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...
It is reasonably easy to measure the impact of any one impact investment. But as soon as you have two impacts in two different sectors, adding them together into a single value becomes a challenge. Or was… until the invention of the Pinchot Impact Index. This index provides that elusive single value, trackable over time just like the financial bottom line. This webinar explains the pros...
Impact investors face a startup market that has few acquisitions, fewer IPOs, and is filled with entrepreneurs who liken selling their companies to selling out. How can investors earn a reasonable/market-rate return given these realities? This webinar will share a series of alternative investment structures used to create a return on investment without a traditional exit. More webinars at fledge...
This blog usually talks about entrepreneurship and startup investing, but the news of the week is the so called “Brexit“, and all the news media want to talk about is the the end of the EU, the end of the UK and the Ends of Days. I felt compelled to write a counter-story. Or more specifically, to share a few simple ideas that the media is overlooking: Impermanence First and foremost...
Nothing lasts forever is misleading. It implies that some things last for long periods of time. Western philosophy craves stability, predictability and tradition. We want today to be a lot like yesterday. We get upset when it isn’t. Buddhism has a different view. Buddha taught that the only constant is change. That nothing ever stays the same. That everything is always changing. This...
Hans Rosling has a great new talk on global poverty (with even better graphics than his first TED talks). As always, he tells a great story. However, in his five minutes he explains what happened over 215 years, but doesn’t provide any analysis. Most importantly, he doesn’t point out that we are not only winning this war on global poverty, but at the same time losing. The story...
A key tenant to the Lean Startup philosophy is the repeated cycle of learning. Launch. Measure. Learn. Repeat. Too often, first-time entrepreneurs think they know the right answer, when in fact they don’t even know the right questions to be asking. For successful established companies, this cycle of learning never stops. Case in point today, when Fledge took a field trip to visit...
