SoCap08 attendees are given the opportunity to choose from a range of panel discussions.  The first one I chose is Social Capital Markets 101, moderated by Eric Nee, from the Stanford Social Innovation Review, and also including Josh Becker (New Cycle Capital), Tom O’Shea (CleanFish), and Megha Doshi (Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley).

Eric explained that the panel was meant to serve as an introductory session on social capital markets, with the goal being to get everyone off on the right foot.  He noted that he selected the three panelists because they represent all of the important aspects of the discussion.  One is a researcher, another is a venture capitalist, and a third is an entrepreneur.

Eric first turned the conversation over to Megha Doshi, who discussed her work regarding the screening of public equities in the United States.  Megha and her team researched and rated 3,000 public equity companies.  She noted that as of 2007, $2.71 trillion in the U.S. is managed under social return on investment (SROI) screens.  This represents a 300% growth since 1995.  However, she specified that much of this growth is limited to institutional investors.

Next, Josh Becker discussed his work in investing in companies seeking to make a social impact.  His organization looks at the social benefit broadly, i.e., creating jobs, providing health benefits, creating stock option wealth, etc.  For example, New Cycle Capital found a business in Houston that pools employees together to purchase health insurance.  He noted that finding great companies “is all about entrepreneurs.”

Lastly, Tim talked about a “triple bottom line wealth.”  He sees the three bottom lines as reinforcing one another, and he does not feel that tradeoffs need to be made. Tim sees a movement in the business sector toward sustainable business practices.  He noted, “The marketplace is pushing us…[Businesses ask,] ‘What does it take to be a part of CleanFish?’…It takes great ecosystem management to make great food.”  On another note, Tim called the aquaculture sector the “fastest growing protein creating sector of our lifetimes.” I found this especially interesting given that Great Bay has supported an aquaculture operation led by Melvin Murrel.

Overall, this was an informative panel discussion that provided all attendees with wide-ranging information on social capital markets.  All three panelists agreed that it’s possible to achieve financial returns without sacrificing social returns.