Need $$$ to Finance your Cleantech Venture? | Murray Guy

If we are going to create a Cleantech Revolution to help to Save the Icebergs that I blogged about yesterday, we are going to have to make it easy for Green Startups to kickstart their businesses.

Having recently launched two companies EcoSmart Developments and Lean Lab, I am interested in getting some help with Crowd Funding to accelerate the process of "Getting Green Done"

Let's see what Nuggets we can discover from recently published blog articles, that can help us!

How Crowdfunding Is Changing The Way Startups Raise Money | Inc.com: BY ADAM HEITZMAN Co-founder, HigherVisibility@HigherVis

The emergence of Crowdfunding has allowed entrepreneurs the ability to get their business ideas financed easier than ever. Funding your idea may now be just a few clicks away.

For those who are unfamiliar, crowdfunding is a means of raising funds from large groups. Kickstarter is probably the best example of crowdfunding. You create your business plan and idea and then upload it to the website with a financial goal in mind, and people can give money toward your goal if they believe in your business.

There are two types of Crowdfunding

Receiving Rewards it is the traditional way of crowdfunding. It is a system where investors would get a reward in return for their investment. For example, if you donated a certain amount of money to an entrepreneur who was trying to launch a new board game, they might send you the board game as a thank you for your investment.

Equity Crowdfunding is the newer way of crowdfunding. As of 2012 and thanks to the JOBS Act, companies are now allowed to collect up to $1 million per year over the Internet, so with this type of crowdfunding those who contribute could become company shareholders. This is a great middle-point between reward-based crowdfunding and the older, traditional way of pitching ideas to investors in person.

According to the Ultimate Crowdfunding Guide from BankingSense, "If you're interested in an equity campaign, your business will need to be incorporated.

If you're on the fence about which type of crowdfunding campaign is right for you and how to get started, I recommend visiting the BankingSense guide for more detailed information."

You should also check out "How Crowd-Funding Is Changing Everything and What that Means for Your Start-up"   This article is by the founders of FundersClub an equity based Crowd-Funding company.

Some Nuggets from this Article are"
Rewards-based crowdfunding can work well as a step towards de-risking customer demand and building a community of early adopters without giving up equity in the business.

“Rewards-based sites can be helpful for startups if you want people to pre-order your product to confirm demand,”

“The advantage of equity crowd-funding with the right platform is that it can make the process of raising value-added capital more efficient for founders,” says Mittal. “When we founded the company, we did it with the goal of being respectful of founders’ time, allowing them to raise quickly but to still tap into a value-added network helpful for key tasks like hiring, forming partnerships, winning customers, and raising follow-on capital. It’s not just about the money or the transaction, these types of platforms can expand your professional network for growing your company.”


It’s important to clearly outline what the startup does, how the product or service works, and other details that potential investors will want to understand.” If you’re not prepared to answer these questions, then you should ask whether you’re ready to raise any capital.
Best Practices

1) Know who you are working with. As a founder, you should do your homework on who you raise money from both online and offline.

2) Be Ready. “Your company has to be at an appropriate stage to do well on a site like FundersClub,”  "Because you’re raising capital online, traction and growth serve as important signals. Having strong customer testimonials helps, as does compiling any news or major press hits that you’ve landed."

3) Clarity is king.“You need to be crystal clear about what your product or service does and how it works.  It’s your job as an entrepreneur to clearly communicate your business and its value proposition in a way that investors can understand easily and quickly.”

4) Cover the key points. “The information you post should be no different than what an offline investor would look for. Hit the main points: What is the idea? How does the product or service work? Who’s on the team? What key milestones have you hit? What are your metrics for success? What is the market size potential? What are the investment terms? How big is the round you’re trying to raise?

Ideally, you have a pitch deck that works without you being there to explain it.”


Good luck with launching your #Cleantech the IceBergs need our help!

For more information on how to build affordable NETZero homes visit our Blog at EcoSmart | Building the Future or for commercial the Integrated Designs | The Art of Project Delivery or for Lean Lab | Training and Workshops 

  
 Murray Guy aka @Lean_tobe_Green | mguy@i-designs.ca

Integrated Designs  | EcoSmart  | Lean Lab   

'via Blog this'

Can we save the IceBergs | Fred & Louie

In the story “Our Iceberg is Melting” we learn how a penguin colony deals with the change in the face of an impeding disaster. The penguins are living happily on their iceberg as they have done for many years. Then, one curious penguin discovers a potentially devastating problem threatening their home.   

There is a crack forming at the base of the iceberg that is worsening with time and as it fills with water and then freezes again, eventually it will cause the whole iceberg to split. Fred the scout has identified the problem, but must cleverly convince and recruit the Louie the leader and other key members of the colony to strategically work their way to a solution.

This story is analogous to the challenges we face as a society that need to address climate change. Our biggest challenge will be to get people to face up and deal with this difficult problem, as no one seems to be listening.  Maybe we can learn from Fred and Louie how to develop a plan and implement the change necessary to keep our Iceberg from melting. 

 

How would “the Penguins” do it?

As a first step Fred and Louie have established a group that recognize there is a very serious “Planet Earth Survival” problem. They have put them in charge of guiding the change, set a sensible vision of a better future and have communicated that vision to others in a way that they will understand and accept it. 

This group met at COP21, also known as the 2015 Paris Climate Conference. This is where 190 countries gathered to negotiate a legally binding and universal agreement on climate, with the aim of keeping global warming below 2°C. The conference negotiated the Paris Agreement, a global agreement on the reduction of Climate Change, the text of which represented a consensus of the representatives of the 196 parties attending it. The agreement will become legally binding if joined by at least 55 countries which together represent at least 55 percent of global greenhouse emissions. Such parties will need to sign the agreement in New York between 22 April 2016 (Earth Day) and 21 April 2017, and also adopt it within their own legal systems.

What is the Vision for a Better Future?

Next Fred and Louie, decided to create a vision for the Clean Energy Revolution. They started by gathering all of the movers and shakers to create an alliance called MISSION INNOVATION, to accelerate the development of clean energy innovation and to make clean energy widely affordable.  At the launch, 20 countries committed to double their respective research over the five years to 2020. The countries include the five most populous (as at 2015): China, India, the United States, Indonesia, and Brazil. All 20 launch partner countries represent 75 percent of the world’s CO2 emissions from electricity, and over 80 percent of the world’s clean energy R&D investment. This alliance will develop biofuel, carbon capture, airborne wind turbines, nuclear fission and nuclear fusion.

This newly formed group will add to the work of scientists and engineers called the Global Apollo Program that are working on renewable energy, energy storage, smart grids and hydrogen vehicles. Funding will also be made available through the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, a global group of 28 high net work investors that are committed to funding clean energy companies.

How will Fred & Louie, address the Culture Change Challenge?

Fred and Louie both acknowledge that the shift in culture and behavior is going to be the tough part which is WHY they are asking all of YOU to help enact this CHANGE. 

They suggest that if YOU lead by example and share your successes on social media, others will follow. If you tell somebody, and they tell somebody, pretty soon we will have started the Clean Tech Revolution.  We will have created a world where it is cool to live in a NetZero Energy home powered by the sun, built sustainably by clean tech companies and green collar workers.

Will there be a ECOnomy?

This is where it gets real exciting for early adopters, entrepreneurs and clean tech startups as they will become business leaders in a sustainable ECOnomy. Countries like Sweden, Switzerland and Norway will benefit as they are already well on their way to creating Zero Carbon economies. 

Companies like Interface Carpets, Patagonia and BMW to name a few will find demand for there products as more and more people recognize that our future depends upon making socially responsible choices, buying from companies that have bought into creating a sustainable economy.





We will see whole resource intensive industries like the building industry transform to where all building are net energy providers. Early adopters like  Okanagan College, the Mosaic Center and EcoSmart Developments are already delivering NetZero energy building that provide a positive return on investment. 

What you can do!

Fred and Louie are recommending that we all support the warriors and the countries that will make the Clean Tech Revolution come alive. They need for YOU to jump on board to support the mission. We need to become relentless in the pursuit of a new and better way, as the Icebergs are melting and we don’t want to let Fred and Louie down.

You can get started by joining the #NetZero Energy Revolution by getting your homes and building as close to NetZero energy use as possible.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article, for caring about the planet and for sharing this article with up and coming sustainability warriors.

Fred and Louie are recommending that we all support the warriors and the countries that will make the Clean Tech Revolution come alive. They need for YOU to jump on board to support the mission.

Dedicated to Fred, Louie the the ECO-Warriors out there!

For more information on how to build affordable NETZero homes visit our Blog at EcoSmart | Building the Future or for commercial the Integrated Designs | The Art of Project Delivery or for Lean Lab | Training and Workshops 

  
 Murray Guy aka @Lean_tobe_Green | mguy@i-designs.ca

Integrated Designs  | EcoSmart  | Lean Lab