Nick Gleason CEO of CitySoft was the guest speaker at the TIE-BOSTON meeting help on March 18, 2004. The topic was “Social Entrepreneurship” which was a nice shift from the more common high-tech focus of Tie-Boston.

Nick Gleason spoke about his experiences building CitySoft as a for-profit technology services company with a social mission of hiring workers from inner city areas. He talked about his prior experiences as a serial entrepreneur and what led him to found CitySoft and how he balances his social objectives along with the shareholder value perspective of his investors.

Gleason defined “Social Entrepreneurship” as a concept that requires entrepreneurs to think of the social impacts of a business opportunity. He defined two kinds of social entrepreneurship : 1) Non-profits that use ideas of measurement and accountability from capital markets to improve efficiency 2) For profit companies that attempt to solve problems identified as “social” through business models and business tools. “Kaboom, Teach for America and Jumpstart are examples of non-profit social entrepreneurships while Shorebank and Stoneyfield Farm are examples of for profit companies in this space” said Gleason.

“CitySoft started as a company that built web-sites recruiting staff form technology training centers in tradionally low-income backgrounds. We scaled to $2M in revenue o Two-thirds of our staff had no-traditional background and yet we were successful in receiving funding” said Gleason. Like other companies , CitySoft had to re-invent itself in the Post-Bubble era. “We lost a lot of customers. We then shifted our focus to providing software similar to CRM, ERP Supply –chain to non-profit customers” said Gleason. But despite difficult times, CitySoft did not change its goal viz to be successful as a company and manage social value. CitySoft remains as an enterprise dedicated to creating IT opportunities for residents in low-income neighborhood.

Gleason ended his talk with a few open questions discussing the impact of outsourcing on the economy at large. “We need to ask ourselves as to where will the new jobs come from? Where new jobs come from the last time when there was such a depression? The most important question is what can we do and what should we do?” said Gleason.

About CitySoft

CitySoft is the world's leading provider of Internet software for associations, nonprofits, and educational institutions. CitySoft's flagship solution, Community Enterprise, enables organizations to increase revenues and productivity while reducing costs by directly connecting members, constituents, employees, and funders to information and processes online. Community Enterprise includes modules for managing membership, website content, contacts, communications, events, finances, communities, and more.

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