Thinkhaus’ Socially Conscious Friends Promote the Importance of Socially Conscious Entrepreneurs to Richmond.
Most recently Thinkhaus interviewed some of our socially conscious friends who are making Greater Richmond a better place for all. We interviewed Jocelyn Tice of Green Duck who is aiming to reduce waste by educating consumers about natural, earth-friendly products made from plants.

Chris Busse of Memberpath was also interviewed. Memberpath is a for-profit business offering Web site creation, e-commerce and hosting services for associations, charities, fundraisers, and other nonprofit organizations.

It is through this effort that Thinkhaus, Green Duck, and Memberpath can spread the importance of socially conscious businesses in the Richmond community. What follows is part of those interviews.

Interview With Green Duck

T-1: With Green Duck you are selling socially conscious products. By selling these products what value do you think you bring to the local economy?
GD: Green Duck is a company primed for growth…and it’s happening at an encouraging pace. In the last year Green Duck has created an internal sales and marketing team, in addition to outsourcing local resources such as: warehousing, logistics, website and internet services. Green Duck has been very fortunate to have an overwhelming amount of support from the local community…we feel it’s important to give back to our community by continuing to grow the business here in Richmond and utilizing its resources.

T-2: A. What was your motivation when you developed this business, the socially conscious aspects, and your potential for success?
GD:My motivation came from eating leftovers one night…when I was finished, I had 3 plastic to-go containers that were not recyclable. Then I started thinking about all the waste that comes from the convenience of to-go food packaging. I wondered why compostable packaging wasn’t being used more on the East Coast and thought it was because people weren’t really aware that it existed. That’s when I decided to start Green Duck to make certified compostable packaging more accessible to restaurants who wanted to promote eco-friendly efforts.

The potential for Green Duck is unlimited as people become more educated about products and practices that are better for our environment and the demand for these products increases.

T-B. Why?
GD: Doing what is best for the environment has always been important to me…and wanting to educate people about compostable to-go food packaging was something I thought would make a difference. So much of Green Duck is about helping people understand that there is an alternative to petroleum-based plastic and Styrofoam containers. Green Duck helps educate consumers about the product and why it’s important…it also gets the word “compost” back into our vocabulary.

T-3: Would you be running your business different if it was not socially conscious?
GD: No. But being an environmentally centered business means that you must make every effort to be aware of and implement the latest “green” products and practices.

T-4: What are your thoughts as business owners like us spread the impact of socially conscious businesses in Greater Richmond, both economically and socially?
GD: I think it’s a great, positive movement that will pay off economically and improve our environmental awareness locally. We’re already seeing this movement gaining traction here in Richmond. As socially conscious businesses grow, other entrepreneurs will continue to see the enormous amount of opportunity there is related to “green” and it will benefit the community significantly.

T-5: Are there any organizations (private or public) that you use that specialize in helping socially conscious business owners?
GD: Haustalk was one of the first organizations in Richmond to recognize Green Duck and that has given us very positive exposure. I’m confident that the resources dedicated to socially conscious businesses will grow as our community continues to see the green opportunity and its benefits.

T-6: Do you feel that there are enough local resources that support our citizens in becoming Social Entrepreneurs?
GD: There are a lot of local resources to help entrepreneurs of all specialties here in Richmond. New Visions New Ventures has been essential to getting Green Duck off the ground in addition to our local SBA office. There are so many resources to help entrepreneurs start a business, and if you’re interested in starting a “green” business there are additional incentives.

Interview with Memberpath

T-1: With Memberpath you are selling socially conscious services. By selling these services what value do you think you bring to the local economy?
M: I think the value that we bring is similar to any service firm specializing in a niche or specific industry vertical. By concentrating on one area such as websites and databases for nonprofit organizations as we do, we’re able to develop and keep up with best practices for that service offering while providing a very personalized level of service. In turn, value is brought to the local economy through the many benefits that we can provide to nonprofit organizations to help them carry out their missions more efficiently and effectively.

T-2: A. What was your motivation when you developed this business, the socially conscious aspects, and your potential for success?
M: Honestly, I sort of fell in to the socially conscious aspect. After the “dot com bust” in 2001 I took a contract with Ukrop’s Supermarkets to develop some custom software for them and as I was wrapping up my work there in mid-2002 they helped me get a contract at Meals on Wheels doing general IT support.

At the same time I met my now-business parter, Brian Duffy, who had a consulting practice working with membership management software for professional and trade associations (who are generally 501(c)(6) nonprofits). Since I had a background in web development I was able to help him with implementing some web-facing components of that software and we quickly branched out to working with an open source content management system called DotNetNuke to make it easier for non-technical nonprofit staff to manager their organization’s website.

T-B. Why?
M: It became quickly apparant to us that offering very specifc services to a very specific niche made a lot of sense so we continued along this course as we persued new business. A lot of the firms that are our direct competition are located around Washington DC or Chicago, so being located in Richmond we’re able to be very price competitve in our niche, which is always a plus for any nonprofit client who is budget conscious.

T-3: Would you be running your business different if it was not socially conscious?
M: Absolutely. Since 2002 we have turned down all “for profit” clients except for three companies who’s needs matched up very closely with things we’d already done for nonprofit clients. If we weren’t self-mandated to serve nonprofits exclusively I think we’d have taken on a lot of different clients who each would have had very different needs. To be clear, variety such as that isn’t a bad thing necessarily, but I think it would have hindered us from developing a depth of expertise in certain operational areas of nonprofit organizations that really help us connect with our clients and understand their needs on a very detailed level.

T-4: What are your thoughts as business owners like us spread the impact of socially conscious businesses in Greater Richmond, both economically and socially?
M: As socially conscious business owners, I think we need to be very mindful of the value that our services bring to an organization, and I think we need to make sure we’re always proving that value to our nonprofit clients from a business perspective.

T-5: Are there any organizations (private or public) that you use that specialize in helping socially conscious business owners?
M: The first thing that comes to mind with this is Guidestar.org. With a membership to their site you get access to all the IRS Form 990 tax filings of nonprofit organizations. As we do our sales and marketing we use this information to determine where to focus our efforts.

Another excellent resource here in Richmond is ConnectRichmond.org (full disclosure: they’re a client of ours and we did the technical development of their website). Any nonprofit with serious operations in Richmond is going to have an active presence on that site and you can get a lot of insight as to what’s really going with the organizations in town by the information posted there. Additionally the “Reports, Data, & Articles” and “Running a Nonprofit” section have hand-picked links and information that provide an invaluable educational resource for the nonprofit world.

T-6: Do you feel that there are enough local resources that support our citizens in becoming Social Entrepreneurs.
M: Given how quickly new technologies, methods of communication and marketing, and rapid changes in the state of our economy come about, I don’t think there can ever be enough resources for people looking to become Social Entrepreneurs. Witness such things as the Social Media Club RVA, which from what I hear is now branching out into the post-secondary education area to provide social media leadership, resources, and idea exchange to local universities. A year ago that wasn’t in Richmond. I think as a community we’re doing a good job of keeping on our toes and being responsive to these changes, and I hope to see that continue to be the case.