Ring In The New Year With Funding From Village Capital

by Nathaniel Whittemore · 2009-12-31 18:14:00 UTC
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Last week, I declared creativity in seed funding to be the number one trend I think will shape social entrepreneurship in 2010. For-profit social ventures in the Bay Area (or who are ready to move out here) have a unique opportunity to be a part of shaping that trend by applying for the Bay Area Village Capital Fund.

Basically, the idea of the fund - which is financed by Grey Ghost's First Light Venture group and which is sponsored by The Hub - is to build circles of social capital among groups of venture founders, who then have the power to allocate resources themselves, rather than having the decision about investment come from outside. The premise is sort of two part - first, that entrepreneurs are going to be as good (or more likely, better) judges of likely success among their peers than the investors - and that there is value created in the connections between participants that goes beyond the money invested. As a firm, Village Capital is interested in the potential that this is part of the answer to how to approach due diligence in a way that makes seed funding more scalable.

I think it's a fascinating experiment, and definitely worth applying for, or keeping an eye on if you don't fit this immediate profile.

The group is holding an info session at the Good Capital office (which also happens to be the home of Assetmap) at 22/Mission in San Francisco next Tuesday January 5th. Their full announcement after the jump.

(Photo: guano)

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New social venture investment model, West Coast Village Capital, is accepting applications

West Coast Village Capital is seeking social entrepreneurs with bright ideas and sustainable business models.  Inspired by the village bank model used in microfinance, Village Capital is an innovative investment model built on the hypothesis that entrepreneurs, working intimately together and providing peer support to one another, will be able to efficiently and wisely allocate investment to one another’s companies.  West Coast Village Capital (WCVC) is a 12-week program in which social entrepreneurs will work together to strengthen their businesses and identify those most ready for seed investments of $25,000 and $75,000 from First Light Ventures. WCVC will be hosted at the Hub – Bay Area and will run January – April 2010.  Please find the application form and more information at www.vilcap.com.

A public information session will take place January 5 at 6pm at Good Capital’s San Francisco offices (2601 Mission St, Suite 400, SF 94110).  Applications are due by January 7, 2010.

Nathaniel Whittemore is the founder of Assetmap. Previously he was the founding director of the Northwestern University Center for Global Engagement.
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