Q&A with Kevin Jones, Good Capital

Q&A with Kevin Jones, Good Capital

1. What can social entrepreneurs do to attract the interest and support of savvy, socially conscious investors?

They need to show they understand how to mix mission and money; to hit milestones that investors can see while they reach their impact. They also need to show that they have a business model where the mission is baked in and not likely to be stripped out if market acceptance moves away from them. One example was of a prominent day labor marketplace aimed at immigrant workers. It shifted to a guidance to trusted vendors for affluent females who wanted validated painting and carpentry contractors.... the logic of the business drove them there. So the logic of the business has to result in a mission that lasts and can survive.

2. Does gender play a role in the social enterprise sector? If so, how? If not, why not?

There are a disproportionate number of female entrepreneurs in social enterprise, compared to general business or technology, specifically. It could be tied to the motivation of compassion that starts the social entrepreneur to launch something to change the existing system. That's purely speculation, but it is an overweighting. Of course, many of them report that it is harder for them to be taken seriously as business people when it comes to getting funding... so it has two sides.

3. What areas of the technology sector are ripe for investment? In what facets of the technology sector does innovation lie?

Mobile is screaming with growth - mobile health, mobile payments, mobile media, etc.

4. Tell us about your favorite social entrepreneurs working to support women's economic advancement through technology. Why do they inspire you?

Samasource is one I like a lot - outsourcing digital work to women in places like Kenya and rural Pakistan, creating jobs that change lives and create new skills.

5. Tell us more about the Good Capital investment model--how do you support social entrepreneurs in growing and sustaining their ventures?

We exist in the new ground between giving and investing; what has been a no man's land. We tell our investors that there could be a cost of doing good that will compromise their return yet they will receive an attractive financial return. We are selling against the dominant myth of capital; intentionally. We are a change agent, and an idea with a fund wrapped around us. For our entrepreneurs we act as mission risk insurance; we keep, for instance, fair trade at the table at a beverage company, or we put non profits into the capitalization table of a fast growing technology company, so that they vest in stock options based on their performance of their social mission. The goal is to have the mission survive the exit, the sale of the company after it succeeds. We build brands around companies selling fair trade goods and help them reach new consumers who have never really thought before about the people who produce their food. We are a fund, but we are a fund with a point to prove; that you can make money at the intersection of money and meaning.