The Rich Column: Pester power in action

When you look at some entrepreneurs, you can almost imagine their childhoods. Staring at frozen windows, flicking power switches off and on, turning an egg timer over and over . . . it would explain a lot about Bill Gates and his inspiration for Microsoft. Buying suspiciously cheap prog rock LPs, swapping them for Airfix Boeing 747 kits, building a train set featuring rail-replacement buses . . . you can just see the young Sir Richard Branson. In a jumper knitted by his grandma.

In the case of the Musk brothers, it's not quite as easy. Seemingly, elder sibling Elon had first dibs on the piggy bank, the Scalextric and the water-powered rocket. Hence, his subsequent career founding money-transfer business PayPal, electric car pioneer Tesla Motors and interplanetary transport group SpaceX. But younger brother Kimbal, appears to have been left to play with an old Fisher Price kitchen set and a few flower pots.

These thoughts occurred to me at an FT conference in London last month, after welcoming Musk Jr to the stage for a question-and-answer session. Sadly, they occurred too late for me to ask him about the contents of the family toy cupboard in 1970s Pretoria. Nevertheless, as he proceeded to explain why he had chosen to devote himself to community restaurants and non-profit "learning gardens", he made me realise that youthful idealism, whatever its inspiration, need not be a childish thing to put away. Increasingly, it is something into which the wealthy want to put money.

He described his business model - both at The Kitchen restaurants that support local farmers and The Kitchen Community gardens that teach 120,000 schoolchildren about health and nutrition - as social entrepreneurship. And this - rather as one imagines a game of Monopoly in the Musk household - involves playing by a very different set of rules.

"I got a plum assignment in an investment bank," Kimbal recalled. "I didn't like it. It was a very money-oriented place. I said, 'If it's just making money, I'm done.' It just wasn't inspiring for me. I was young."

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But it made Kimbal realise social entrepreneurs have to do even more to change potential backers' perceptions. "In the restaurant business, we wrote a business plan to scare 'investors' away - so the number one return was the social mission," he admitted.

This return can still be quantifiable, however, and one that rewards investors. He cited a possible project with fellow foodie Jamie Oliver, whose social enterprises have delivered jobs and regeneration in UK cities. "Take a city like Manchester," Kimbal suggested. "Families care about Manchester. So there is value for them to do social impact investment that can improve the value of their own real estate."

< > Judging by the latest FT Investing for Global Impact report - produced with the help of advisers Method Impact and Banca Prossima - measuring the return is the key to persuading the wealthy to pursue more social investment.

Interviewed for the report, Sir Ronald Cohen, co-founder of Big Society Capital, the social investment fund, said: "Creating a culture of measurement distinguishes those able to deliver results from those who are not . . . Social entrepreneurship is just another evolution in entrepreneurship. Venture capital was the response to the need for risk capital to finance tech entrepreneurs; impact investment is the response to the needs of social entrepreneurs."

Much of this need will soon be met by younger wealth owners, according to the advisers of wealthy dynasties. Of 180 family offices surveyed for the FT report, 63 per cent said the next generation would be putting "a greater focus" on social entrepreneurship.

For Kimbal Musk, it is simply a matter of harnessing the pester power learnt in childhood. "Our social investor in Memphis has a daughter who makes him do this," he revealed. "The next generation plays a powerful role persuading the patriarch!"

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