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...
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...
Nothing is wrong with the concept of doing good by doing business. What’s wrong are all the connotations and assumptions that come with the term “social enterprise”. Decades ago, all social enterprises were non-profit organizations which earned some revenues from the services they provided, instead of relying 100% on donations. Goodwill is a great example of a traditional social enterprise. Most...
In general, driven by regulations and risks, standard legal contracts grow and grow in complexity until they become unworkable. In the world of private investments, we’re at, if not past, that point. In the U.S. (and most of the developing world), private investments into startups and funds is regulated, allowed only by rich and/or experienced investors. “Private” in contrast to the public...
My 2016 is shaping up to be quite exciting: Aviary.vc – To keep up with the growth of impact-oriented entrepreneurs, Aviary is a new venture capital seed fund, focused on mission-driven for-profit conscious companies, i.e. companies that do good by doing business. If you are an accredited impact investor (or wondering how to do that), we’re building a community of co-investors. Contact us for...
Outside of California, where it feels like all investors are professional investors, and following up on last week’s post about one difference between Angel and professional investors, another difference is the way the deal terms get set, especially valuation. First-time entrepreneurs don’t understand how startups gets valued. Neither do first-time startup investors. In my MBA class...
As an entrepreneur, I’m well experienced at wearing multiple hats and in such, in viewing companies through a multitude of lenses: production, marketing, sales, finance, etc. The same is true as an investor, where I swap between two distinct hats: Personal and Professional investor. You’d think these two hats were identical, but they are not. They are complimentary, but are two quite...
An ongoing discussion during the Investors Circle trip to Nairobi was about the tradeoffs between the companies founded by Africans and those founded by Americans, Europeans, and Indians. We met a few of both, and thus had a first-hand look to make (anecdotal) comparisons. Overall, the consensus was that natives like GreenChar and Totohealth had the advantage of deeply understanding their market...
The other highlight of the Investors Circle visit to Nairobi was the visit to the factory where BURN Manufacturing builds its cookstoves. Charcoal cookstoves, as charcoal is the most popular fuel used for cooking by urban and peri-urban Kenya. Factory, as in a fully-modern manufacturing facility, little different from those found in the U.S., Europe, Japan, or China. One large building filled...
