Just a few weeks ago, I received a call from a friend I met through StartingBloc, Kim Scheinberg. We had only briefly met before, so I was very honored to be on the receiving end of a phone call from her about a new project she was working on, one that was directly in the intersection of social entrepreneurship and venture/angel investing. While I explained that I was not sure how I might be able to help out, I did know that one thing I could do would be to blog about her project after it was publicly launched. (The initial private launch happened at the StartingBloc Institute in New York).
So what exactly is this new paradigm of investing? Well, Kim, along with Rafe Furst, have set up an innovative and never-before-done angel fund, which was announced on Tuesday. The fund, called “Presumed Abundance,” essentially has a “pay it forward” model, and it works like this, as described on the new website:
“We provide startup capital for your company. Instead of buying equity for ourselves, the equity we purchase goes directly into our angel fund. Upon a liquidity event (merger/acquisition or IPO), the equity we purchased becomes available as seed stage capital for new social enterprises. The twist? You are now our angel partner, with an equal voice in determining where to invest that money.”
How about that? This new “presumed abundance” model not only provides startup capital to enable an entrepreneur to realize his or her dreams, but also enables that entrepreneur to “pay the investment forward” to enable more entrepreneurs to realize their dreams. In this way, a single initial investment has continued impact far beyond the initial startup.
Sound cool? Watch the intro video above and check out their website. If you want to hear what others are saying, also check out the coverage on Presumed Abundance at:
