Capitalism ... Transformed!
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A BRAND NEW PERK HERE JUST FOR YOU AND YOUR HOLIDAY LISTENING PLEASURE!
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Our friend Halle Petro of Halle and the Jilt Fame has recorded a special rendition of Run Run Rudolf just for us! We love Halle's music (check out her awesome video for her song "Signs" ) And we know you'll love having this one of a kind rendition for Christmas! Simple, Donate $10 bucks and we'll send you the link! Merry Christmas!
Conscious Venture Lab is an early stage business accelerator located in Columbia, MD and dedicated to developing companies and entrepreneurs who embrace capitalism as a force for good in society! Earlier this year a group of entrepreneurs, thinkers, teachers, writers and mentors got together to start talking about how capitalism might be re-imagined to create a more just, joyful and prosperous world for all of us. We called our gathering the David B Wolfe Institute for Conscious Entrepreneurship after our late friend David Wolfe. David co-authored a book in 2006 entitled Firms of Endearment: How World Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose. The experience of working with David and listening to his ideas about capitalism changed our lives. As a result we are deeply committed to helping create a new form of capitalism in America. One that smooths the rough edges and helps to create a society where work as a calling to elevate humanity is rewarded. Rewarded with financial success, healthier communities, a growing middle class, a protected environment and a thriving economy for all. But we need your help.
Help us Create a more just, prosperous and joyful society WITH MATCHING FUNDS!
Our friends at the Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship (MCE) and the Howard County Economic Development Authority (HCEDA) are big proponents of the transformation of capitalism. They've laid down a challenge for us: The MCE / HCEDA will match everything we raise in this campaign on a dollar-for-dollar basis! So every time you donate or get your family and friends to help, you double your impact!
In addition to the matching funds the folks at the MCE are providing raw space for the Lab. But as you can see below it needs some tender loving care to turn it into a dynamic and expressive home for our entrepreneurs!
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Your contributions will help us renovate and furnish the Lab, provide state of the art technology for our entrepreneurs, create open online training courses that we can share with the community and allow us to engage corporate partners. All with the goal of mentoring and training teams of entrepreneurs who want to use capitalism to create a better world! So we’re turning to you, our friends and supporters and strangers who just think the world would be a better place if companies tried to create value for us all, to help us reach this goal. We're also going to connect you with some really cool and innovative entrepreneurs who are already out there trying to create this new world. Like our friends at Half United. They've built an awesome jewelry, clothing and accessory company in North Carolina (Yep...made in America) where they donate half of all of their profits to hunger fighting organizations here in the US and around the world.
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We'll give you some great perks from the folks at Half United like this necklace made from spent bullet casings. They take something deadly out of commission and turn it into something beautiful.
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And how about the coolest woman you'll ever meet, Miki Agrawal! With co-founders Antonia Dunbar and Radha Agrawal, her company Thinx makes underwear...that's right, underwear, and in the process helps millions of girls in Africa and the developing world stay in school! Check out her story here!
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Miki is an inspiration to us and her new book "Do Cool Sh*t" is a roadmap to a more interesting life! Help us out and you could get a signed copy of the book from Miki with the forward by Tony Hsieh the CEO of Zappos ... who knows, it might just change your life.
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In the end, your contribution will help us train a generation of “conscious” entrepreneurs while also doing real good in the world right now. We think that’s a pretty good deal.
Love Bigger!
Obviously contributions are great (and thanks in advance!!) We also want to build a community around the brave entrepreneurs looking to make the world a better place! You see there are a lot of folks out there who simply think business and capitalism are all about the money. We know that success - both financial and emotional - comes from doing things that you love and working to create a better society. In order to do this we want to help our entrepreneurs build companies that honor and care for their employees. Creating great work environments to spur creativity and joy. We want them to learn how to create real relationships with customers, not simply treat them as transactions. We want them to treat suppliers like partners, understanding that every company in their ecosystem is made up of humans that have their own needs that should be honored and celebrated. We want them to be great neighbors in their communities and find ways to add value. This is hard work for entrepreneurs and to stay the course they need to be surrounded by a community of like-minded individuals who cheer them on. You can be a part of that and help us grow that community by telling your friends, and their friends! Know any entrepreneurs who fit the model? Tell them to apply!
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www.consciousventurelab.com/apply
We find ourselves in a time where many of us have lost faith in business and its ability to help us live the lives we want and deserve. The story we're told about business and capitalism shrouds the fact that "Stakeholder" focused companies are good for society and also good for capitalism. With your help we can begin to change this story. The more people we reach, the bigger the community we can create and the harder this will eventually be to ignore and the more lives we can impact! How many people can we engage here? 1000? 10,000? 100,000? Imagine the impact a community like that can have? But clearly we need your help to do that!!
We hope you’ll get enthusiastic…and don't forget to use the IndieGoGo share tools on this campaign page to share this with everyone you know!
Here's the weekly PERK! The Classic Chevron Gold Clutch from JOYN!!
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The Conscious Venture Lab Team:
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Jeff Cherry
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Cosmina Popa
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Zach Gottlieb
Check out what some of our supporters are doing:
Half United
Thinx
Halle and the Jilt
Just Good
Honest Tea
Open Field Foundation
The Network for Good
Conscious Capitalism
Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship / Howard County Economic Development Authority
Thanks again!!
Jeff and the rest of the Conscious Venture Lab team!
You can learn more about their story
here!
Video by Luke Delahanty, Cool Hand Film!
