Virgance: Activism 2.0 - the New Face of Entrepreneural Activism

Right off the bat, I'm going to tell you that what this company is doing is exactly what I think should be happening to make for real environmental and green change in business. Face it: government mandates don't really work, they just give business something to work around or manipulate.

Real change comes from business and the markets themselves. That's what Virgance is all about.

The CEO and founder of Virgance is Steve Newcomb, very well known for his work with Powerset and Serious Business (on Facebook). He's created nine companies so far, all of which combined have about a $3 billion market value.

What he's doing now is extraordinarily obvious to anyone who understands how real business economies work and what the green movement needs.

Newcomb is backing green businesses as an investment capitalist (aka venture capitalist) through the new VC company called Virgance. MaxGladwell.com is calling this idea "Web 3.0."

I'm not sure if that's a good term for it, but it'll do I guess. What Virgance does is simple: they incubate new startups, hold assets for value, and work on a grassroots level in a way similar to a political action committee.

Ventures that hope to get the backing of Virgance have to meet the following criteria:
1. Their idea/business must lead to a measurable change, directly.
2. They must involve many people utilizing social media to make that change.
3. They must not be working towards force (aka government intervention) to facilitate the change.
4. They must be able to scale their idea onto common technological infrastructure.
5. Their business model must be solid, realistic, and sustainable.

Think of it as a business model based on Obama's campaign strategy. That's what Newcomb says. Personally, I'd say it's closer to Dr. Ron Paul's campaign strategy, but I guess using Obama implies winning.

A prime example of how Virgance works is with the Carrotmob phenomenon. This was when a large group of people suddenly flashmobs and stormed a convenience store in San Francisco last year. The owner had promised to use revenues from a specific day's sales to ad green improvements to the store. Crowds appeared and emptied his shelves.

There are a lot of ideas in Virgance's portfolio now, including Go Media--a well-known online conglomerate of popular blogs. GO Media boasts a total of 2.5 million monthly visitors. Their network also meshes perfectly with Virgance's plans. No wonder Newcomb bought them up.

This is a great idea and a solid plan from a real entrepreneur who can make it work. Unlike most "green" business initiatives, Newcomb doesn't expect to lose money on the deal. He also isn't going to be asking for government largesse to make his plan work.

Welcome to Web 3.0. Wolfram Alpha? Bah, that's got nothing on this.