Charles Armstrong is an entrepreneur and social scientist who has founded several successful companies, the latest one being The Trampery which specialises in strategic property development for innovation clusters.
The Trampery established the first workspace dedicated to startups in the East London Tech City neighbourhood in 2009, and has since then opened six further buildings in the area. Each building is unique and focuses on different sectors such as software, fashion, art tech and travel tech.
Partners of The Trampery include the Mayor of London, Publicis Worldwide, the Barbican and British Fashion Council. The Trampery also advises governments on master-planning innovation clusters and works together with corporate clients to design working environments. One of their latest projects is
One of their latest projects is Tøyen Startup Village which is located in Oslo and serves as a community for local and global research and innovation.
Interview Notes:
Timestamps:
[1:35] – Tøyen Startup village – What is it?
[3:45] – Property developer or a social entrepreneur? – What Charles does for a living
[4:38] – What a Social Entrepreneur does
[6:19] – The Trampery – A social enterprise founded by Charles
[7:32] – How the Trampery grew so big, so fast
[13:01] – Social Entrepreneurship – How it differs from a commercial enterprise
[15:27] – How Charles ended up as a social entrepreneur
[17:59] – A mentor with a huge impact – People who have helped inspire
[20:00] – Recommended books
[21:35] – The future of social entrepreneurship
[24:20] – Cross referencing information – Great news sources
[25:28] – Charles´ advice for someone picking a career path
Books and authors mentioned in the interview
- Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers by Geoffrey A. Moore.
- Plato, a philosopher in Classical Greece and the founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. He is widely considered the most pivotal figure in the development of philosophy, especially the Western tradition.
- Socrates, a classical Greek philosopher credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy.
- The Sonnets by English poet, playwright, and actor William Shakespeare
Links and other useful online resources
- The Guardian, a newspaper with the latest news, sport, business, comment, analysis and reviews.
- Fox News, an American basic cable and satellite news television channel that is owned by the Fox Entertainment Group subsidiary of 21st Century Fox.
- RT, an international news channel that covers the latest news and current events from around the world including special reports, entertainment news and exclusive videos.
- PressTV, a 24-hour English language news and documentary network, affiliated with Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting.
- Al Jazeera, is a Doha-based state-funded broadcaster owned by the Al Jazeera Media Network, which is partly funded by the House of Thani, the ruling family of Qatar.
- Want to start your own social enterprise to help other people and make a difference? See this article by the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, on how you best can make a difference!
Videos
The Skoll Foundation has recently completed a short film about the field of social entrepreneurship. It starts with Mohammad Yunus and includes interviews with a number of social entrepreneurs and others in the field, including Sally Osberg of the Skoll Foundation, Bill Drayton of Ashoka, Jacqueline Novogratz of the Acumen Fund, John Elkington of Volans, and author David Bornstein. Check it out!
Here is a TEDx Talk video with Andy Stoll titled “How to be a social entrepreneur”. It is a great and inspiring video about social entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship.
Thank you so much for checking out this episode with social entrepreneur Charles! We hope that it helped answer any questions you might have had about social entrepreneurship.
You can get a mentor to help you on your career path, and who will give you helpful advice and answer any question you might have about entrepreneurship.
Do you want to become an entrepreneur? Why is that? Tell us why in the comment field below, we would love to know!
Have a great day! 🙂
Great to read something inspirational..
Thanks a lot! Happy that you find it useful! 🙂