So it’s international women’s day. As Adam Roberts says, I’m not so worried about that as there are 364 International Men’s Days. We’ve been thinking about women a lot at Bethnal Green Ventures. We’ve taken the apparently controversial decision to state “We particularly welcome applications from women” during our call for ideas. We’ve received […]
I’ve been thinking again, about grace as a combination of gratefulness and generosity. Not sure if it holds up, but I think there Generosity With our work at the Social Innovation Camp and Bethnal Green Ventures, we’ve found astoundingly generous people all over the world. From government workers willing to give up their time, […]
…with, perhaps, some lessons for most everything else. I went to the launch of my old dean Colin Mayer’s new book Firm Commitment a few days ago. I’ve just dipped into the book briefly but the associated lecture (and this article) got me thinking. The brief version of the lecture says, in essence, “The […]
At work we’ve been sitting on some excellent news since before Christmas: Bethnal Green Ventures, our for-profit accelerator programme, is going to be back in 2013, bigger and better than ever. What we’ll be doing, along with our partners the Cabinet Office, Nesta and Nominet Trust, is taking super early stage teams and giving them […]
Our Chancellor and coalition lead have been echoing the US for a while, trying to drive a wedge into the lives of those on benefits into strivers & skivers. I hate this. People are long-term unemployed for a massive range of reasons, and some of the benefit cuts really don’t make sense. I saw this […]
On Purpose has just opened its new Call for Associates On Purpose is run by a very clever group of people, and they help people migrate into the Social Enterprise space. I wish this programme had existed for me 5 years ago, as I’d have jumped on the chance (not that I wish I did […]
Difficulty in opportunity | Opportunity in difficulty There’s an old adage that the skeptic sees difficulty in every opportunity, while the entrepreneurs sees opportunity in every difficulty. Think about it. Imagine it’s 1998. Search sucks. Yahoo’s your best bet. Banner ads and the blink tag run rampant across the Internet. Pets.com has just closed its […]
Hi both of you who are still reading this, since I apparently let aaaaages pass without an update. Current status: I’ve stopped consulting… and have a job I’ve been working the past few months with the lovely and talented team at Social Innovation Camp around growing the business that they’ve started and bootstrapped over the […]
I had the pleasure to speak at the Africa Gathering in London this morning. (twitter feed here). There were a number of emerging themes through the conference, and not necessarily the ones you might think– access to finance, more capital, education. Nope. What came up again and again was: TIA This is Africa. Sometimes problems […]
The Hub, York Way King’s X, London 9th-10th Oct, 2009. I’ll be speaking about, in general, the challenges that investors and entrepreneurs face in Africa, with a specific focus on my partner organisation Appfrica Labs. Come out if you can. Details at Africa Gathering and on the EventBrite page. I’m on at 11 AM on […]