I recently came across a story about Tamir Goodman that I thought could serve as a lesson in entrepreneurship. Tamir Goodman is an Orthodox Jewish basketball player who was dubbed  the “Jewish Jordan” throughout his early career.  His basketball career never lived up to the hype surrounding him. He is now a 27 years old and coming to grips with the end of his basketball-player career due to injuries. His plan now is to run a foundation for improving the lives of underprivileged youth in Haifa, Israel by raising funds to send them to basketballs games and events that they would otherwise not be able to afford.

I think Haifa Hoops For Kids is an excellent social entrepreneurial initiative. It shows the entrepreneur, Tamir Goodman, following what I call the “Scientific Method of Entrepreneurship.” He identified a problem: underprivileged youth in Haifa have little opportunity of escape from their challenging daily lives. He determined what  unique capabilities he has that would allow him to solve this problem: Tamir was a professional basketball player in Israel and has very strong connections with fund raising organizations in the United States. Finally, he developed a solution to the problem using his unique capabilities: start a charitable foundation that helps underprivileged youth attend professional basketball games in Israel through funds raised in America.

Haifa Hoops For Kids sounds like an idea that only Tamir Goodman would be able to execute effectively. That is exactly what makes it a great entrepreneurial venture for Tamir Goodman. And this is what I believe, venture capital firms are looking for when they are evaluating the uniqueness of a startup’s product or service. The idea should be able to uniquely and adequately present a solution to a large enough problem in a way in which only this particular team is able to do. VCs are looking for an idea developed with “The Scientific Method of Entrepreneurship” in mind.