Weekend Entrepreneur Links: Movement All Around

by Nathaniel Whittemore · 2010-07-18 09:26:00 UTC
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When I look at this week's entrepreneur links, I can't help but feel movement in the air. We have a story about the big growth in seed stage investment in quarter 2, a profile of the newest crop of Skoll Scholars, and a thought piece reflecting on the human impulse to give. There is momentum for creative companies and organizations that amplify human potential right now, we just need to keep pushing it.

Seed-Stage Investments Jump Sharply in Q2 2010: This information from the National Venture Capital Association confirms what those of us in the Valley (and particularly the web space) have been feeling for the last few months -- that there is a significant influx in dollars to new ventures. The number of seed-stage deals grew 32% between Q1 and Q2 this year, and these numbers only refer to professional venture capital groups, rather than the angels who are really driving this movement.

The Give Idea or Secular Moralism: This year's TED Global theme was "And Now The Good News." As usual, frog design has maintained one of the best blogs covering the conference. frogger Sam Martin wrote this post after a talk by Kiva co-founder Jessica Jackley, who is starting a new company, Profounder, to help entrepreneurs crowd-fund seed investment. The post reflects on the connection between giving to others and happiness.

Slow spending: The Chronicle of Philanthropy recently reported about the large percentage of funds donated to Haiti in the immediate aftermath of the January earthquake that are yet to be spent. GiveWell does a nice analysis of the numbers on their blog, and come away suggesting that it's actually probably a positive thing that those dollars weren't just poured in without a real ability to solve problems.

Announcing the 2010-2011 Skollars: The Skoll Scholarship gives five students per year a fully paid scholarship to the social MBA program at the Said Business School at Oxford. This class continues the trend of excellence among the winners, and maybe even ups the ante. The Skollars have started a variety of companies across social investment domain areas, most notably Better World Books, founded by Xavier Helgesen.

Photo credit: Jessica Jackley at TEDGlobal 2010 by James Duncan Davidson for TED.

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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