Every event in Seattle this week seems to start with a lamentation of last week’s election results. Three days after posting about #lemonade and I’m getting more funny looks than nods. At an event today, people seriously talked about potentially moving to New Zealand and to finally doing the leg work to get EU citizenship through an ancestral immigrant. Despite the mid 2010’s...
For the first time in 45 tries, we have an incoming President who not only has no history in politics, but despite the endless campaign, an incoming President who has not shared detailed plans, leaving us all to wonder what comes next. This has freaked out both the left and the right. The leftmost are out in the streets denying the result, with a few moderate voices calling out to give him a...
Last week began the first session of Fledge Peru. To kick it off I spent the week in Lima, getting the team up to speed on the day to day operations of the program, meeting the teams, and learning about the local startup ecosystem. It’s always refreshing to relearn the lesson that business is business, whether in Seattle or Lima, or Oaxaca, Santiago, or Nairobi. People have problems. Startups...
Every SOCAP leaves me wondering what its like outside the West Coast, and specifically outside of San Francisco and Seattle, which seem to be leading the way into the world of impact investing and conscious companies.
How does your city compare?
You can tell when an industry is nascent, growing, or established by looking at how many different conferences and events there are in September and October, the size of those events, and the overlap of attendees. Impact investing have moved from nascent to growing, and seems to be growing rather fast. Yesterday was my fifth industry event of the month: 1. SOCAP is the biggest annual gathering...
Last month, sitting in a monthly gathering of impact investors, in the midst of a discussion on why so few investments get made, a fellow member made a comment that I can’t get out of my head, “It’s not about dealflow, it’s about investorflow.” The way startups usually get funded is not how entrepreneurs think. It’s not a meritocracy. It’s not like an...
A new online magazine, Rank & File has a nice article on the power of mentorship.
Read it at rankandfilemag.com.
Download the Rank & File App for Apple and for Android.
Philanthropy does an amazing amount of good in the world. However, when philanthropy finds a solution to a problem, the solution only scales through yet-more philanthropy. In contrast, when a for-profit company finds a solution, the profits from the solution pay for more. In a world where 7 billion people have access to a Coke within a half day’s walk, the same should be true for clean...
With rare exception, every entrepreneur I meet is seeking capital for their startup. I understand why. I’ve been in their shoes a half dozen times before. Investment capital buys opportunities and shrinks the time to grow a startup. At least in theory. The trouble too often comes when first-time entrepreneurs close a round of investment and feel obliged to spend that money as quickly as...
One of the mistakes first-time entrepreneurs make is failing to sweat the details. Watching the craftsman below turn a tree into a bow, step by patient step, reminds me of how much attention to detail needs to go into turning an idea into a profitable business. The Birth Of A Weapon. Part I. English longbow making. from John Neeman Tools Then again, do note that another mistake first-time...
