The 2020’s are about to start, and with that, this is a good moment to look back at what has been accomplished at Fledge in its first decade of existence, the 2010s. September 2019 – Nairobi, Kenya 14 African entrepreneurs, all focused on restorative agriculture met for an incredibly intense week of training. So useful that WRI is expanding this program beyond Africa in 2020...
We suffer from understanding startups. Perhaps “suffer” isn’t quite the right word, but if you understand anything about entrepreneurship, you know it comes with high highs and low lows, too often both in the same week, and even sometimes both on the same day. Or perhaps why this sentence resonates so well for Fledge is that we are not the type of program that provides just days...
Twelve years ago TechStars was born. Eight years ago, we discovered Bainbridge Graduate Institute. A few months later, we were introduced to the co-founder of what today is Impact Hub Seattle. Without the existence of these three organizations, Fledge never have been founded. The mashup in hindsight is obvious. TechStars taught us how to efficiently help startups. BGI taught us that it is...
From talking to dozens of fund manager and individual investors we’ve come to realize the power and benefits of running a business accelerator rather than a traditional venture capital fund. From 10,000 feet away, we do the same job. We invest in young companies, providing capital to grow. But from 10 feet away the approaches are vastly different. And those differences boil down to what we...
The Opportunity is Africa is a new podcast bringing you stories from African entrepreneurs and investors, highlighting the many business opportunities that exist across the continent. Syndicated by the Africa Business Radio podcast network, a graduate of Fledge, as are the first five interviewees. Also check out Luni’s posts on the Energy, Opportunities, and Hurdles for Africa. You’ll...
Fledge’s founder is back from a two-week tour visiting seven fledglings in Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda. Click below to watch video tours of each:
Plus Geoffrey from Green Charcoal Uganda founded a second company that grows turkeys…
All plastics are now recyclable, thanks to Arqlite. In their first production facility, Arqlite converts 5 tons per day of waste into artificial stones for use in an under concrete.
A quick, 1-minute tour
A quick, 5-minute tour by founder/CEO Sebastian Sajoux
Conscious (a.k.a. impact) entrepreneurship is not unique to any one country. It is a global phenomenon. The same is true for impact investing. And yet, the global reach of Fledge continues to amaze us and our followers. For example: Top 14 countries watching videos on youtube.com/fledgellc Only 15% of the Fledge videos are watched by Americans. Peru is #2, which is not surprising as the first...
Most of what we do at Fledge is invisible. You can catch glimpses of the business planning and financial modeling at Demo Day, but the only visible changes we make are in the (re)branding. We re-branded Chabana Farms as Kalahari Honey, to make their newfound focus on honey explicit. God Cares Farm is now Oreeggs. Now their focus is clear too, and their name distinct. We found a name for our...
Monday, April 29th begins the fourteenth session of Fledge. Or is it the 17th? Or 61st? You’d think counting would be easy, but the complexities of the real world get in the way. The simplest way to count sessions is to simply count how many times we’ve taught the Fledge curriculum with a cohort of entrepreneurs. But if we do that, we have to include the dozens of part-time Kick...