nuance intelligence

Just read about Sharespost on this Mashable piece on the valuation of Facebook and LinkedIn.  (for those of you who can’t handle the suspense: Facebook is worth about $4 billion, and LinkedIn about $1.5 billion).

Most of the companies listed are web2.0 companies, many of which you may know.  Almost all are Silicon Valley companies, creating a bit of a “local stock exchange” atmosphere.  Some alt.energy and biotech firms are listed, as well as Tesla Motors.

There are a few pretty interesting things about Sharespost: Continue reading

In addition to the fact that Denver has now twice been identified as the major metro area best poised for economic recovery (tip to newbie tweeter Adam Rentschler), there’s some pretty exciting progressive economic activity happening up and down the Front Range.

Coming up on July 9th is the Responsible Economy Roundtable, hosted by Richard Eidlin and his new firm, Progress Group.   Our firms share a goal, which is to catalyze support for social entrepreneurs, which Eidlin describes as “triple bottom line (financial, social and environmental) businesses that use market-based strategies to advance a social mission, while generating revenue.”

“The Roundtable is dedicated to supporting the next generation of Denver-area social entrepreneurs from underserved communities, who have the talent and vision, but lack the necessary resources to scale their idea. The goal is to connect these innovative people and their good ideas to business leaders and civic organizations with resources. A particular objective is to deepen the involvement of the private sector.”

We’re not only totally aligned, but fully participating in the Roundtable, as well as the greater movement. This session fits into an ongoing discussion in Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins and points in-between.  This fall and winter, the Local Capital Summit and Angel Capital Summit are both poised to maintain the momentum.  Both events are run by our long-term colleagues, and without stealing their thunder, we know you’ll learn about new tools, collaborations and opportunities at each event, which will build toward a more vibrant and sustainable economy in Colorado.

Care to play? Join us on July 9th.

The only thing we have to fear is…. doing nothing.

Two weeks ago, we reported from the front line of the of sustainable business investing world, reviewing how trends in local, slow, and open money were converging with angel- and VC- fueled tech innovation, and how those two communities are not as far apart as each camp might think.

Similarly, concepts around virtual, complementary and community currencies that were once reserved for the then-fringy universe including BALLE and LOHAS, as well as the then-fringy world of hardcore online gamers, are now (finally) being discussed within the world of the disturbingly mainstream Facebook.

Geekdom has reacted somewhat cautiously to the widely leaked rumor and related sightings of  Facebook’s toe dip into the complex world of virtual currencies, which is revealed in the connection between Facebook’s credits and internal transactions. Continue reading

In a move that could end up having a massive impact on US entrepreneurism, Kiva.org has introduced their peer-to-peer lending service to the US.  Kiva was originally built to alleviate poverty by creating a new capital market for global social entrepreneurs — to the US.

In their report on today’s announcement, TechCrunch reports,

Continue reading