Acumen Fund's 10 Lessons Learned About Getting Beyond Poverty

Jacqueline Novogratz of Acumen Fund

Five years ago I sat down with Jacqueline Novogratz to talk about Acumen Fund. She was just about to leave for a trip to Africa and I was just beginning to think about leaving The Nature Conservancy.

To my mind at the time the Conservancy had moved away from its core strength of supporting work on-the-ground and in-the-water -- we were more focused on large-scale global planning.

We had moved to the side of the "Planners" versus the "Searchers," to use William Easterly's nomenclature from his critique of Western efforts to "Aid the Rest," White Man's Burden. 

"Planners determine what to supply; Searchers find out what is in demand," Easterly wrote. "Planners apply global blueprints [emphasis mine]; Searchers adapt to local conditions. Planners at the top lack knowledge of the bottom; Searchers find out what the reality is at the bottom. Planners never hear whether the planned got what it needed; Searchers find out if the customer is satisfied..."

Acumen Fund was on the side of the Searchers, the entrepreneurs. I wanted to get back to working with entrepreneurs who were doing real work.

There were three things I really liked about Acumen Fund:

1.) They were investing not donating -- and they were all about results.
2.) They thought like a Venture Fund, only with a more patient, long-term view.
3.) Jacqueline. She was direct and didn't beat around the bush.

I need to explain that last bullet.

I was coming from a big, non-profit corporation, which operated in many ways like a Fortune 500 company.  Five years into its life Acumen was still more like a small and nimble start-up fund.

As entrepreneurial as I was -- I'd started several print and online media ventures over the years -- and despite how intrapraneurial I had been in my time with the Conservancy, Jacqueline saw that I wouldn't fit into Acumen at that time.

"Have you thought about starting something on your own?" Jacqueline asked.

(I ended up going to Ashoka as their vice president for global development before moving on to start my own endeavors.)

I continue to follow, support, and be impressed by Acumen's progress.  They have an impressive record of success.

Tonight and tomorrow Jacqueline and Acumen Fund are celebrating 10 years of creating a world beyond poverty by investing patient capital in social enterprises, emerging leaders, and breakthrough ideas.

Since 2001, the fund has invested more than $65 million in enterprises providing access to water, health, alternative energy, housing and agricultural services to low-income customers in South Asia and Africa. Their global community of emerging leaders combines the tools of business and philanthropy, making the world a better place.

Here are 10 Things Acumen Fund has learned over the past 10 years:

1. Dignity is more important to the human spirit than wealth.

2. Neither grants nor markets alone will solve the problems of poverty.

3. Poverty is a description of someone’s economic situation, it does not describe who someone is.

4. We won’t succeed in the long term without cultivating local leaders, local money, and strong local communities.

5. Great people, every time, no exceptions.

6. Great technology alone is not the answer.

7. If failing is not an option, you’ve ruled out success as well.

8. Governments rarely invent solutions, but they can scale what works.

9. There is no currency like trust, and there are no shortcuts to earning it.

10. Patient capital investing is built upon a system of values; it is not a series of steps to be followed.

You can learn more about Acumen Fund here and download their Lessons Learned here.

Congratulations Jacqueline and Acumen Fund on ten years of success -- and here's to the next ten years!

On the Ground in Pakistan: Jacqueline Novogratz

This morning I got a note from one of my heroes, Jacqueline Novogratz, founder of the Acumen Fund and author of The Blue Sweater.

She's been traveling in Pakistan with her husband Chris Anderson (no relation) and witnessing first hand the devastation there caused by massive flooding.

The floods have displaces 20 million people and destroyed 1.2 million homes, damaging 4-5 million more.  Those are big numbers and hard to conceptualize, so she also sent this video to help put faces to the numbers.

Take five minutes out of your day to watch this and then find a way to get involved:



Please share this video with your networks and let's do something about this -- every little bit helps. 

Go to www.ontheground.pk to find out how you can get involved.
 

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• Jacqueline Novogratz: Dispatches From Pakistan (huffingtonpost.com)
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• Powerful first-person reports from Pakistan, from TED's Chris Anderson (ted.com)

GoodCompany Ventures "UnPanel" Video Now Available

A month ago, GoodCompany Ventures had a lively event at GreenSpaces NY's TriBeCa space, including an "unpanel" on the subject of investment in social innovation moderated by yours truly and featuring Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures, Jacqueline Novogratz of the Acumen Fund, Roger Ehrenberg of IA Venture Strategies and Jacob Gray from Murex Investments.

The video of the conversation is now available:

GoodCompany Ventures / Green Spaces NYC Launch Event from Christopher Bentley on Vimeo.

Or watch it here:

http://vimeo.com/10700032

It's long, but worth watching...

GoodCompany "Un-Panel" at GreenSpaces NY

Last week's GoodCompany Ventures event at the TriBeCa, NY, offices of Green Spaces brought together some of the top minds in early stage and patient capital investing, including Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures, Jacob Gray from Murex Investments, Roger Ehrenberg of IA Venture Strategies, and Jacqueline Novogratz of the Acumen Fund, along with yours truly as the "un-moderator."

A great dialogue on our "un-panel" ranged from balancing long-term impact with maximizing returns to the need for solid metrics for social return.

[Hoping to have a link to video of the panel here next week.]


Four GoodCompanys  from the inaugural class of 2009 presented, including Black Gold Biofuels, Couchange, CalendarFly, and PublicStuff.

Roger Ehrenberg wrote a thoughtful post on his Information Arbitrage blog about the need for a new model for investing in "social" impacts and Jason Keramidas wrote a recap on the GoodCompany blog.

Applications for the 2010 Incubator are being accepted here.

(Disclosure: I am on the Advisory Board of GoodCompany Ventures.)

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GoodCompany: Can Venture Capital Change the World?

GoodCompany Ventures will announce its 2010 Venture Incubator for Social Entrepreneurs at a launch event next Thursday, March 4th from 6-8 pm in New York City.

I'm excited to be moderating a conversation between some of the most prominent advocates for both early stage investment and social enterprise, including

Fred Wilson, founder of Union Square Ventures, an advocate for early stage investment and author of the influential A VC blog;

Jacqueline Novogratz, author of The Blue Sweater, and the founder of Acumen Fund, a global nonprofit venture philanthropy fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of global poverty;

Roger Ehrenberg, founder of IA Venture Strategies, one of the most active angel investors in New York, and author of the blog Information Arbitrage;

and Jacob Gray, a partner at Murex Investments, a leading double-bottom-line venture fund, and a GoodCompany board member.

We'll be talking about the power of capital -- early stage and patient -- to catalyze change through investing in entrepreneurs and their innovations. GoodCompany believes that financial and societal returns are not mutually exclusive.

As Garrett Melby, co-founder and CEO of GoodCompany Ventures said in a press release, "Our mission is to help entrepreneurs and investors reconcile purpose and profit. We are excited to have four such influential and innovative investors come together to highlight new models for harnessing private capital to drive lasting social impact"

GoodCompany's 2009 pilot program in Philadelphia was the first incubator in the country to adopt venture capital strategies to the needs of social enterprises.

The 2009 program attracted social entrepreneurs from around the globe, in fields such as Cleantech, Education, Public Health, Social Finance and Community Development. Several companies from the 2009 cohort will do Ignite-style flash pitches at the event.

Applications for the 2010 GoodCompany Ventures Program will be accepted beginning March 5th.

The launch event is being hosted by GoodCompany Ventures, in partnership with Green Spaces, at their Tribeca co-working facility located at 394 Broadway, New York NY 10013.

Green Spaces forwards the sustainability movement globally through widespread local hubs that incubate social and environmental entrepreneurs.

Advance tickets are required for this event and are available at http://gcvpanel.eventbrite.com.


(Disclosure: I am on the Advisory Board of GoodCompany Ventures.)

Business Week Profiles 25 of America's Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs

Business Week is featuring 25 of America's Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs and asking readers to view a slide show and vote "for the business you feel holds the most promise, from now until Apr. 26."

They will announce the top five vote-getters on May 2.

Here's a description from Business Week:

"Social entrepreneurs—enterprising individuals who apply business practices to solving societal problems such as pollution, poor nutrition, and poverty—are now 30,000 strong and growing, according to B Lab, a nonprofit organization that certifies these purpose-driven companies. Together, they represent some $40 billion in revenue.

"Not surprising, then, that they've caught the attention of venture capitalists such as those at Acumen Fund, a nonprofit that invests in companies that try to alleviate poverty, and Bay Area Equity Fund, which backs businesses aiming to make social or environmental improvements to San Francisco's needier neighborhoods. President Obama has even suggested starting a new government agency to help socially conscious startups gain more access to venture capital."

Go watch the slide show of these very inspiring people and their ideas. You won't be disappointed.

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On Social Entrepeneurship in a Time of Economic Crisis

This evening I participated in a panel at the Social Entrepreneurship Forum at SUNY Purchase. My fellow panelists were Rob Katz from the Acumen Fund and NextBillion.net and Rex McKenzie assistant professor of Economics at Purchase and author of the PEB blog, and moderated by Leah Massar.

A good panel, and excellent audience participation.

....

One question that came up: Is now a good time to start a social entreprise? To that, I would answer with a link to this post by Y Combinator founder Paul Graham Why to Start a Startup in a Bad Economy. He was writing about start-ups, but much applies to social enterprise as well.

Social Entrepreneurs: Acumen Fund Launches New Web Site, Fellows Blog

We like Acumen Fund's approach to "building transformative businesses to solve the problems of poverty."

Today, Rob Katz @ NextBillion.net points us too Acumen Fund's new, RSS-compatible web site. Here's Rob's take:

"In addition to being syndication-friendly, the new site is rich with stories, photos, videos and lots of dynamic content. I like how they've organized things around their three pillars: capital, knowledge and talent. For more on this three pillars approach, check out my post from the annual Investor Gathering last week.

While you're checking out the new Acumen site - be sure to read Jacqueline Novogratz's recent Pakistan and India journals, by the way - also add Immersion to your RSS feeds or bookmarks. Immersion is the title of the 2008 Acumen Fund Fellows blog. The seven fellows - with whom I met a few weeks back - are working in India, Pakistan and Kenya, and have been blogging regularly about their work and personal lives 'in the field.' I've enjoyed the early posts, and encourage NextBillion readers to check it out."

On first glance, I like the look. It's clean and easy to navigate. There are a couple of broken links, but that will probably be worked out in the coming days. I also like the links to video content, photo essays, and stories. Wondering why it's not so easy to navigate to Fellow profiles from the list or even find such profiles. But these are minor complaints; the content is rich and the look and feel is an improvement.