A pretty comprehensive summary of the nexus of concepts that my current project .commUNITY is working on. We have rebranded the concept as an Ekosystem.

1. Benevoland
Ecosystem

2. Who am I?
 B. Sc. Physics
 7 years as an investment advisor… built $30 million asset
base… studied lots of finance
 5 years operating my own investment banking and
strategic advisory group
 BIG LIFE TRANSITION
 3 year studying philosophy
 Occupy… climate activism
 Explored and written about a number of cutting edge
social change models; technology architecture, social
finance innovation…
 Involved in a number of different alternative culture
communities
 Focusing on creating physical spaces… most recently a
part of the Ruby Lake collective

3. What is the Essence?
“For peace to reign on Earth,
humans must evolve into new
beings who have learned to see
the whole first.”
― Immanuel Kant

4. The Good Country Index
“Do (countries) exist purely to serve
the interests of their own politicians,
businesses and citizens, or are they
actively working for all of humanity
and the whole planet? The debate is
a critical one, because if the first
answer is the correct one, we’re all in
deep trouble.”

5. What organizational
structure might
support this shift in
perspective?

6. Energetic Vortex

7. Google

8. 22 Squared

9. BGT Partners

10. Dreamhost

11. Google

12. What is the function of
social finance…
impact investing…
charitable giving?

13. Hypotheses
Function of social finance… charitable
giving… is to make the world a better
place… more specifically to proliferate
social good…
The fundamental bottleneck to this is the
absence of very early stage risk capital
(resources) for projects that are social
mission focused

14. What Is Our Opportunity?
 Develop a prototype for a solution that
will solve a systemic problem!... To totally
change the game… to make a difference
at a global level…
 Provide capital for very early stage socially
focused projects
 Provide context for later stage projects
(mission driven and otherwise) to support
change activity, develop partnerships…
develop their projects
 Ramp up capacity for the movement for
change in our local area

15. What are Projects …
Ecosystem?
PROJECT: A group of people working
towards the same goal… with a shared
mission… vision… story
ECOSYSTEM: A group of Projects working
towards the same goal… with a shared
mission… vision… story
They might share the same people,
infrastructure, partners, clients etc.

16. An Ecosystem of Projects
TIME
TIME
The
UNIFICATION…
COVERGENCE
of Mission…
Vision… Story…
Goals… Intent

17. What is an Ecosystem?
“An ecosystem is a
community of living
organisms…”
“…ecosystems are
defined by the
network of
interactions among
organisms, and
between organisms
and their
environment…”
The whole is
greater than
the sum of
its parts!

18. Project Ecosystems
In Same
Physical
Space
Unification…
Convergence
served by being
in same physical
location
The Water
cooler effect!
Extended
Ecosystem

19. Balancing Autonomy and
Synergy
Shared
Vision…
Mission…
Story

20. Spaces We ‘Live’ in are
Compartmentalized
Life is integrated!

21. Build a Technology Layer Across the
Ecosystem of Projects
Social Change
Ecosystem
SGEI
So what kind of spaces should we create?

22. Engaging with Ecosystems
Community…
Culture… Context!
We Generate LIFE..
Boundaries are
Permeable
Ecosystem Best
Practices Open
Sourced
Dialogue with the
World

23. Internal Resource Flows
Anchor
Tenant
Projects provide
whatever
resources they
can… it might
NOT be money

24. The Power of Stories: connect to
world through stories
 In media and social media driven world
Stories are disproportionately more
important at any other time in history
 Viral dynamics
 Emotive
So… what mix of projects is in
alignment with this reality?

25. Ecosystem Intentional Mix

26. Shared Space Comparison:
physical space and resources
CATEGORY HOT DESK INCUBATOR ECOSYSTEM
Open
Concept
Yes Yes Yes
Private Office Yes Yes Yes
Short Term
Desk Rental
Yes Yes/No No
Shared
Infrastructure
Yes Yes Yes
Restaurant…
gym…
No No Yes
Investment
Fund
No Yes Yes
Tech Platform No No Yes

27. CATEGORY HOT DESK INCUBATOR ECOSYSTEM
Shared
Vision… Story
No No Yes
Vertical Focus No Yes No
Funding
Strategy
No No Yes
Structure
Agnostic
Yes No Yes
Group
Process
Yes Yes Yes
Gatherings
and Events
Yes Yes Yes (more)
Internal
Resource
Flow
No No Yes
Shared Space Comparison:
system level

28. Cheil

29. JWT

30. Pensar

31. Skype

32. Skype

33. Rethinking Resource
Allocation

34. The Paradigm Shift
Systemic of View of Projects… from one
project at a time to groups of projects
Systemic View of Resource Allocation…
from funding one project at a time to
funding one ecosystem at a time!
Flow capital directly from financially
motivated investors to socially
motivated projects

35. What is a Social Venture?
There are many definitions. I am
offering the following…
‘Projects, the objective of which is to
bring about positive social change’
Note that, there is no reference to said
projects necessarily having to make
money in this definition

36. The Funding Cycle
Projects are fluid…
people have good
intentions… plans
are forming

37. What is the Problem Being
Solved?
 Lack of resources (cash and in-
kind) for germination stage and
pre-proof of concept social
innovators… which is a systemic
problem
… why is this a systemic problem?

38. The Systemic Problem
 Seed stage social innovation
projects (as defined) carry very
high risk and very little financial
return potential (by definition)
 This is to be contrasted with
financially motivated projects
which behaves like…

39. ‘Financial Driven’ Angel Investments…
return distributions
Socially motivated
investments don’t
have this return
potential
Seed stage Social
investments have
high risk and
moderate return
potential
All seed stage projects are risky but some that are profit
motivated do really well!... This compensates for all those that
do poorly…

40. Guess where the funding
bottleneck is?
Germination and Pre
Proof of Concept
Proof of Concept
Mid Stage
Late
Stage
No $
Small $
Volume of Ventures
Some $
Huge $!

41. Traditional Funding Mindset…
Single Project Scalability Principle
Scalability: support the one project that
has the highest probability of doing
extraordinarily well.
Problem…
 Ignores 9/10 projects
 Reinforces survival of the fittest
Underlying Perspective
 Competition versus cooperation

42. Social Change and Cultural Change…
proliferating social entrepreneurship
The Problem with the One Project Scalability
model…
Is it better to fund 1 * $200,000 into a great
project that will scale… or 10 * $20,000 into
smaller unproven projects?
Not clear from a financial perspective
A definite NO from a cultural change
perspective

43. The Cultural Mix
Is it better to have?...
Highly
Scalable
Projects
Moderately
Scalable Projects
From the perspective of the
system... The world!... How do
we scale the entire system?

44. Distribution of Lease Payments
(costs)… sufficient in aggregate
Organization Type Lease Payment Capacity
For Profit Service Profit Service
Providers
Strong cash flow… and ability
to cover lease payments
Established Social Business
Service Providers
Reasonable cash flow… and
ability to cover lease payments
Early Stage (post proof of
concept) Service providers
Some cash flow… can manage
reduced lease payments
Pre Proof of Concept Service
Providers
No cash flow… no ability to
cover lease payments

45. Hypothetical Project Mix
SERVICE
TYPE
For Profit Social
Venture
Not-for-
Profit
Technology Technology
infrastructure/web
development
Strategy Business/strategic
planning
Media Film, video,
content
development
Social
Change
Crowdfunding Anti Pipeline
Activists

46. Financing Ecosystems

47. Manager
Company Company Company Company Company
Financial Capital Pool
Investor Investor Investor Investor
Traditional Pooled Capital
Distribution Models

48. Ecosystem Pooled Fund Capital
Distribution Models
Corp
Not for
Profit
Charity Charity Corp.
Ecosystem Pooled Fund
Investor Investor Investor Investor
Cooperative
Crowdfunded Creative
Structures Targeted at
Financing Ecosystem
Social Good Ecosystem
Incubator

49. Finance: the current
paradigm
Two Problems…
1.Quantification of Social return
2.Mission drift

50. Beyond Social Finance

51. Zero Coupon Principle Guaranteed
Social Good Bond… an example
 Raise $1,000,000 via Social Good Bond
 Invest $930,700 in a 5 year zero coupon
bond guaranteeing investors their principle
back
 Invest $69,300 in ….. A project… a pool
that can invest in other projects…