The Real Value Renaissance and Opportunities for Good Startups

One of the themes I've tried to push with this blog is that even in a down economy, there are incredible entrepreneurial opportunities for those willing to seek and find them out. Having just left one job to start a new company, there is perhaps a bit of self-fulfilling prophecy here.

But it's hard not to look across the spectrum of ideas that people are pouring into new companies and organizations and see that we could be on the verge of a real value renaissance, where people are not only founding companies, but finding ways to really meet specific needs and generate wealth with positive social and environmental impact.

Entrepreneur magazine posted yesterday about some of the industries best suited currently for startups. There are a lot of interesting ideas. I think that affordable meals are a clear opportunity to combine financial gain with social impact, and the example of Revolution Foods is a pretty awesome demonstration on how you can solve an old problem (crappy, unhealthy school lunches) in a new way.

Another one of their examples, Flat World, demonstrates I think how much opportunity there is to democratize access to textbook quality information and reduce the absurdly high cost of text books that become a major financial obstacle for many students. Using the internet to lower the cost of education seems to me to be one of the single best opportunities for socially-minded entrepreneurs out there.

Finally, the article points out the wide variety of opportunities around providing products and opportunities for the retiring baby boomer generation. Better educated and with more experience than just about any generation before it, there are huge opportunities to channel knowledge and expertise, as well as providing better services.

The point of course is simply to remember that even in a down economy, the entrepreneurial spark does not go away. If anything, for social entrepreneurs it gives us a new excuse to pitch a version of the future where social is the natural word in front of enterprise.