Sometimes blowing up a dam is the wrong metaphor for tackling a big problem. Sometimes the only way to tackle a big problem is to work on it methodically, bit by bit. The analogy is chopping down a tree. Not some little tree planted by the sidewalk to prettify the neighborhood, but instead like the trees that used to grow here in Seattle. 300 foot tall, 30 feet around (a.k.a. 100 meters tall...
Sometimes the key lessons in life are learned at the oddest moments. One lesson in particular comes back to my mind at least once per week, as I push forward on my entrepreneurial endeavors and help other entrepreneurs do the same. The lesson comes from an obscure movie, Force 10 from Navarone. Harrison Ford’s first lead role, albeit second billing on the credit to Robert Shaw, who was...
As the collective we bootstrap the impact ecosystem, hole after hole becomes more apparent. Business models. Talent. Funding. Etc. Far less obvious, but as important, is the information hole. Specifically, the lack of information on what is happening around the impact-oriented world. And where it’s happening. And who is making it happen. This is one assumption I discovered very...
In the world of social responsibility, co-ops are a corporate form that stands out as an functioning design. Consumer co-ops are a well-worn form for grocery stores (PCC and a dozen others here in Washington State), for retailers (see the multi-billion dollar REI), producers (see Organic Valley and Equal Exchange), and savings (see any credit union). Expanding that cooperative ethos across the...
How long will it be before entrepreneurs realize and start treating fundraising is a sales process, not as an inalienable right?! Last week I attended my umpteenth Angel group forum. Four formal pitches. Six mini pitches. Plus a few updates from the ecosystem. Not an uncommon pattern for a gathering by an Angel group. The problem… nearly all of these presenters presented facts and figures. Slide...
Winding down the last third of Fledge, my conscious company accelerator, the inevitable topic on the mind of all the fledglings is funding. Who will fund their startups? Where can they meet these people? Given Fledge is not a typical tech accelerator, but instead a program focused on socially and environmentally conscious companies, the answer is complicated. Fundamentally, there is a lot...
We seem to be in a golden age of startups. From my nearly quarter century view as a serial entrepreneur, it certainly seems that entrepreneurship does nothing but rise year after year. Surprisingly, the U.S. Department of Labor says otherwise. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics entrepreneurship has been declining. According to the same research, the death rate of small businesses is...
Once you realize that it is possible to do good for the world while doing business, you start to think about the scalability of that good. Or the flip side of that thought, that when thinking about the impact of an organization, you think about how to scale up that impact using business practices. Both these thoughts came to my mind as I listened to a recent Planet Money podcast, one that...
I appreciate the way David Brooks thinks (an op-ed writer for The New York Times), but I don’t recall him writing often about conscious capitalism. David’s piece from last Sunday’s paper, entitled “The Moral Bucket List“, is one of those stories that everyone needs to read. My only critique is that I know it is possible for people like this to be aware how their...
Carol Sanford, host of The Responsible Capitalist Podcast, talks to Luni Libes, a serial entrepreneur and Entrepreneur in Residence at Pinchot where he teaches entrepreneurialism. His latest venture is Fledge, is a social business accelerator and investment vehicle. This Responsible Capitalist podcast talks to him about how he selects applicants and his methods for determining whether or not an...
