Hub Ventures : Apps due Feb 13

Got this in an email this afternoon:

Building a social venture and in need of funding, resources, and an amazing community of peers and mentors?

Hub Ventures is a 12-week evening program providing funding and resources to a community of 16 entrepreneurs building solutions for a better world. Participants will refine their business models and investor pitches while growing their networks of peers, mentors, and potential investors. They will engage in weekly peer review sessions, mentor office hours, speaker events, and focused workshops on topics such as Design for Impact, Fundraising Methods, and Customer Development.

Upon completion of the program, 3-4 ventures will receive $75,000 in seed funding through a peer selection process. Participants will also pitch to top Bay Area Impact Investors at SOCAP Investor Day in June.

The sessions will take place at Hub SoMa (San Francisco) and Hub Berkeley.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, with the final day to submit of Sun Feb 13.

Get your questions answered at the Hub Ventures Launch Event:
Tues Jan 18 @ 6:30pm
Hub SoMa, 925 Mission St, San Francisco
RSVP here.
Speakers will include:
* Wes Selke, Good Capital
* Ross Baird, First Light Ventures and VilCap
* Kevin Casey, New Avenue Founder and West Coast Village Capital Alum
* Nick Ellis, Job Rooster Founder and West Coast Village Capital Alum
* Alex Michel, Hub Bay Area

The Life Investment. Would you Sell Yourself for Social Change? :: San Francisco, Wed March 3

photo: Kjerstin Erickson


I've signed up to attend this event tomorrow, Wednesday, March 3. I just saw Kjerstin Erickson speak on Sunday at the Stanford Entrepreneurship Week social entrepreneurship panel, but she did not talk about this - looking forward to hearing her speak again!


The organization that Kjerstin founded as a Stanford undergrad, FORGE (Facilitating Opportunities for Refugee Growth and Empowerment) is amazing. Read more about it here.


photo: Kjerstin


SOCAP10 and Hub Bay Area Present:

The Life Investment. Would you Sell Yourself for Social Change?

Wed March 3
6:30pm - 8:30pm
The Box SF - 1069 Howard Street, San Francisco, CA


Some Background:
From this Jan 12 Change.org blog post - A few months ago, one creative investor started to get excited about the idea of Investing in Superstars. Sometimes, he posited, you run across someone who seems so exceptional that whatever it is they're doing, you want to be a part of it. What if, he thought, instead of waiting till they have some clear specific venture, you enabled them with resources up front and allowed them to achieve their potential earlier? What long term value for the world would that create?

The strategy he came up with to make the financials work was to suggest a sort of "Life Investment" - a few hundred thousands dollars up front in exchange for some small portion (1-5%) of your income for ever, with a "buyout" option of a number of multiples of the original investment.

One of the first people to determine to ... make it real was Kjerstin Erickson, the founder of FORGE and Social Edge blogger. Kjerstin is offering 6% of her annual income for a $600,000 up front investment.


Panelists:
The Skeptic: Nathaniel Whittemore, Assetmap.org
Note: Nathaniel is the founding director of the Northwestern University Center for Global Engagement, which I blogged about here. I've also blogged about Nathaniel here.
The Young Entrepreneur: Kjerstin Erickson, FORGE (Facilitating Opportunities for Refugee Growth and Empowerment)
The Investor: Kevin Jones, Good Capital
The Seasoned Entrepreneur: Greg Steltenpohl, founder of Adina Holistics and Odwalla


Event Schedule:
6:30-7:15 Mixer and Contact Stations - Saul Garlick (Think Impact), Daniel Epstein and Teju Ravilochan (Unreasonable Institute), and Ashni Mohnot(Enzi) will have stations to discuss their perspectives on the Life Investment.

7:15-8:30 Main Discussion - Panelists will act as respondents to audience perspectives. Audience participation and debate will be highly encouraged. We're looking forward to a high-energy, thought-provoking conversation that will leave us all with new insights to the future of social funding.

RSVP here. Tickets are $11.24. When you visit the website to RSVP you can view a list of confirmed event attendees (including myself:)

SOCAP10 :: Social Entrepreneurship Conference

I hope to make it to this conference this year - Social Capital Markets (SOCAP10.)

Check out last year's program. SUPER exciting stuff!

This video interview with co-founder Kevin Jones is about last year's conference.



Check out their blog here.

The conference organizers are accepting applications for interns. Positions begin Feb 1, 2010 and are based at The Hub in Berkeley, CA.