Victory! Change.org and Groupon Members Help Rescue Ethical Flip Flop Company Feelgoodz

Last week, we told you the story of Feelgoodz, an ethical flip flop startup whose major summer order had gotten stuck in BP oil spill-related madness in the Gulf of Mexico. The sales drop caused by the disaster had left them unable to repay a venture loan, the money from which was meant to go directly into another social venture. The story became our most shared ever, and I'm thrilled to report that less than a week later, with the help of the Change.org community and an assist from Groupon, FeelGoodz has sold almost its entire summer line, and will be able to repay the loan.

To quickly recap the story, Kyle Berner founded Feelgoodz a few years ago as a way to bring the joy he had experienced as a teacher and traveler in Thailand to the rest of the world. The company had generated an agreement with Whole Foods that would help them sell on the order of 10,000 pairs.

Participating in First Light Ventures' New Orleans "Village Capital" program, Feelgoodz had been given a $50,000 loan to help cover the cost of shipping the summer order. Unfortunately, as the BP oil rig started gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, the shipment got stuck in the Bahamas, eventually being delayed for two full prime flip flop-buying months. Whole Foods wasn't able to sell nearly the number of pairs that they had planned on, and Kyle was left unable to repay the loan, jeopardizing not only his company, but Drop the Chalk, the education software nonprofit who was supposed to get the next loan.

The story came to me through one of Feelgoodz investors, and my gut was that it would appeal to this community of social entrepreneurs and supporters. What I didn't anticipate is that the story "BP Oil Spill Claims Another Victim, An Aspiring Entrepreneur" would become our most shared ever, being posted to Facebook almost 700 times. Something about it hit a nerve, and the injustice of a promising young social venture shuttered by exactly the type of environmentally unsound old world company that requires our movement in the first place grabbed people's attention.

The community was not only sharing the story, but actually buying flip flops, as well. On the first day the story was up, thousands and thousands of dollars worth of flip flops were ordered. At the same time, I forwarded the story to the leaders of Groupon, a company that in the past two years has reinvented group buying and built an epic national distribution channel. Their roots are in social activism and I had a suspicion they'd be into the story.

They were, and almost immediately got on the phone with Kyle to craft a deal. On Friday, they started sending out a nationwide deal that was $12 for a pair of flops that normally cost $30. In the first few hours they sold 1,000. After a day it was closer to 3,000. By Sunday, they had reached 6,500 and shut the deal down to ensure that they could get everyone the sizes and colors they wanted.

This all means that Feelgoodz will be able to pay back their loan, and Drop the Chalk will have access to the resources they were promised. It's certainly a testament to the incredible distribution power of Groupon. Moreover, it is an amazing testament to the power of the internet to help people form rapid and spontaneous communities of support. Finally, it's a powerful demonstration that this community cares not just about rallying against companies doing bad, but about supporting companies out there trying to do good.

Photo credit: Kyle Berner