nuance intelligence

While I more fully organize my thoughts from the overwhelmsion of the energy of 1,200 buzzing brains at last week’s Social Capital Markets Conference (SOCAP), I came across my photos of the topics from what many people find to be the most interesting day of the conference, Day 3.

After two days of an over-stuffed, mind-numbing agenda full of heady topics and full-tilt hobnobbing, roughly a third of the group returns for a day with the agenda collectively created by the participants.  This process, called Open Space, was expertly facilitated by Jerry Michalski, and the session draws out the topics people want to discuss.  From tightly huddled six-person intensives to ranging 40-person explorations, the day exemplifies the open source spirit of the community, a yin to the bustling yang of the previous 48 hours.  The next three photos are images of the wall of topics that got discussed.  Since each person had already presented their idea by standing up on a stage and speaking to the topic for something like 45 seconds, you’ll just get a snapshot of each discussion.  For the full benefit, well, you had to be there.  Nonetheless, this should provide a peek into what’s on the mind of the most collaborative third of the thought leaders at the edge of impact investing.

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Over at the Business Catapult Blog, we just published a piece highlighting the research-backed definition and 2009 predictions of the Cleantech sector by Lightspeed Ventures, one of the leading blue-chip-Silicon-Valley-VCs-with-a-new-cleantech-focus.  Check it.

I wrote last week about transcending (and including) the current financial crisis.  The inspiration for that piece was partially grounded in a column I had written for Colorado Biz magaine, which runs today.  Assuming (as I did in the blog post) that the world continues to operate after the bailout and election, some US economic sectors will be stronger than others.  And all signs indicate — and even the New York Times, in a relative comparison of city-by-city economies (pw req’d) corroborate — that a strong entrepreneurial trend is sweeping Colorado.

The trend is based on what many entreprenurial thought leaders — from investors to serial entrepreneurs to the lawyers and PR pros who live through the cycles — recognize as sectors that will thrive, even during a predictably rough national economic period.  These sectors are technology (and in Colorado, especially IT and web 2.0), energy and other CleanTech / GreenTech / Sustainability companies.

In the CoBiz column, I propose a few potential results of the current Wall St. banking crisis:

Many investing “truths” have forever changed. The question is: which ones? We suspect — and a quick query of investors this week has quasi-confirmed — that core investing principles are intact, but the situational realities as to who will be an interesting funding candidate are likely to be quite different.

Intuition suggests that fewer wealthy people will be making investments, but with the investment banking sector suddenly and irreversibly (lets’ check that assumption in a few months) extinct, more money and talent could focus on growth sectors like green tech.

It’s also possible that money will re-localize. Investors will want their money to be a bit more tied to tangible nearby investments as a backlash to the ideological bankruptcy of radical derivatives. Further, as investors take a deep stock of their values, the evolution toward a more holistic investing approach will amplify.

But that’s all speculation.  What’s real is that on November 21st, forty of the strongest Colorado start-up businesses will present to hundreds of venture capitalists and angel investors at the annual Angel Capital Summit.  And at the end of that day, we will present a once-in-a-generation opportunity to “not only learn about but participate in the co-creation the future of our regional business ecology.”

With Anita Burke telling us all how to measure sustainable business practices at lunch, and the as-yet-uncomfirmed special appearance by one of Colorado’s favorite political leaders open the day, it promises to be an exciting “first day of the rest of your career” type of experience.

Hope to see you there.

Over at the Business Catapult blog, we just wrote about the detailed and confusing report from the Small Business Administration (SBA) on angel investing.

One conclusion is that there are at least two major categories of angels — professional, accredited angels who number roughly 5,000 nationally and made just shy of 1,000 investments in 2006; and casual, unaccredited angels, who may number as many as 600,000 nationally, and could account for $20 billion injected into the US entrepreneurial economy.

In short, nobody does a good job tracking this data, because the activity is so distributed.  And while contradictions continue, we have yet to see any more comprehensive report.

Care to learn more?

Well, it took me a while.  I came off my game for almost two weeks.

But on a drive home from an inspiring meeting with Kevin (Johansen, my Business Catapult business partner and long time co-consipirator), I fully and completely transcended (and included, as the integral school teaches) the financial crisis.  That is to say, the crisis is a moment in time, and will be over sometime soon.  The future will have to include the history and (future) present of the impact of the crisis, but we will move beyond it.  So I am THERE.

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss …

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And–which is more–you’ll be a Man, my son!

What am I talking about?

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At Business Catapult, we’re powering the Angel Capital Summit.

As I wrote at the Business Catapult Blog,

As supporting partners, Business Catapult provides our entire suite of tools, and provide many new features to what would otherwise be a typical investor fair.  For instance:

• Investors can review deals prior to the conference, and participate in a collective intelligence process that identifies the best companies to present.
• Entrepreneurs use our Benchmark Survey as one component of the nomination process, and are able to refine their plan, based on the results of the business logic we build into the Benchmark Report.
• Trusted Advisors can contribute to the deal screening process, and gain an insight into the strongest new companies in the region.
• Organizations, including Business Schools, Small Business Development Center (SBDCs), incubators, angel investor networks and entrepreneurial meetup groups can each organize a group on the system, nominate their entrepreneurs and, after the conference is open, see the entirety of the pool of entrepreneurs who nominated themselves.

Entrepreneurs can apply now.  Investors can learn about unusual benefits.  Coloradans can look forward to what we’re calling an Entrepreneurial Renaissance, for as usual, the independently minded (seen the polls?) folks in the Centennial State are thinking differently.

As part of our work in building a unique community that focuses on intelligent matching of entrepreneurs and investors, we have launched the Business Catapult blog.

Focused on the education of angel investors, and to a lesser extent, the provocation of venture capitalists, we break the blog down into three channels:

• 101: Investing Basics, including valuations, investment criteria and news and reports about investing trends.
• 201: Advanced Strategies, including managing an investment portfolio, advanced risk assessment and related issues.
• 301: Notes From The Cutting Edge, including investing in sustainability, clean-tech and emerging energy companies, venture philanthropy, disruptive technology and new investing memetics.

Thanks for taking a look, lots of smart stuff coming down the line over there.

What recession? The Colorado small business economy is vibrant and growing, with a more dynamic mix of industries and sectors than we have seen in decades.  From biotech to energy, web 2.0 to nano, and an overriding mindset towards sustainability, there is a counter-cyclical boom in small business growth happening here on the Front Range.

If you want to learn more, you should really come check it out.  Here are some of the many ways to connect into this thriving community:

• New Tech Meetup.  Hundreds of geeks, entrepreneurs and cool new companies every month.
• Clean Tech Meetup. Cool ideas and innovative solutions for energy, transportation and more.
• Founders Meetup. Entrepreneurs coming together to help create great businesses.
• Colorado Capital Conference.  Hosted by the Rockies Venture Club next week, you can meet some of the best up-and-comers across a variety of sectors.
• TechStars. Cool summer program for aspiring web jockeys aspiring to become business people.
• Business Catapult. Online matching service for entrepreneurs and investors. Note: I’m one of four owners here, which makes it even cooler
• Angel Capital Summit. Annual fall investing fair, although their site has not been updated since last fall.  Look for more information in coming weeks.
• And there’s more.  Much more.  Comment here if you’ve got questions, thoughts or other interest in connecting into Colorado’s great entrepreneurial scene.

The problem is exemplified in this post from Kevin Jones, over at Xigi:

The worst news from the Skoll World Forum was from another investor. They were trying to co-invest with a venture philanthropy fund, but found two significant barriers; one that fund does not co-invest, nor release its due diligence reports to even other like-minded institutional funders.

Worse was that this fund had made the social enterprise sign an exclusive deal; they would not take funding from another fund. The reason, it seems, is metrics run amok; they only way to make sure they can measure their impact is to try to restrict other impacts on the enterprises.

What’s the nuance? In this discussions, it’s all nuance. Continue reading

From: The Mint

This will likely be the only private fund based at a university and among the few that hope to have a social impact such as creating jobs and growing sectors that help people, who earn less, in addition to achieving returns.

Some funds, particularly those interested in clean-technology investments, have asserted that both goals can be achieved and with high returns.

A person familiar with socially conscious seed fund, who did not wish to be named, said that right now it is an experiment to see if both these goals can be met. Achieving double-digit returns in this type of investment is considered successful, even though typical private equity returns have been around 30%.

When I started reading this report, I thought it was about a new US-based social entrepreneurship fund (because that’s why I was researching Omidyar). When my brain registered “in Hyderabad,” I remembered we’re really not in Kansas, anymore.

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