#12 Paul Frasca: Sustainable Entrepreneur

One of the areas that I have thought a lot about over the years, is the financial sustainability of social ventures. I think it's fair to say that my track record on this is mixed.

 

The positive intention has without doubt been there. 

 

For example, I started writing the outline for the business that became TVN in the foreword of the book by Mathew Bishop Philanthrocapitalism 

 

I bonded with TVN's co-founder Josh Ismin whilst at a Microsoft event in Atlanta where Blake Mycoskie founder of Tom's Shoes was the keynote speaker. 

 

In fact, the original business model for TVN had a 10% profit share baked into it, for investment in a social venture. Sadly we never managed to operationally align TVN and the social venture we identified.

 

That did not stop me trying again, however, this time in a seed investment in Andable which was a digital marketplace that gave 10% of the sales transaction profit to Kiva, a microloans organisation that provides credit to small businesses in the developing world.  Unfortunately, I know now more about the economics of a successful digital marketplace than I did in 2012 and sadly Andable is no longer around.

 

So it was with these best intentions and a little bit of scar tissue that I got to sit down with today's guest Paul Frasca,  CEO of Sustainable Salons. Paul is a serial entrepreneur who has been able to not only create an organisation that is sustainable in the re-use of waste sense of the word but has also built a social venture that is self-sustainable from a financial sense.  

 

Paul is a super interesting character and if in years to come scientists find the DNA that is linked to being an entrepreneur he would undeniably have it!  We talk about the innovation and incubation stage of the startup and go deep into Paul's journey with Sustainable Salons before finishing with an exploration of some of the future use cases for how technology could build a brighter future.

 

Hope you enjoy and thanks again to Paul Frasca.