Sustainable Development Goal Targets as Startup Business Opportunities

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore the viability of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal targets as business opportunities for startups. The SDGs are split into 169 specific targets that, if successfully reached, will have significant impact on the most pressing social and ecological global challenges. A startup is a subtype of an entrepreneurial venture that aims to generate exponential growth through fast and iterative innovation. A startup is typically run by a data-driven process consisting of a series of experiments whose purpose is to solve a problem in a way that can service a scalable market. Drawing from theoretical work on sustainable entrepreneurship, stakeholder theory and the Lean Startup theory and methodology, I argue that startups are ideal organizations to solve SDGrelated problems. If the transactions that generate the startups’ revenue are based on solving an actual problem connected to an SDG target, its impact and business become identical. Given the exponential business potential of startups, identifying business opportunities within the scope of SDG targets will also lead to exponential impact. Startups can play a central role in solving some of the most pressing problems for humanity while generating significant financial value.