Weekend Entrepreneur Links: Banks, Startups, Humbug

Banks ripe for disruption, better startup pitching, Wall Street Journal makes boring critiques of CSR (big surprise), and the potential for mobile technology to change justice systems around the world. All this and more in this week's weekend entrepreneur links.

In Hard Times, One New Bank (Double-Wide): The US consumer banking industry is waaaaaay up there on my "ripe for disruption" list. This article shows just how little space there has been for new actors to come in and change anything, recently. It profiles the only new bank to get new approval to operate in 2010. While there are interesting opportunities in creating entirely new banks, I actually think the first steps to changing the industry are going to be through companies that simplify and optimize certain parts of the banking experience, for example, Banksimple.net. Their whole value proposition is that they keep as many parts of the consumer banking experience free, only making money from two key revenue streams, which means a better overall experience.

5 Lessons from 150 Startup Pitches: I've watched a lot of pitches this summer, and performed a few myself, and one thing I can say for sure: no entrepreneur has the perfect pitch, and most of us (particularly in the social space) could use some work. This set of posts have been around for a while, but I've recently been re-engaging with these tips from Jason Cohen of Smart Bear Software. The lessons are definitely more directly relevant for web entrepreneurs, but have lots of great insight for social ventures, as well.

"Bah! Humbug!" in the Wall Street Journal: Matthew Bishop and Michael Green use their Philanthrocapitalism blog to combat a set of recents pieces appearing in the WSJ. The first piece they sought to refute argued that the "Giving Pledge" was causing billionaires to focus on the wrong things when there would be more value if they just continued to make money. The second argued (poorly, in their estimation), that CSR was always going to distract companies and they should just give up, try to make profits as deviously as necessary, and have the government regulate. Not surprisingly, Bishop and Green have a few thoughts on both matters.

On the Potential of Mobile Justice: Stories about the potential of mobile technology to change health outcomes and improve economies in the developing world abound. Where there are fewer stories -- and as yet, fewer models -- is in how mobile technology can be used to help change the systems of justice that underpin free societies everywhere. This piece shares a few of the ideas and strategies that a working group convened by the State Department came up with this summer, particularly in the context of providing justice for rape survivors in eastern Congo.

Photo credit: The Consumerist