Green startups climb the VC rankings

Just to note that this survey notes that after the predictable leader of consumer internet, green startups are the most popular with VCs - great news. It also shows a leap in confidence among the investment community.

Good timing!

Social entrepreneurship - from the horse's mouth

Following the theme of inspirational speakers, yesterday at IESE, Barcelona I had the privilege of listening to possibly the most well-known of all social entrepreneurs, Prof. Mohammed Yunus of the Grameen Bank, Bangladesh. More or less single-handedly inventing the concept of microcredits, and helping millions of people in the process set up businesses. A lot of people are tagged “inspirational speaker” but this one really “walks the walk” – a Nobel Peace Prize winner, he’s made important things happen for good and reinvented business models. He's also extremely clever - makes you think "why didn't I think of that?" - and very funny.

Yunus works always from the bottom up, small operations which scale. And as a lateral thinker, he thinks that sometimes, knowing nothing about a subject is a distinct advantage. “When I had to set up the bank, it was quite easy”, says Yunus. “I just observed how ordinary banks worked…and then did exactly the opposite.” Operations local not central. Ownership by those involved, not third parties wanting a return. Prices based on what people can afford, not what the market dictates (what the market dictates for borrowing for people in poverty creates a "market failure" well-known to microeconomists). As Albert Einstein once observed, “We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them”.

In the Grameen Bank he set up, not only a microcredit system which put the loan sharks out of business in Bangladesh and helped millions of women out of poverty, but also transplanted the model, against the advice of many, to Queens, New York City, where it’s also been a great success. And a healthcare insurance system. And a nursing college. And a project to get necessary vitamins to undernourished kids. And a massive vegetable-growing project to prevent night blindness through lack of vitamin A. Oh, and a mobile phone company with 50% of the Bangladeshi market, using a single woman in each rural village as a reseller of mobile phone time. All practical, bottom-up solutions.

He appreciates that modern business is highly effective in making things happen, but believes it flawed in its motivations. He’s not against businesses making money, but wants to propose an alternative kind of business, the “social business”, to run alongside it. Whereas the definition of a social entrepreneur can be sometimes a bit blurry (for example, with-profit or not-for-profit?), he is, typically, very straightforward and precise. What have all these businesses got in common? Firstly they’re owned by the people who run them. In fact, Yunus has never owned a single share in any of these multi-billion dollar enterprises. And secondly, they don’t pay dividends but reinvest the profits. (Hmm, doesn’t this sound pretty similar to that radical thinking that we in the West call a co-operative…?) Social business, co-op, mutual, social entrepreneurship - call it what you will, it works.

Finally, what has he to say on the motive for business in general? In short, he agrees with something that my friend Prof. Miguel Ariño said on his blog last week: the first objective of business should not be profit, although this can be a by-product. It is there to satisfy a need or, as Yunus says, to solve a problem. And businesses are, in my opinion, generally much more effective at doing this, expanding and deploying more rapidly while making good use of their talented people, than other types of organisation.

Well that’s about as good an argument for social entrepreneurship – in whatever flavour you decide to pursue it – as I can think of.

Why does anyone get inspired?

Just saw this great clip of Viktor Frankl



and wanted to share it with our bgreen friends. Just in case you wanted to know why we're doing this...(thanks to JC Duarte)

UK general election: only one way for environmentalists to vote

Just to point out to our UK readers that, as a good voting UK citizen, I'm casting my vote for Labour. The UK has, in recent years, taken a big lead in promoting climate change in both Kyoto (John Prescott) and Copenhagen (Ed Milliband and Gordon Brown, who embarrassed other world leaders into attending).

They're the only party who have a clue about environmental issues and will push the climate change agenda forward (Franny Armstrong, of "The Age Of Stupid", agrees), apart from the Green Party, who have no chance of power. The Lib Dems are very confused about nuclear power as an energy source, and the Conservatives include some hardened climate change sceptics in their ranks. Only Labour is committed to actually doing something concrete about climate change.

The rest, if you'll pardon the pun, is just hot air.

We got mail!

Just to confirm that the bgreen.cat domain is now registered for us and my bgreen email from now on is robmarchant@bgreen.cat. I kinda like the .cat domain, it's homey and reinforces our connection with Barcelona. We have a few others on reserve for later.

Website is on the way, but whoa there, not for a month or so yet, we want to do this properly. Are also planning an investor pitch very shortly, we'll keep you posted...

Our new logo

Now, I know I need to get out more, but I'm very pleased with our new logo. It's been done by a professional and everything.

Back to business: what's the store going to look like?

As we've been talking to friends, colleagues and potential investors over the last few weeks, a few people have been asking me "ok but what's this REALLY all about?" In response, I think seeing the mockup is always a great way to understand a business. So, here's an extract from our investors' Powerpoint, to give you some idea.

Design will be an important element - the store is intended to look cool - as will in-store campaigns on eco-issues. Note the two big video screens in the front, which will be an important part of these campaigns, engaging with customers, to attract them into the store, and explaining products.

Any thoughts, comments, feedback welcome.