Fledge is a global network of conscious company accelerators and investment funds, helping entrepreneurs create impactful companies and co-ops at scale through intense, short programs filled with education, guidance, and a massive amount of mentorship.
Each city runs (up to) one session per year. Each city’s program is a bit different from the others’, but all are focused on mission-driven for-profit companies, and all invest in their fledglings.
Th educational curriculum is based on The Next Step books and online classes, taught to fill in any gaps in the key skills entrepreneurs need to know to succeed: strategy, financials, marketing, sales, funding, etc.
All our cities share a global network of hundreds of mentors, who share their experiences, advice, and connections in 1-on-1 meetings with participants.
Every day, week after week, we push the participants forward, iterating business strategy, financial models, marketing and sales plans, funding options, and investor and sales pitches, plus we put a special focus on storytelling. The result is intense and creates lasting value for years after the companies return home.
We have been refining this service since 2012 and, to date, have helped hundreds of companies from dozens of countries. We’re eager for more. Our goal is to help foster a wave of companies that make a measurable impact in the world, collectively improving the lives of everyone on the planet.
We invest $15,000 (Peru), €15,000 (Europe), or $20,000 (U.S.) into each company we invite to participate, using revenue-based equity, which aligns our interests with the founders, avoids any pressure to “sell out”, and lets us invest in just about any market segment and most any country in the world. Plus, we make introductions to impact investors and make follow-on investments from our family of seed funds.
Michael Porter, professor from Harvard Business School, advocates that the structure of non-profits, NGOs and government assistant can never scale sufficiently to solve the major issues of the world, whereas the structure of for-profit business CAN scale. Scale is the key that I missed in my version of this talk… The key insight is that any philanthropic or government solution that works...
Help clean the rivers of India. Donate to the Tansa Clean campaign today:
Every session at Fledge is a bit different than the others. For the Autumn 2013 cohort, running September through November, this includes something of a staggered start. The first four fledglings nestled into the nest today: Close to Home is an marketplace for post-disaster homes. A place to go when FEMA lets you down, or for less massive disasters, such as home fires or remodels. Community...
From the Wall Street Journal: GUEST MENTOR, Michael “Luni” Libes, founder and managing director of Fledge and entrepreneurship instructor at the Bainbridge Graduate Institute: The better question is not how can startups incorporate social good, but why don’t more startups do this already? Out in the market of ideas, the vast majority of entrepreneurs focus on products or services that save the...
Community Sourced Capital has taken off! One of the first seven “fledglings” from 2012, Community Sourced Capital launched their business in earnest in January 2013, less than six months ago. Since then, they’ve helped eight company raise over $100,000 from over 500 individual “squareholders” Congratulations on a great start! If you’ve yet had the opportunity...
Richard Branson and his friends have launched “The B Team”, an initiative to make business a force of good in the world, a belief shared with the companies and organizations showcased here on BloomTimes. “Our vision of the future is a world in which the purpose of business is to be a driving force for social, environmental and economic benefit.” — The B Team The B...
Stockbox Neighborhood Grocery is expanding this summer to First Hill. This store expands the Stockbox mission, began two years ago with a prototype in Delridge, and less than a year ago with the first production store in South Park. As stated on the Stockbox blog: To our new First Hill neighbors: we are dedicated to building a store that represents the uniqueness of your community and, to do...
Watch the “Demo Day” Videos at your Convenience Featuring the Winter 2013 “fledglings”: Tansa Clean (a.k.a. Brown Box) – “Valuing” the stream of of human waste in India Serve Smart – Preparing volunteers for effective service Kodeza – Crowdsourcing local knowledge to create local change Shift Labs – Simple, inexpensive, human...
Natural soap, online groceries, cell phones, volunteer training, drip clips, human waste, point rewards, and your old tennis shoes. Wondering what these things have in common? They’re all concepts for Fledge’s sophomore class of socially conscious startups. Fledge, an incubator program led by Michael “Luni” Libes, held its second-ever Demo Day at the HUB Seattle Thursday night, as eight groups...
TayaSola Lantern Kits aim to make life better for billions around the world by ridding the night of smoke, while saving money in the process. These kits, when combined with local recycled materials such as plastic bottles or glass jars, produce a reading light, a cell phone battery charger, or other electrical gadgets. The power generated from these kits is limited only by our creativity. Each...