B the Change | July 27, 2017
What do you do if you’re a mission-driven company that would like to raise outside capital, but have no intention of selling the company? That’s the dilemma faced by a growing number of indie-minded entrepreneurs that want to grow their companies while staying true to their values. Traditional Medicinals, a pioneering maker of organic herbal […]
Anne Field | July 10, 2017
For social entrepreneurs concerned about growing income inequality in the U.S. and around the world, one way to spread the wealth is through employee ownership. With that in mind, you’d think impact investors would be clamoring to invest in such companies. But, not so much. They may be missing out. “Companies with meaningful ownership and […]
Anne Field | June 30, 2017
There’s a lot of talk these days about impact investing. But ask any social entrepreneur, and they’ll tell you that raising capital is their number one challenge. Impact investors tend to regard these early-stage social enterprises as too risky, even as they complain about a lack of high quality investment opportunities. Call it the social innovators’ […]
Locavesting Staff | April 24, 2017
Raising capital while female. It comes with a unique set of challenges, not least of which is that the investors you’re pitching are likely to be white males with a certain sort of background. Given the tendency of people to invest in and generally gravitate towards others similar to them—a trait known as homophily—women and […]
Douglas Raggio | April 10, 2017
DEAR FOUNDER, YOUR BUSINESS IS NOT A FUCKING UNICORN. A unicorn is a mythical animal. You created a real business. Regardless of your company size or promise, you took a significant risk, saw something others didn’t and acted on it. I find it borderline insulting to call your business something that isn’t real (sorry 7-year-olds). […]
Amy Cortese | February 27, 2017
Anne Field | January 27, 2017
Opening a grocery store in a food desert in West Oakland is not easy—just ask Brahm Ahmadi. Despite strong community support, he’s had to get creative to when it comes to funding and building his social enterprise. After several years, he’s finally nearing his goal, having raised money from the community and partnered with a […]
Krista Morgan | November 15, 2016
Mention the word ‘startup’ and it’s sure to conjure images of young engineers hunched over laptops, feverishly coding the next Facebook or Twitter. While tech startups tend to get all of the glory, not to mention the lion’s share of venture funding, consumer products companies are establishing a solid track record of returns—and gaining new interest […]
Anne Field | October 6, 2016
The funding world used to be fairly straightforward: there was philanthropy for nonprofits, venture capital for startups and bank loans for existing businesses. But in the age of social enterprise and impact investing, those lines are blurring. As more businesses combine a social mission with a for-profit business model, finance is adapting, giving rise to […]
Anne Field | September 6, 2016
Are you a social enterprise looking for impact investors? Better start measuring your impact. Good impact metrics not only help attract impact investors, they can also boost your performance and your long term viability. Those are the conclusions of The Business Value of Impact Measurement, a study published recently by the Global Impact Investing Network […]
