We talked to over 1,000 children across 10 states to ask: Who do you think is an entrepreneur? Do you want to become an entrepreneur? Why or why not?

Through focus group discussions and one-on-one in-depth interviews with girls and boys, age 10-18, from low-income groups in urban slums and villages, we discovered the entrepreneurial skills they use in their everyday lives—from building relationships to identifying opportunities and resources, and taking initiative. We also found out the enablers and barriers that young people face in becoming entrepreneurs.

Our research with children is the basis for the stories we tell in Be! an Entrepreneur. At the same time, we interviewed 150 adult entrepreneurs from low-income groups to map their journey and enterprise solutions.

We saw and documented over 70 social enterprise business models, searching for the entry-point in these models for a young person from a low-income group to be able to start the business by themselves. Our criteria for sustainable enterprise selection was simple.