Dear White Hat Witch,
The keynote speaker at the CalCEF Angel Network meeting in San Francisco on March 10 was, Joe Desmond, and he said that he has worked in both the public and private sectors of the energy industry over the course of 25 years.

I was wondering if people in the corporate social responsibility realm frown upon this bouncing back and forth? It seems like he would be pulling the strings of the public sector for a few years, and then using them to his financial advantage in the private sector, no?

Or am I jumping to conclusions?

Just trying to do some homework here.

Any insight you have on this kind of thing would be helpful.

Signed,
Straddling the Fence

Dear STF:

This is a good question.  Econ 101 tells us that for capitalism to work best, all players need equal info.  Real econ tells us that the players with the most info have the greatest advantage.  Socially Responsible econ tells us that in an imperfect world, transparency is key.  How does this apply to your question?

Read more…

This speech was transcribed at the CalCEF Angel Network Meeting March 10, 2009

Joe Desmond came into public service as a result of the 2001 energy crisis that ushered in Gov. Schwarzzeneger into office. Since the energy system is highly complex, dynamic and constantly evolving over time, the points of leverage were always changing over time. In order to affect meaningful change, it requires sustained attention and focus over a long period of time, something that is anathema to most politicians (and my generation! I’ve had to listen to this speech about 20 times before really starting to understand what Desmond is saying!). We all know there’s a problem, but how would we address that?

Read more…

This speech was transcribed at the CalCEF Angel Network Meeting March 10, 2009

Laurie Yoler, Managing Director for GrowthPoint Technology Partners, provided an overview of her firm’s recent analysis of the investment trends in energy efficiency and the state of the mergers & acquisitions market. See EthicalMarkets.com for an aggregation of news media covering the Energy Efficiency market.

How would I look at exits? I would look at the data - the assumption was that the acquirers would be the utilities, but they hadn’t been very active in acquiring companies. My feeling was that it wouldn’t be on the supply side - the bulk would be on the demand side - I kept hearing this buzz word from folks at PG&E - energy efficiency, meaning Green IT/Green data centers. The solution is in virtualization.”

Read more…

The application deadline for the 2009 Doing it Right NYC Program is March 31, 2009. Please take the time to view the full NYC Program Schedule & Details. As many of you know, this is a year of change. As recently reported in the Economist, “The world’s greatest producer of entrepreneurs continues to be America”.  Our sessions provide the most up-to-date insights and recommendations on how to approach your fundraising strategy as well as alternatives, bootstrapping for success, and the state of angel investment and venture capital.  We strongly encourage you to apply now.

Emerging Markets offer promise and challenge to the pharmaceutical industry: Investor Report
Date: March 6, 2009
New approaches to customer needs, product affordability and effective distribution will be the lynchpin to global pharma’s success in emerging markets, according to the Pharma Futures report, published today. Read more…

Meanwhile, Innovest’s Weekly Stock Monitor reported that the pharma industry has started 2009 off with an unprecedented wave of M&A activity. In deals totaling USD 157 billion, big pharma has proven that capital is still available in this market. With approximately USD 100 billion in easy liquidity, the industry’s largest players have been seeking acquisition targets to restock their weak drug pipelines and protect their USD 85+ billion in sales facing patent expiry. Read more…

In September the Apollo Alliance and its national coalition of labor, environmental, business, and community leaders released The New Apollo Program, a comprehensive clean energy, job-generating strategy to restore America’s economic strength.

http://apolloalliance.org/programs/full-proposal/

Investors Use Social Networks to Make Early Stage Investment Decisions
Angels deepen their visibility with little effort. Beware the disgruntled Founder sporting a Blog.

Before investors consider investing in a company, a simple Google search can yield surprising information that can make or break a deal.

Finding a disgruntled former company founder’s blog that publicizes his technology, patents and office politics is probably a good sign that company is not a sound investment.

But discovering that a CEO shares your values and enjoys hobbies you can’t live without may be the reason to continue to the next level of decision-making.

The world of Social Networking Services (SNS) is making online research even more specific, as well as allowing Angels to search for potential investment opportunities outside their own personal networks.

Web sites like LinkedIn, OpenBC, Ryze and Ecademy specialize in business-to-business networking and provide detailed profiles of company CEOs and entrepreneurs.

Angels invest in people, not companies; therefore, such click-of-the-mouse information is valuable during the early stages of research and discovery. That’s why most of these social networking web sites charge users tiered subscriptions with varying degrees of privileges.

Using Ecademy, for example, can become an investment in itself at $577 per month for the highest Black Star privileges, but to some Angels it may be worth it when they hear an actual audio message in a company CEO’s own voice.

Searching the pages of OpenBC, which offers service in 16 different languages, could open the doors to international markets.

“LinkedIn Angel Investors” is a group that discovered the power of social networking services back in 2004. Members include Angels like Marc Andreessen, Josh Kopelman and Joe Kraus.

In the opinion of Mark Caputa, president of WhizSpark Corporation based in Massachusetts, “LinkedIn seems to me to be people that are making things happen.”

This article was originally published on TheAngelJournal.com on June 30, 2006.

http://www.cleantechopen.com

Last year, two of my friends in Miami decided to convert their backyard into a garden because they knew how bad “the depression” was about to become. One of them is a computer programmer, who often knows about everything long before it hits mainstream, so it wasn’t weird when he started ordering seeds by the boxful off the Internet.

He also announced he wanted to start a Tilapia farm alongside the garden, where romaine lettuce, strawberries, tomatoes and other tasty vegetables would be growing.

“Eventually we’re going to be able to sell this to the neighbors because food shortages are imminent.”

Who knows if there will be food shortages - regardless, these are the people upon which Monsanto and other investors in seeds rely…and it looks like the boom is just going to continue…

• Vegetable Seed Sales Shoot Skyward

• Vegetable seed sales soar

• In bad times, seed sales grow

• Seed companies see sales increase despite recession

Other people “going back to the land” in other parts of the country besides Miami…

• Ghost Town Farm

• From Beverly Hills to Hillbilly Farm

And then…what do these seeds need to grow? Why, water, of course!
Panel Urges Strategic Investments in Water

The transition to a low carbon world will transform our whole economy.

Welcome to the Government’s interactive website for the Low Carbon Industrial Strategy, your opportunity to discuss a national vision for the transition to low carbon, not just as an environmental and economic imperative but as an opportunity for the UK to put in place the bridges to our economic future.

‘Low Carbon Industrial Strategy: a Vision’ sets out the scope and ambition of the Government’s plans. Businesses and others with an interest are asked for their input to inform a final strategy to be published in the summer.

This website provides an opportunity for you to engage on how the Government can be a catalyst for low carbon growth and set business on the path to building the low carbon economy.

Officials from BERR and DECC will be reading all comments (including those in discussions across the web) and responding to points raised.

The site will run throughout March and be reviewed in April.