One of the exciting outcomes from Fledge is the discovery of a new, better business model that an entrepreneur never gave a second thought. For Fledge9, this extra exciting, as the Biogen Kenya applied four times with a business making biodiesel, and we fully expected them to leave the program with that business. Five weeks later, we have a new name, Zijani, a new logo, but more importantly, a...
Two of our impactful startups from Fledge 8 in Lima: Pieta and Ayni expanded into retail this year. They’ve also have had international Press recognition ( see Bloomberg and Press Pieta ). Pieta opened 3 Popup Stores in Lima and expects to open 2 more in 2018 plus a store in Cusco. Ayni on the other hand, opened a store in Lima this year with 2 more to come next year. They also have plans to...
Vancouver Incubator Bringing a Global Startup Education to Entrepreneurs Around the World Spring University Launches Canada’s First Global Startup School in 30+ Cities Around the World, Now Accepting Applications for Courses Starting in April VANCOUVER, BC — (April 12, 2016) – When someone with an idea wants to become an entrepreneur where do they go? Spring Activator is...
Fledge is an impact accelerator, working with mission-driven for-profit startups from around the world, helping them achieve their impacts by teaching them how to succeed in their businesses. But what do we mean by impact? “What is impact?” is a question asked each year at SOCAP, at every Big Path Capital event, every Toniic gathering and Investors Circle national meeting. This...
Humans have been wearing clothes for millennia. Every piece of clothing for the history of mankind has been worn, washed, and ultimately thrown away. Some may get reused by others for a while, but until today, all clothing has eventually become trash. That all ended today. Today Levi Strauss & Co (better known as simply “Levi’s”) announced the first ever pair of recycled...
One of the biggest challenges of impact investing is in measuring the impact of the investments. One would think that this would be an easy, solved problem, but it is far from simple. The impact ecosystem is still working through multiple methods of measurements, few of which provide a single value which can be summed, compared, and tracked over time. The Pinchot Impact Index is one proposed...
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reported that companies waste 30% of the energy they consume. For many businesses, this is equivalent to overspending on energy by that amount to achieve current production levels. You’d think that increasingly sophisticated technology would help reduce this waste. However, overspending is often the result of decentralized and siloed decision...
The other highlight of the Investors Circle visit to Nairobi was the visit to the factory where BURN Manufacturing builds its cookstoves. Charcoal cookstoves, as charcoal is the most popular fuel used for cooking by urban and peri-urban Kenya. Factory, as in a fully-modern manufacturing facility, little different from those found in the U.S., Europe, Japan, or China. One large building filled...
Fledge has been importing African entrepreneurs to Seattle for the last two years. This week we finally got to visit a few in their home country, as part of an impact investing trip with Investors Circle. Unsurprisingly, there is no substitute to seeing their businesses first-hand vs. seeing pictures and movies while sitting in downtown Seattle at the Impact Hub. No amount of pictures can...
The Social Entrepreneur podcast is for aspiring and early-stage social entrepreneurs; and for those who want to make an impact on the world. Stories about the grand challenges in the world and the solutions that they are creating. Why does Fledge exists??? Listen to the interview on Stitcher or Soundcloud or download it on iTunes. Links to the talks and companies mentioned in the interview: 1st...