The Problem
Too many world-changing enterprises fail due to lack of effective support before they get off the ground. Entrepreneurs carry a tin cup banging on the door of every angel investor, foundation, and bank they can think of, asking for help, but the default answer, overwhelmingly, is “no.” Current models for supporting entrepreneurs, such as angel groups, business plan competitions, and incubators, are confusing and opaque to entrepreneurs and cost-prohibitive to those who support them.
The Village Capital solution: Can entrepreneurs do it better?
Village Capital uses the power of peer support to build enterprises that change the world. Inspired by the concept of the “village bank” in microfinance and peer support groups such as YPO and EO, Village Capital puts the hard tasks of building companies–criticism, strategy, feedback, and legwork–in the hands of entrepreneurs themselves. Village Capital organizes cohorts worldwide and runs education programs focused on intensive peer review. At the end, entrepreneurs assess one another, and do so in an astoundingly collegial way. Entrepreneurs even sit in the investor’s seat: the top ranked can receive pre-committed capital from partner investors. In Village Capital programs, entrepreneurs leverage help from their peers: individuals rooted in practical experience and gain a network of like-minded leaders to reach scale.
Our Progress
In the past two years, Village Capital launched ten programs worldwide, supporting over 150 entrepreneurs. Participants have raised $10 million, created over 500 jobs, and served 5,000 customers. We’re actively expanding worldwide, looking at new cities (both in developed and emerging markets), as well as sector-focused programs (e.g. energy, mobile/ICT, and a program for women-focused entrepreneurs).
Our Team
Program Staff
Ross Baird, Executive Director
Ross developed the Village Capital concept in 2009, and has led the development of programs worldwide. Before launching Village Capital, he worked with First Light Ventures, a seed fund focused on impact investments. Prior to First Light, Ross worked on the development of four education-related start-up ventures: the Indian School Finance Company in Hyderabad, India; the National College Advising Corps in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and two ventures using technology to promote civic participation. He has a MPhil from the University of Oxford, where he was a Marshall Scholar, and a BA from the University of Virginia, where he was a Truman Scholar and a Jefferson Scholar.
Huston Hedinger, Program Associate
Huston Hedinger is an entrepreneur and has a MA in International Policy from the Monterey Institute of International Studies. He has been working with Village Capital as a Frontier Market Scout in Beirut and a global program associate. He currently sits on the board of Transitions Global, a non-profit organization that provides aftercare to survivors of sex-trafficking, in addition to starting two organizations of his own, New World Innovation, and Wikisway. He believes that the most powerful and effective way to facilitate change is through market based solutions.
Michael Maruca, Communications Associate
Mike was born and raised in Washington D.C., and attended school at Phillips Exeter Academy and Yale University. Mike has been teaching post-graduation, while learning all he can about social enterprise. In March, he plans to depart fro Morocco, where he will join the Peace Corps as a youth developer.
James Watson, Program Manager – Atlanta
James is the Program Director for Village Capital in Atlanta. James also teaches Entrepreneurship, Accounting, Economics, and Mathematics at a private high school in Atlanta, and recently completed Level 3 of the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) program. He graduated from the University of St Andrews in Scotland with a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics, and upon graduation was awarded the Bobby Jones Scholarship for postgraduate study at Emory University.
Anya Yermakova, Program Manager-London
Anya serves as Village Capital’s program manager in London, having worked before in the small-but-growing social enterprise world in Russia. She founded a volunteer peer mentoring program while an undergraduate at Northwestern, where she graduated with a BA in biochemistry and BM in piano performance, and received a dual MSc from the University of Oxford in mathematics and Russian philosophy, where she was a Rhodes Scholar. She is an an award-winning concert pianist and composer.
Grace Andrews, Program Associate-São Paulo
Grace, a Ghanaian-American, graduated from Washington and Lee and entered the Monterey Institute to receive her MBA. She has been working for the second half of 2012 in Brazil, learning Portuguese proficiency in Salvador and helping manage the Village Capital program in São Paulo as a Frontier Market Scout. She hopes to engage in impact investing in her native Ghana one day.
Megan Christenson, Program Associate-Ecuador
Megan is a Chicago native who completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, where she majored in International Studies and Spanish. After working for a brief stint at a language services start-up, she entered the Monterey Institute for International Studies to receive her MB/MA in Environmental Policy. She has been working at the Yachana Institute in Ecuador as a Frontier Market Scout, developing a Village Capital program for the Andean region.
Board of Directors
Dr. Joy Anderson, Chair
Joy Anderson serves as the President of Criterion Ventures, a national organization focused on incubating ideas for social change. She has helped found Good Capital, a leading social venture fund, Healthcare Uncovered, an initiative focused on reducing healthcare costs, the Church as an Economic Being initiative, the StructureLab workshop, an international initiative on sustainable fisheries, and the Women Effect Investment movement. She was recently named one of FastCompany’s 100 Most Creative People in Business.
Tracey Turner
Tracey Turner is a successful entrepreneur, having founded Microplace, an online provider of microfinance, and sold it to eBay in 2006. After getting an MBA at Stanford University, and getting her start in social enterprise working with the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, she has served as CEO of 4Charity.com, an online textbook marketplace, and CFO of KickStart, a nonprofit that designs and sells products focused on poverty alleviation.
Sean Foote, Treasurer
Sean Foote has been a venture capitalist investing in early-stage ventures for over a decade as a partner with Labrador Ventures. He has also served extensively in the impact investing world, founding or co-founding the Silicon Valley Microfinance Network, the TONIIC angel network, and West Coast Village Capital. He also teaches venture capital and microfinance at the HAAS School of Business at University of California-Berkeley.
Jeff Woodward, Vice-Chair and Secretary
Jeff is a partner at Atlanta-based law firm Stites and Harbison, and has been heavily active in the social venture movement. He has over 20 years’ experience in the nonprofit and social venture world, serving as general counsel for enterprises such as Better World Books and engaging with initiatives such as the B-Corp. He serves on the board of Virtuous Capital, an organization involved in engaging foundations in PRI investments, and is the founder of the Atlanta Community Tool Bank.
Bob Pattillo
Bob Pattillo is an entrepreneur. He likes to start stuff. Some folks find him permanently outside the box. He began his work in microfinance in 1998 and sold his fifty-four year-old real-estate business in 2003 in order to focus solely on social investment and enterprise development. He has founded or co-founded 26 enterprises, most notably Gray Ghost Ventures. Bob co-founded Village Capital as an initiative of seed fund First Light Ventures. Recently, Forbes named Bob to its Impact30: one of the top 30 most influential social entrepreneurs in the world.
