Michael "Luni" Libes is the social entrepreneurs' social entrepreneur. He created Fledge, an accelerator for social entrepreneurs that has now helped to create over $10 million in total funding for it ventures since its founding in 2012.
The problem, as Luni sees it, is all wrapped up in opportunity. "The trouble is, the problems of the world continue to expand, while the majority of the money, infrastructure, and power lie in the for-profit sector. If only businesses solved the important problems of the world, their success would lead to profits, scaling up those solutions, then more profits, more scaling, and so on, in a virtuous, self-sustaining cycle."
Luni boasts, "Thirty-nine 'fledglings' have graduated from the six Fledge programs run over the last three years. Companies such as Evrnu, making cotton recyclable; BURN Manufacturing and Obamastove, manufacturing clean cookstoves in Africa; Distributed Energy Management, conserving energy through financial management; Ensibuuko, modernizing the savings and credit co-ops of East Africa; Seeder, matching green builders with green building suppliers; East Africa Fruit, aggregating and distributing fruits and vegetables in Tanzania, Deehubs, at the corner of free speech and social media; Shift Labs, designing medical devices for the developing world, and dozens of others."
You can see a full list at fledglings.fledge.co.
Luni explains, "Each of these companies received an investment from Fledge, plus 10 weeks of intense training, guidance, and mentorship. Since graduating from Fledge, these companies have raised more than $10 million in follow-on funding, earned millions in total revenues, and created over 300 jobs, all while saving lives, saving trees, cleaning the environment, and alleviating poverty."
"By proving it possible to do good by doing business, Fledge will not only help hundreds of startups get started, and not only provide a return to our investors, but we will showcase a model that others can copy, so that hundreds of thousands of other entrepreneurs can join this new model of business," he concludes.
On Thursday, November 5, 2015 at 3:00 Eastern, Luni will join me here for a live discussion about Fledge and the fledglings it has incubated and hatched. Tune in here then to watch the interview live. Post questions in the comments below or tweet questions before the interview to @devindthorpe.
You can download an audio podcast here or subscribe via iTunes.
More about Fledge:
Fledge is the conscious company accelerator, educating, guiding, and mentoring mission-driven for-profit startups from around the world.
Luni's bio:
Twitter: @Lunarmobiscuit
Luni is a 20+ year serial entrepreneur, most recently founder of Fledge, the conscious company accelerator, and the Entrepreneur in Residence at Pinchot University. Luni is the author of The
Next Step series of guidebooks on entrepreneurship, and The Pinchot Impact Index, outlining a technique for measuring impact across a portfolio of companies.
