Our current venture development project is Good People Energy Technologies Inc.  We are re-posting their monthly status updates here to let Eat Drink Law blog subscribers follow along as we work on this venture.

The start of a new year.  January is a good time for introspection and coming up with a plan for the coming year.  In our case, it was a good month to look at strategy and what we have learned so far, especially since several of the pilot customer meetings we were hoping for in January didn’t happen.  And I came to realize that the business plan and financial model that got us going on this venture are already outdated.  On the good side, I don’t think we need as much initial capital to reach some pilot customers if our supply partners come through.  On the bad side, I think our initial pricing model is oversimplified and probably won’t work for either early sales or the mature model.

Frankly, we don’t know what our customers will pay and we don’t know how efficient our supply chain can become.  We need data.  I am reminded of the wisdom of lean startup methodologies and being flexible with early assumptions.

We also did our first B Impact Assessment through B Labs as our first step toward meeting our benefit corporation reporting and pursuing B Corp certification.  It’s unverified, but we scored really well for a company with no employees and no sales.  It certainly helps that we have baked our purpose into our formation and developing our supply chain.

The big win for the month was getting to present about Good People, benefit corporations, and impact investing to the staff at The Foundation.  We certainly hope that it may encourage them to make their first investment in a local benefit corp with us.  But regardless, it felt good to share what we are attempting and how business can truly be aligned with doing good in your community.  It was fun to go in and not worry about pitching our venture, but focus on  supporting the whole movement toward local investment in purposeful ventures.

For the full original post, go to: https://www.gdpplnrg.com/single-post/2017/02/21/Good-People-Month-5-Progress-Report

Print Friendly, PDF & Email