In its first foray to the west, this hugely successful event comprises a pitch evening with a triple-decker live crowdfunding campaign where YOU decide who gets funded. We're thrilled to introduce our 6 finalists.

Finalist 1: Fare Go Food Truck

Fare Go is the first ever social enterprise food truck operated by people from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds in Perth. Serving up delicious cultural comfort food, Fare Go brings the opportunity to eat, share and connect while empowering refugees and asylum seekers through employment. They have bought the truck and need your help to get it rolling! Your support will give the Fare Go a fair go at a sustainable future..because every refugee deserves a chance! 

Be quick and BOOK NOW for WA's very first Pitch for Good. $30 buys you 3 x $10 voting chips, a feed, and an awesome evening of pitches where YOU decide who gets funded
 

Finalist 2: Tucker Bush

Our second finalist for the Pitch for Good Perth live crowdfunding event is Tucker Bush.

Mark and Marissa want to give young Australians the opportunity to grow and learn about native bushfood plants and to foster an interest and passion for their food and environment.

They want to help interested schools in their goal to establish a Tucker Bush garden and provide them with a starter pack of native bushfood plants, an Aboriginal Cultural incursion, and plan the garden and run an educational workshop.

Tucker Bush's ultimate vision is for every Australian garden to feature (at least) one indigenous edible plant. Through the Tucker Bush for Schools Program, Mark and Marissa aim to support a sustainable, long-term approach to achieving a goal of this scale

Be quick and BOOK NOW for WA's very first Pitch for Good. $30 buys you 3 x $10 voting chips, a feed, and an awesome evening of pitches where YOU decide who gets funded

Finalist 3: Flanno

Finalist 4: Tradr

Finalist 5: Paper Mountain

Our fifth finalist for WA's first Pitch for Good Perth is Paper Mountain.  For the past few years, Johnny has led the team at Paper Mountain with the vision to encourage exploratory art forms and unique dialogue to challenge conventional ideas of human creativity and expression. 

Paper Mountain is a non-for-profit and self-funded artist-run-initiative (ARI), entirely run by an incredible team of over 50 volunteers. Through high-quality programming in our gallery, affordable studio spaces for artists and a common space where arts projects are fostered, Paper Mountain has become a much-loved space as a unique space supporting artists and creatives to showcase their work. 

Over the years, Paper Mountain has elevated the narratives of hundreds of artists and creatives, and continues to provide ongoing opportunities for professional and creative development for artists and arts workers, while actively working towards using the arts as a way to empower our communities. Looking to it’s future, Paper Mountain is looking to find new ways to strengthen it’s contributions to arts, culture and community in WA.

Be quick and BOOK NOW for WA's very first Pitch for Good. $30 buys you 3 x $10 voting chips, a feed, and an awesome evening of pitches where YOU decide who gets funded.

Finalist 6: Kooda

Our sixth finalist for WA's first Pitch for Good is Kooda. Australians throw out 345 kgs of edible food each year, equating to AUD$8 billion. Helping reduce the amount of food that ends up in landfill is Kooda's mission.  With just the click of an app, Kooda will come and collect your food scraps and organic waste from wherever you are in Perth. In return, customers are supplied with five litres of worm castings every four months, made from the very scraps collected by Kooda. Kooda is the only registered commercial BioPak compost facility in Western Australia.

Kooda was founded in 2016 as a graduate company from the Founder Institute, by Carly Hardy. Kooda's vision is to build a world where we recycle our food nutrients and none of it goes to landfill, where we have biodynamic healthy soils provide the nutrients to the feed urban cities which in turn feeds back into the soil cycle, sequestering carbon in the process. 

Be quick and BOOK NOW for WA's very first Pitch for Good. $30 buys you 3 x $10 voting chips, a feed, and an awesome evening of pitches where YOU decide who gets funded

What is a Good incubator?

13th September 2018

Linked to the increasing number of startups and desire for them to succeed, is an increasing number of incubators. A decade ago there were just a handful, StartupWA counted twelve in 2015, and in 2018 there are nearly sixty existing or emerging across the state.

More incubators means more to choose from for the entrepreneurs, investors, funders and policy-makers. So a common question becomes what (and which) is a good one?

This article will take an initial look at what is a ‘good one’. Reading should empower you to better ask the question and make decisions about your engagement with them.

First we need to clarify what an incubator is. Here we mean an entity that grows startups: innovative, adaptive, early-stage high-potential ventures. They grow startups by providing mentoring, education, investment, co-location, networking and professional services. Accelerators can be considered a rarer type of incubator with cohort-based entry and exit, and number about five hundred globally as of 2017.

So we have incubators, what is a good one for an entrepreneur?

For entrepreneurs, the general value proposition of incubators is that it will make it easier and quicker to get from starting to stabilising to scaling. A quantitative metric could be increase valuation, invisibility or investment in your venture.

What is valuable for your venture will vary and it’s up to you to decide what is good for your venture. Recommended considerations include:

• capacity e.g. team, time, cash, distance,
• preferences e.g. mentoring, training, missions, co-location, sector-focus
• precedents e.g. alumni startup, track record of team and mentors
• alternatives e.g. go it alone, pay for services, recruiting experience
• possibilities e.g. access to investment, people, exposure

As an example, MassChallenge markets itself as being the most ‘startup friendly accelerator on the planet’ largely due to their zero-equity model, prizes and valuable connections.

What is a good incubator for those running them?
 

Within incubator teams, they care deeply about the same considerations as entrepreneurs (their customers) but also care at least as much about their own viability! Business models based on small numbers of early-stage companies are pretty marginal! Revenue generally comes from corporate sponsorship, investors or earned income from a bigger pool of coworkers or members. 

A constant consideration for incubators in each program session, venture, cohort or year is “is it working…for us, as intended, and for the ventures and stakeholders it’s serving?”. Each level and frequency of asking has it’s own measure and audience e.g. evaluations, valuations, profit, social return on investment.

The Global Accelerator Learning Initiative (GALI) is a great initiative that looks at which, how and why incubators are working, globally based on data. This generates insights relevant for individual incubators such whether program design correlates with cohort performance.
 

What are incubators good for?

This question and methods of asking about "good for" is what investors, funders and directors of incubators will ask.

If you’re an investor who simply expects them to be good for making money, you’ll want to see increase in valuation of the ventures in which you have an equity stake e.g. Internal Rate of Return (IRR) on their investment.

Another financial measure is “Net Flow of Funds”, as used by GALI for accelerators. This measures the average change in financial resources flowing to ventures. It enables comparison against: dollars invested in the incubator, other incubators and against non-incubator startups.

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Does $1 spend translate into more than $1 of additional funds invested in participating ventures? How does that compare to other incubators, or startups outside the incubator?

 

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Are they good for more than generating financial returns?

Beyond finances, incubators may be good for: part of a broader innovation strategy, attracting entrepreneurial talent to work in your sector, pipeline for later-stage investment, or any number of strategic reasons. There are also ‘social’ reasons that may extend beyond the specific strategy of an individual investor, company or industry.

There are many incubators that are good for driving social change and delivering wider social benefits. Here are just a few examples of incubators that are good in this way:

• Incubating food and beverage businesses for economic benefit while also addressing local disadvantage and ‘food deserts’ - The Hatchery
• Boost biomedical entrepreneurship and translation of medical research for the benefit of researchers, clinicians, healthcare system and wider community - Accelerating Australia
• Nurture innovations and entrepreneurs for the benefit of communities - a purpose shared by Pollinators Inc and HatchLabs
• Enable evolution of a better world through combined accomplishments of creative, committed, and compassionate individuals focused on a common purpose - ImpactHub Austin
• Incubate incubators (!) that deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals - Frontier Incubators
• Maximise the benefits of science and technology for society through incubating nation-scale innovations - World Economic Forum for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
• Incubating WA's early-stage social enterprises that address social impact problem areas across enviironmental sustainability and social disadvantage (eg Aboriginal business, disability, homelessness, domestic violence) - Impact Seed's ImpactSpark program

 
Are good incubators good for all these reasons?

Now, that's a good question: as we expand the ways to ask and answer what a ‘good’ incubator it, we realise that some may be good in some ways but not others. Being good for investors, may not align exactly with what’s good for social benefit or those “in” them (the entrepreneurs and team members). This is significant! 

Each way of asking is a distinct question with its own motivation, scope, methods of answering and implications for business models and program logic. And it’s not a ‘problem’ rather just a consideration: you may continue to invest in an incubator even though the IRR or NFF is lower than expected, because it’s good for the sector, community or ecosystem.  

So, what’s the “good of” incubators?

Incubators are a particular thing (as described in the introduction) but they aren’t the only thing that can achieve your objectives. Growing your venture, changing a social system, realising human potential, diversifying economies can all be achieved by using methods or tools other than incubators.

And, like other methods, tools or programs, incubators may also have unintended systemic impacts. A good startup incubator, good for generating financial returns on investment may not be for the good for founders mental health, city livability, accelerate too-quick adoption of new technologies, or direct significant energy and attention to stupid stuff no-one needs.

So what the good of incubators is all worth asking to understand the assumptions underlying them, and why they make a good or not-so-good choice as a means to an outcome.

In the Western Australian context and with increasing interest in startups and incubators, we are still early in learning what they are good ones, what they are good for, and what is the good of them.

Through engaging consciously, purposefully in their development we have the opportunity to both learn from and contribute to global learning so the incubation of startups that may be good, for all.
  
About Andrew Outhwaite
Andrew facilitates innovation incubation and has been doing so for the past thirteen years. His experience includes growing WA's leading regional incubator (Pollinators Inc), WA's first coworking space (CityHive), social incubator programs in the UK (Spark Challenge). His current roles in the innovation ecosystem include being the Australian Government’s Incubator Facilitator for WA, Chair of the startup technology advocacy group StartupWA, and as an independent adviser and mentor.

Originally published on Medium.com: https://medium.com/@ImpactSeedOrg/what-is-a-good-incubator-8099a92bc808

Tail End of 2018 Brings a Convergance of Global Impact Investment Events.

As we get to the tail end of 2018, some of the most respected global leaders in the social enterprise and impact investment field are coming together, starting this week.  Some of the event highlights include:

LIVE NOW: Social Enterprise World Forum 2018: 
SEWF is an international event for social enterprises from all over the world to come together, share wisdom, build networks and discuss how to create a more sustainable future. The event attracts social entrepreneurs, policy makers, community leaders, investors, academics and more from all across the globe. CATCH THE LIVE STREAM HERE 

7-9 November: The 2018 Impact Investment Summit Asia Pacific 2018  is the peak gathering of Asia Pacific’s impact investment community, convening active investors and those exploring the development of an impact investment strategy. Over the course of three days the Summit is designed to foster knowledge sharing, build relationships and inspire greater commitment to deploying capital for social and environmental impact.

Funding Opportunities
 

Lend for Good

In an Aussie first Lend for Good - a crowd lending platform to support the growth of impact enterprises will be launching soon.  Register your interest at: https://lendforgood.com.au/

BetterLabs Ventures

BetterLabs Ventures - a $3 million seed capital fund based in Perth is now open for applications. BetterLabs looks to invest in strong teams building scalable, defensible businesses, leveraged by technology in areas of clean tech, aging, community engagement, as well as insurance, transport and finance. http://www.betterlabsventures.com.au/

Our Top Links of the Month

1. The E3 Program (Empower, Evolve, Escalate) is designed specifically for female entrepreneurs and leaders of technology or life science businesses, ready and wanting to take the next leap towards growth.  Applications close Monday 17th September 2018 at: https://sbeaustralia.org/e3-empower-evolve-escalate/
2. Ask yourself, whether you work at a corporation or lead one, how are you investing in social innovation? Strategic partnerships between NFP’s and corporations can systemise how young people engage with business and tech  https://www-forbes-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.forbes.com/sites/jerelynrodriguez/2018/08/01/how-corporate-investments-are-moving-social-innovation-forward/amp/
3. 450 investors allocated US$1.3T to impact investments in 2016. The Impact Investing Market Map has been launched to aggregate data around #ImpInv themes inc: energy; agriculture; forestry; water; housing; education; health; and inclusive finance https://www.unpri.org/thematic-and-impact-investing/impact-investing-market-map/3537.article
4. "Impact investing is not fixing the problem, it's re-aligning our mindset towards oneness. It is a small step towards this knowinggthat connection is all we have. I heard a podcast once, by Jaron Lanier, a tech wizard, one of the early guys of the internet, he first coined the term virtual reality. He is a Silicon Valley superstar. And he said, “all the money I’ve made, I'd give it all away, to create a better society’. We’re still creating divides between the rich and poor, the haves and have nots. We need to move far more towards community success, not individual success. The idea of making billions and then investing it in impact is a charade to maintain power – just another attempt to stop the revolution" (Danny Almagor) http://www.impactinvestmentsummit.com/new-blog/2018/9/4/impact-accelerator-profile-danny-almagor
5. Capacity builders offer direct benefits to investors and investees. They enhance performance of investees to have a greater positive social/environmental impact on the communities in which they operate; and to the impact that investors want to achieve https://thegiin.org/assets/GIIN_issuebrief_capacitybuilding_finalwebfile_101217.pdf
6. Social enterprises face a number of challenges, and perhaps one of the most daunting to overcome is the stigma around the concept of a “double-bottom line,” as a company purses both profit and impact. Simply put, investors are skeptical. “I’ve certainly been in rooms where investors shut off the second your vision incorporates your mission,” Wong says. At the Halcyon Incubator, we’ve worked with dozens of founders who have faced the same pushback around their mission. Many social entrepreneurs exist and compete in markets that are not solely impact-focused. Misfit Juicery is a perfect example of this. The majority of companies competing in the cold-pressed juice category are not impact-driven. https://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_competitive_advantage_of_social_enterprises
7. There are more than 100 asset owners and institutional investors in this room who have the discretion of over nearly $11 trillion. We don’t think that it is about committing 100% of your assets into impact, but what if all of you were to put 5% of your assets under management to work using the SDGs, we would already catalyse and mobilise $500 billion  https://www.phenixcapital.nl/blog/2018/6/1/crossing-the-rubicon-highlights-from-impact-summit-europe-2018
8. ClearlySo - which celebrates its 10th birthday this week – only works with high-impact businesses, charities and funds, supporting their capital-raising activity through its financial advisory work. It introduces them to institutional and individual investors who share their objectives and values.  acked by scores of angel investors alongside institutions Big Society Capital, Nesta and Octopus Investments, ClearlySo arranges investment from £300,000 to £50m. To date it has done more than 150 deals for 130 clients https://www.digital-agenda.co.uk/features/impact-boost-as-clearlyso-turns-10/
9. Roughly 800 people responded to Calvert Impact Capital's 2018 survey, revealing several key findings: Respondents' top issue of concern is climate change; Their investors are diverse in terms of type, age, wealth, and income; Millennial respondents are passionate about their key issues of concern; Financial advisors are a key determinant of how much (or if) investors invest for impact https://www.calvertimpactcapital.org/insights/survey

10. An increased focus on sustainability within the UK's investment community will result in the national socially responsible investing (SRI) market growing by 173% by 2027 to reach 48 Billion. https://www.edie.net/news/7/UK-s-ethical-investment-market--set-to-more-than-double/