So....the big event of July 12 was the "Find a Co-Founder" event that took place on a private terrace, a 4,000 square foot private terrace to be precise, where 400+ entrepreneurial types gathered for free drinks and ostensibly a chance to meet a co-founder. As could be expected, almost everyone that showed up was some person with a business idea seeking help in executing that idea. This is pretty much the prevailing theme in NYC startup culture. I certainly was not looking for a Co-Founder, I was just forcing myself to go to a networking event of this nature (which I totally hate) and just getting used to the friction of having to cold-introduce myself to dozens of people. Among the people I met included the founder of Rent-Hackr, who wants to bring transparency to rents but has no clear strategy on how to get thousands of people to sign up when you need thousands to have a starting point, a video conference consultant and a reporter who started writing down everything I said, even though I spent most of that time talking about Villager and how frothy and ridiculous the tech scene is. I drank beer. It was just fine. I am a natural relationship builder -- I am not a natural networker. I also found a woman who wants to build a "social gifting" sight, but refused to reveal her "twist" her "secret" her "special little design" which really wasn't that secret. (As you can tell, I got the secret out of her. I kept a straight face.) Afterwards, I made my over to Williamsburg for the Gastronauts event and add tongue tacos, congealed blood, gorgeous Van Leeuwen ice creams, pork chop over rice and paired it all with...Rolling Rock. Mmmm. (New york is fucking hot these days and sitting outside in my suit was a no no).
Other than that, I spent quite a bit of time refreshing myself on securities laws in preparation for a Slow Money NYC small working group meeting the next day and also studied up on the models they were considering. It should be interesting. I also chose some more samples I received from my web designer. That guy is the tits.
Today, July 13 has been better. I just had lunch with Amy Cortese, author of Locavesting, at Rucola, a beautiful little restaurant in Boerum Hill that serves all local, organic foods. Delicious food, great conversation and really got along well. Hopefully this relationship continues on and that we have a long fruitful partnership in working on local projects. At 4 pm today, I will be attending the Slow Money Investors meeting to explore options of how to invest in farms and organic food in NYC. I hope that my years of organic farming, Pollan-fever and securities law background are a good fit for what they need.
ALSO, I received an email back from Egg in Williamsburg who are trying to raise money for a farm in upstate New York. They are excited to talk about Villager and I really hope they are a good first target for our pilot. First business contact! Whoo hoo!!
Update:
The meeting with Slow Money NYC (Investors Inspired by Slow Money) at Faber Daeufer & Rosenberg was quite productive, not least because I was gathered in a room with many people with similar food and investment philosophies as well as a mix of accredited investors and, of course, Amy. From my memory, I met a dude named Michael, who worked at an investment fund, Derek Denckla (the chairman and serial social entrepreneur), Amy Cortese, Steve Godeke (an investment manager and business prof at NYU), Holly Howard (on steering committee and works at Egg Williamsburg, who we are going to be speaking to next week), Nicole Reed (steering committee, need to follow up), Brian Kaminer (Steering committee, need to follow up), Sam Kressler (a finance guy who didn't survive the cataclysm who went into food systems and is now trying hard to get back into a big bank...) and Evan Wagner, who is in Green construction.
The thrust of the discussion was finding ways to foster an actual investment platform for agriculture and slow food. The discussion was slightly discursive at times and the chairman of Slow Money NYC was quite good at explaining a lot of the possibilities. We had a hard time finding focus, but I think it was a relatively productive session, not least because people began to develop a baseline familiarity with each other (at least us new ones) and I was able to make some of my views heard.
In particular, it was entirely unclear whether the point was to democratize slow money financing for the public or whether it was merely to channel capital to preserving the foodshed. I think the issues faced are entirely different on both sides. If you are trying to channel capital, then you are targeting accredited investors. Among accredited investors, you are probably shit out of luck targeting institutional investors or funds, who do not invest in "high risk, low return." That leaves you with rich folks. Ultimately, as I said during the meeting, what we are pricing into these investments is a positive externality. You are never going to be able to get a single individual to "invest" in high risk, low reward investments if you expect to provide a return, social or economic. They, investing 1 million dollars, will never reap enough social reward to give up that giant chunk of money unless it is a form of philanthropy. I argued that on a small scale, of 100 dollars or 200 dollars, people are able to reap the social return on investment and externality because their contribution was small. Thus our focus should be on expanding opportunities to the retail level. Otherwise, it was charity.
I think I need a more fulsome post about this on the Villager blog. To the top of the list!
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