Since we last reported on the then-named Sustainable Business Model meetup we launched in Boulder last year, we have merged with the Boulder-based social entrepreneur meetup, and have hosted four session in our new, revised format.
Today, the re-named Sustainable Ventures meetup is consistently gathering between forty and fifty change agents (which we expect to grow) every two weeks in Denver and Boulder for an exchange of ideas, advice and learning that benefits everyone in the room. From non-profit staffers to clean-tech execs, and including investors, advisors and entrepreneurs, the sessions are providing a venue for advanced discussions about how to run a sustainable venture, regardless of sector.
More relevant than my perspective is the feedback from members that sheds light on the experience. When asked “why should others join this meetup group?”, Ashoka Fellow Lynn Price said, “To engage with individuals who dare to do what they think should be done – in a spirit of unselfish and supportive collaboration.” Kent McBride, founder and CEO of the Make The Difference Network adds, “if you want to be around people who intentionally use business to improve the quality of life on the planet, then this is the meetup for you.” Continue reading
In December, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper announced that Denver is the first North American city and second city globally to be chosen by Ashoka as a “Change Your City” location. This project, first created in Dublin, Ireland, works to raise awareness and get people involved in change-making. The video below, created by our friends at In The Telling, summarizes the project well.
There is much more detail to come on this project in the weeks and months ahead. If you’re dying for more inside scoop, get in touch with us. The wheels of progress are turning on this project right now, and we’ve got a few good friends who are centrally involved.
The second meetup in our series on Sustainable Enterprise Models was designed in response to questions coming out of the first one, namely:
Why are we getting together to create another meetup?
What are we going to try to accomplish together?
What is the language of sustainable enterprise, and how can we ensure we have a similar frame of reference as we move forward?
We organized the session to allow participants to engage with one another, and not simply be “talked at” by another guru. This led to a diverse and wide-ranging discussion about what sustainable enterprise is really about, and how we want to engage an authentic and participatory discussion in our community. Continue reading
Tonight, the Angel Capital Summit finished the first of three review cycles for the largest annual angel investing conference between New York and San Francisco. We’ll save the deeper analysis for later, but here is some aggregate data on the ~70 companies that reached the semi-finals, from the 190+ which applied to one of 30 partner groups: Continue reading
With the advent of the new Denver section, word came around (big tip o’ the hat to @BrettGreene) that HuffPo needed bloggers on the local scene. Now, a couple weeks later, I’m a published HuffPo blogger. I’ll be focusing on what I focus on in general — sustainable enterprise, impact investing and transformative IT, with a deeper recognition of all that’s happening in the Front Range of Colorado.
First post is about the GSSE at CSU, an awesome program that I strongly endorse. If you’d be so kind, please head over and write a quick comment, to raise the profile of the sustainable enterprise in Colorado on their radar.
Colorado State University has an incredible program within the Business School — Global Social and Sustainable Enterprise — that “seeks to provide sustainable enterprise solutions to some of the most stubborn issues of our time including poverty, disease, malnutrition and environmental degradation… [equipping students] with the tools and network to become a global social entrepreneur, where the bottom lines are people, planet and profit. This concentration is in the business of creating a better world, improving the lives of people, while building profitable ventures.”
One of many laudable aspects of the program is the 50/50 ratio of US and domestic students in each cohort. As we learned recently at their annual kickoff celebration — hosted at sustainable business paragon New Belgium Brewery, this translates into teams with experience on multiple continents, often boasting 10 languages spoken on an individual project.
Six prospective companies presented their plans as the program’s second cohort. We expect one or two of these to become strong companies after graduation, if not before. Here are very brief summaries of the concepts: Continue reading
PURPOSE
The purpose of this meetup is to provide a place to discuss the specifics of funding, creating and running a sustainable social enterprise. This emerging sector, which spans the for-profit and non-profit worlds, is still taking shape, and there is no silver bullet solution for people who want to create socially- and environmentally-impactful organizations that can thrive for generations. So we need to create the framework in which we operate.
The Angel Capital Summit (ACS) is scheduled for November 17th, with last week’s call for presenters, and an application deadline on October 15th. The ACS runs on a more-or-less traditional pitch format, with 40 organizations pitching in a day. Dozens of partner organizations nominate businesses into the semi-final judging round (run on Business Catapult services) that identifies the 40 organizations who will pitch live at the event.
Setting aside the vagaries of what social entrpreneurism is and isn’t (we discuss that at the dedicated meetup), the ACS is encouraging both non-profit and for-profit mission-driven organizations to apply for the opportunity to present their enterprise at the event.
Check out #SoCapCO on twitter to track the discussion of all things related to social enterprise in Colorado. The hashtag’s origin starts at the SoCap conference, but also implies lots of aspects we like about the social enterprise movement, with the multiple meanings for social capital, and the “co” representing Colorado, collaboration, collective and lots of other things we do together.