Thanks to the success of Sophie’s World, a novel about philosophy which sold 30 million copies, Jostein Gaarder, a Norwegian, is a rich man. When I heard about the $100,000 annual prize (Andy Revkin wrote about it) he created with this newfound wealth, I immediately started to do the math, to see just how rich [...]
Archive for May, 2010
What I would do with $2 million
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Impact investing on May 30, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The virtual ecosystem of a new venture
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Impact investing, Patient capital on May 26, 2010 | 1 Comment »
In the past couple weeks, two rising Bay Area entrepreneurs separately told me the same bizarre story about a new obstacle to raising capital: ‘traditional’ investors are reluctant to support a venture lacking a physical office. Those investors must think a physical address is a status symbol of sorts, an essential tool to foster the [...]
Numbers that matter
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Metrics on May 23, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
One of my main jobs at the Packard Foundation is to identify meaningful metrics to help us assess and evaluate the impacts of our investments. It is a challenging and interesting job, and harder than I thought it would be. As with previous projects, the challenge is not coming up with the metrics per se. [...]
Measuring harm
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Metrics on May 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Scientists weigh in on the important role of measurement in evaluating BP’s various attempts to plug the oil leak in the Gulf: It is our view that accurate, continuously updated measurements are not only possible, but absolutely essential if we are to respond effectively to this and future disasters… Without knowing the flow’s true magnitude, how can anyone judge [...]
