Robert Fitzgerald says: To view a higher quality version of the above video please visit www.14xc.com.

Robert Fitzgerald says: A full description of 14xc.com is available here:

http://www.14xc.com/description.pdf

Kevin O'Hanlon says: Seems like quite a good idea guys, best of luck with it. Certainly the best idea I've seen on the site so far.

Paul Maher says: Well presented idea and a great way to bring the investor to the entrepreneur.

Paul Ryan says: Any chance I could get some further information please? I definately think that this idea could develop into something very useful in the future. Well done. I wish you the best in this competition and for sure you should continue to invest time in something like this even if this competition doesn't go your way. Most certainly viable.

Best of luck.

Chase the dream.

Robert Fitzgerald says: Thanks for your encouraging comments and question Paul.

Next week 14XC.com will unveil the "Investor Trading Inteface" of 14XC.com for initial comment and feedback. This will enable you to visualise the system in practice.

In addition a full description of 14XC.com is available here: www.14xc.com/description.pdf

If you have more questions please comment again here or send us an email to: admin@14XC.com

This discussion link also provides more information regarding the selection process:

http://www.goodentrepreneur.com/Discussion/Good-Entrepreneurship-the-primary-business-driver-for-positive-global-change

Many thanks again.


The 14XC Team.

Robert Fitzgerald says: Thanks for your encouraging comments and question Paul.

Next week 14XC.com will unveil the "Investor Trading Inteface" of 14XC.com for initial comment and feedback. This will enable you to visualise the system in practice.

In addition a full description of 14XC.com is available here: www.14xc.com/description.pdf

If you have more questions please comment again here or send us an email to: admin@14XC.com

This discussion link also provides more information regarding the selection process:

http://www.goodentrepreneur.com/Discussion/Good-Entrepreneurship-the-primary-business-driver-for-positive-global-change

Many thanks again.


The 14XC Team.

conor hayes says: Simply outstanding concept, can't believe somebody hasn't tought of this before.

Best Wishes,
Conor (Dubai)

Robert Fitzgerald says: ***UPDATE NOTE: 14XC Unveils “Investor Trading Interface”, go to: http://www.14xc.com/investor.html

- Property Tax and Sustainable Development

Proposition 13 and the Property Tax Revolt took place in California in 1978. In 2008 California became “ground-zero for the subprime mortgage industry” (CNBC).

The first UN Earth Summit on Sustainable Development was held in Sweden (1972). At the 35th G8 summit in Italy (2009) politicians had failed to legislate the peaking of emissions by 2015 as recommended by the IPCC in order to avoid catastrophic climate change.

- Sustainable Business Logic

The 2nd Earth Summit held in Rio ‘92 defined sustainable development as an ultimate paradigm: Integrate 1. economic growth, 2. social responsibility and 3. environmental protection. This translated into sustainable business logic and the triple bottom line.

However in 2003 Business Ethics Quarterly stated “The concept of triple bottom line turns out to be a good old-fashioned single bottom line plus vague commitments to social and environmental concerns.”

- Economics Dominates

Fair Value Accounting (GAAP {FAS 157}), the Sarbanes–Oxley Act and the German Corporate Governance Code work on one dimension of the triple bottom line in appropriately valuing assets following the inevitable failure of the unsustainable (e.g. Enron, Worldcom).

At Göteborg 2001 EU heads of state added ‘Environment’ to the ‘Economy and Society’ to establish these “Three Pillars” central to ‘Lisbon’, the EU Strategy. In 2009, economics dominates the current iteration entitled “Growth & Jobs”.

On July 2nd 2009 the European Commission proposed a €100 – €500 million EU micro-finance facility consisting of €25,000 loans for potentially 45,000 Start-Ups (less than 1% of EU Start-Ups) over 8 years. Sustainability assessment is not required for debt approval.

- Environment & Social, Volunteers

For the business community, international quality standards for the two neglected dimensions have emerged including in 1996, ISO 14,001 (Environment) and due in 2010, ISO 26,000 (Social Responsibility). However, the ISO system is voluntary.

- US and Corporation Tax in Europe

Early 2009 the Obama Administration restricted some tax havens and unveiled recessionary stimulus after sub-prime mortgage crises induced near collapse of global capital markets. Meanwhile indigenous Italian Start-Up and tax rates are among the highest in the world.

- Connect the Dots – Before Earth Summit 2012

ISO fundamentally considers Sustainable Development central to its global vision: “materialize the aim of ‘one standard, one test and one conformity assessment procedure accepted everywhere’” and will by 2010 offer standards on the all three dimensions.

Before proposed Earth Summit 2012, 14XC.com intends to affect structural change at the seed level by providing high potential Start-Ups access to a Seed Capital Exchange (and up to 250K in funding) with controlled volatility “Seed Stocks” directly linked to sustainability indicators aligned with ISO.

*** UPDATE NOTE: 14XC Unveils “Investor Trading Interface”: http://www.14xc.com/investor.html
(Feedback is invited at the 14XC blog http://social14xc.ning.com/

John McCullough says: Great initiative guys. i also checked out your booking system and I am looking forward to that up and running in September.

It is great to see young entrepeneurs like yourselves taking initiative and reacting to the ongoing changes in business policy, most notably the ISO guidelines. I am looking forward to further updates on your website.

John, Bruges

Niamh Prenderville says: Great Idea!!! Well done guys!

michael waldron says: This is a great development and an all round fantastic idea, I'm very impressed. It seems that the whole concept has been developed throughly and it is great to see such young aspiring entreprenuers.

Michael (New York)

James Caska says: Not to be negative but .. Too many chiefs and not enough Indians around here IMO -- ie Lots of 'mini funds' in this competition

Peer to Peer Lending is having enough trouble with people with jobs going through regular well tested assement processes.

This is Peer-to-Peer lending on startups - much riskier - plus no chance for a big pay-off to the investor return only 25 / % failure ( Hint Industry standard is 1 in 10 ) ie expected 2.5% interest on a spread portfolio is not very attractive

Plus, stripping cash out of the startup early to service these seed capital debts ( loans ) at 25% is going to hurt increasing chance of failure

Plus, startup are way not ready for compliance/auditing from day 1 - huh? there's nothing to audit yet. You don't want to be putting handcuffs on them again adding to the chance of failure..

But.. Could attractive to startups because they get loans without the hassle of debt - however with so much competition out there will be very interested to see your "deal" quality - you might get alot of pretty dodgy applications again with high failure risk profiles

Umm.. I think I have said enough.

Good luck with it though - fresh faced enthusiasm counts for alot !

Robert Fitzgerald says: James, this is a great discussion post! It is brilliant to get this kind of question so we get a chance to explain our thinking behind the mechanics of 14XC more thoroughly. The specification is in a state of flux and open to debate and we encourage this kind of feedback so thank you indeed. We are determined to take on as many different perspectives as possible to get the best structure in place to enable high potential start-ups with sustainable business models to get the financing and advice they need to get off the ground.

In addressing your comparison to the peer to peer process and the very real problem you have indentified in terms of the necessarily rigorous process of assessment, it true that our process of assessment could be viewed as more rigorous. This is intended to reduce the failure rate indeed improve portfolio performance. However we view the assessment process as part of the long term business process itself. 14XC.com should be viewed as a scalable start-up incubator with multiple of online analysts (such as yourself!) reviewing multiple start-ups. But the analysis process does not stop there, it is an ongoing relationship that is built with the analyst and the Start-Up where the real value emerges. The nature of that ongoing relationship is currently being developed with potential partners.

However, within that analysis and assessment process is where the success rate can be improved. Our research indicates 50% of new start-ups fail over 4 years, not 1:10 or 90% as you have suggested. Although we recognise you are discussing success on traditional investment returns, comparable figures for start-up investments are simply not available in Europe and this leads to the real problem: severe lack of early stage finance. Obviously you are commenting from a traditional investment perspective that we respect. However, the nature of early stage investment is a different animal indeed. You have commented comically regarding the number of other financing entrants in this competition. The reality is Entrepreneurs at the seed level need more finance. There is no bridge between angel investment and venture capital and currently angel investors are over stretched. It is a devastatingly underserved market. Substantial early stage seed capital combined with access to sound business advice in the form of MBA consultants (again, people like you) can increase the odds of success of a new venture.

The assessment process needs to be rigorous to remove as you say the “dodgy applications”! But it should not be so difficult to get a good idea built, particularly for sustainable start-ups that consider environmental integrity and social responsibility priorities in a world where the environment is in crisis and a 3rd of all humans live in abject poverty. It is clear from reading some of your other posts that we are on the same side James, indeed you are exactly the type of consultant we would hope would consider contracting to 14XC to assess and help build sustainable start-ups.

The world is moving towards a freelance culture with MBA’s and consultants demanding more flexibility, it can be called the knowledge economy, we simply think the freedom to choose how and where you work should be yours, as long as the quality of your work is not compromised. Uniting MBA’s with new entrepreneurs as 14XC is intended to do simply increases viability of the venture and meets a demand for freelance work. With our payments system based on Seed Stocks, the MBA has a vested interest in seeing the venture succeed, and as Seed Stock payment is dependent on revenue earned, only real results matter.

As we indicated in our post on “Connect the dots – before Earth Summit 2012”, we firmly believe that the three dimensions of sustainability (Economic, Environment and Social) must be established at the seed level. This ultimate paradigm was derived from the work of the largest gathering of sustainability scholars on the planet hosted by the United Nations just 4 times over the last 40 years.

We believe that without measuring these elements and having direct financial consequences to failure to comply to all three dimensions prescribed, businesses will not take their social responsibilities any more seriously than their environmental, and we all suffer as a result.

You are correct in saying that initially there will be nothing to audit, and the target for the first one month of operations will be at null, but by month 3 statistics will be available. The point regarding straight jacketing is spot on, we are in the process of developing an ultra simple pre-ISO certification, audit-readiness tool. It eliminates otherwise tedious activities. But beyond the elimination of the tedious, we are convinced that by requiring start-ups to consider the triple bottom line at the seed level, sustainability principles will be established more fundamentally. It’s about getting entrepreneurs to think through the 3 dimensions when viewing their business.

As we have said, we surveyed 1,000 business post graduates regarding seed stock investment, 74% said they would invest in ISO 14,001, compliant, angel backed green start-ups. The return investment was not discussed. Most are not necessarily looking for a big return is the implication, although this is an investment, not a charity donation. While we disagree with your assessment that investments will return 2.5% as described above, we have chosen a 25% fixed return as this indicates the increased level of risk associated with the Start-Ups.

The point here is that everyday investors are willing to take small risks on green start-ups if they are supported properly by international standards and solid funding. 14XC does this.

It is also important to recognise the Seed Stock is not a loan. No payment is required if no revenue is earned. This gives the Start-Up less weight on the balance sheet and while a 25% proportion of revenue may seem a large expense, Cashflow is fundamentally supported by significant Seed Capital to begin with. Currently a typical Angel Investment is 25K, Start-Ups can raise up to 10 times this with 14XC.

The first part of the process is developing a relationship with MBA students or graduate consultants working with the Start-Up to review the online business concept along with the development of triple bottom line indicators. We are currently developing a pool of MBA's to assess the risk profile, to increase these. In fact we have recently begun active discussions with an MBA based consultancy to potentially partner to supply this role.

Thank you for the question, it is great to get a chance to explain our position to someone who has clearly thought through the issues so thoroughly from a different perspective.

Orlando Gujan says: Question 1: Why only "green companies"?
Question 2: Why didn't you stay quit until 2010 - Betfair and others have all the set-up to do it.
Question 3: Why only start-ups?

Robert Fitzgerald says: Many thanks for your questions Orlando.

Question 1: Why only "green companies"?

14XC is open to all high potential Start-Ups that comprehensively consider the triple bottom line of environmental integrity, economic growth and social responsibility. We classify these businesses as green or sustainable.

This quote from Timmons and Spinelli (2009) of Babson is helpful and motivating: “Companies face environmental performance pressures from the investment sector, including stockholder petitions and unprecedented growth in screened investment funds that rank corporate behaviour on environmental issues.”

Question 2: Why didn't you stay quit until 2010 - Betfair and others have all the set-up to do it.

Our unique composition of stakeholders (everyday Investors, Angels, Start-Ups, MBA and ISO 14,001 Consultants) have specific and complex problems that require 14XC specifications to be subtly (and often radically) differentiated on multiple dimensions from existing services (in continuous increments) in order to deliver our sustainability vision.

This knowledge work improves the core product and service while creating increasing value and protection through integrated comparative advantages. This cannot be outsourced without compromising integrity. Indeed a consistent iterative reflexive character that continually improves an existing solid business model must be demonstrated to MBA & Company consultants by entrepreneurs (and her or his team) successful in listing on the 14XC Exchange.

-Question 3: Why only start-ups?

Less than 1% of new Start-Ups are funded. There is a large gap in the market with the angel investment sector over-stretched. Companies such as Clean Tech already provide substantial support to sustainable businesses that graduate from the early Seed Stage.