entrepreneurship ecosystems and the development of an enabling environment for social economy actors, including entrepreneurs, enablers, partners and collaborators, and authorities, and how to navigate through the entrepreneurial ecosystems.
My knowledge of creating systemic change and enabling entrepreneurial ecosystems, combined with my on-the-field knowledge of entrepreneurs’ practical challenges and pains, strengthened my resolve to support entrepreneurs working towards social impact. I chose to do that by creating a professional consultancy with a unique value proposition: the Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center (SENIC).
How did your participation in the IMPACT programme shape your journey toward launching SENIC?
The IMPACT programme created an environment for me to deepen my knowledge about the specificities of sustainable and social entrepreneurship and the possibility to broaden my understanding of the problems that entrepreneurs face in theory and practice, which helped me find the gap within the sector that created the unique value proposition of SENIC.
Additionally, the IMPACT programme was the perfect testing ground for how I would be perceived in the Belgian business world and the difficulties I would encounter. This was an element that I used entirely to my advantage when SENIC was developed. We can say that the IMPACT programme made me even more observant and analytical of the surroundings.
Did the research and skills you developed during your IMPACT project contribute to the vision or operations of SENIC? If so, how?
My IMPACT project was analysing “The Level of Influence of Macro-level Factors on Organisational and Individual Factors in Social Entrepreneurship”. In “short”, analysing how the environment affects social economy organisations and entrepreneurs. It was mixed-method research, a survey with social economy organisations and interviews with social entrepreneurs that helped me to learn a lot about the entrepreneurial process and what are the main challenges for different stages of organisational/enterprise development. My research has helped me to design, create, and implement tailored services that SENIC now offers.
Furthermore, the IMPACT programme provided a training programme that was very complementary to my idea of what SENIC does, which provided me with a competitive edge on the market and a positioning that crosses between levels and sectors.
What advice would you give to current and future IMPACT fellows who are considering turning their research into actionable business ventures?
I would highlight four main points:
- Learning mindset
- Reason over emotion
- Practicality
- Network building
Learning Mindset
Everything that you will hear during the IMPACT programme, inside the University or outside in the conferences, events, and meetings, is a learning experience. Whatever doubts, critiques, suggestions and comments you receive, reflect on it, take what you need and throw out the rest. Not every comment or suggestion is of value, do not forget that.
Reason over emotion
This is very related to the Learning Mindset. Be reasonable, which means think about what you can use for your future business venture without taking the “NOs” personally. The NOs are ever-present, and in the beginning, they are more dominant. Everyone that you will meet, whether a person or an organisation representative, is a potential collaborator, partner, colleague, expert, etc. Even if they critique you or do not like your idea, business, method, or plan in the beginning, they might become supporters on the way. If you take their comments personally, you can lose a lot of opportunities. Human interaction is very complicated. Do not assume, just learn and use reason.
Practicality
Be practical. It’s as simple as that. Design, create, implement, and deliver. Do what you will say that you will do. Be consistent and, as much as possible, overdeliver, even if that is 5%. Dedication goes a long way to building rapport with clients, collaborators, partners, and funders. Do not get stuck on something that is not of high importance. Assess constantly, reflect, and most importantly, ACT.
Network Building
A network is an asset, a service and a product by itself. I do not know how many times I have sold a service because of my network. Sometimes, your network can be the main client. Even when that is not the case, the knowledge base that you get from constantly being up-to-date with what is going on within the business world that you are in is of incredible importance. Use your time to network as much as possible. Just remember: it is a marathon and not a sprint.
What challenges did you encounter in transitioning from academia to entrepreneurship, and how did you overcome them?
I do not see it as an either-or situation. They are synergetic and influence one another. I never transitioned from academia to entrepreneurship because first, I was an entrepreneur and then an academic. I founded my first company at the age of 22. My academic background is in Law and Business Administration. Both experiences made a lot of difference in how I approach challenges.
For example, I am still an academic, teaching a Social Entrepreneurship course at the Brussels School of Governance at VUB. However, I have been facing many challenges, including a) administrative – renewal of residence cards and professional cards (for Non-EU residents), b) cultural – language barriers, disbelief, preference, stigma, and stereotypes, c) institutional – local, regional subsidies and grants access, particularly those with specific criteria such as language, hiring policies and other, and d) Market penetration and mindset.
I overcome these challenges by not letting them affect my mission and vision of what and how I want to support my target groups and clients. A lot of due diligence is required to always prepare for the administrative tasks. Being open to clients’ preferences, showcasing your results, transparency, and accountability will ease the cultural challenges and help you build trust, while for the institutional ones, you can bridge them with partnerships and collaborations with local organisations. For the last challenge, be very proactive and try to utilize the principles that I shared as advice.
Use your time as an Impact fellow to bridge some of these challenges in the years you have as a post-doc. I know time is scarce, but there will never be more time to do it! Just do it!