Blast from the past

One of the great things about NY is for a city of 10 million people, it sure is easy to run into people you know -- often people you haven't seen in years. On my last trip home, I bumped into a former boss on 34th Street -- Kerwin Tesdell, president of the Community Development Venture Capital Alliance (CDVCA), where I interned during business school.

We exchanged new contact information, and I just received an interesting email update from him referencing a recent Wall Street Journal blog about the implications of Obama's bank regulation plan -- particularly the impact on this for community development venture funds, which are funds aimed at creating jobs in low-income urban and rural areas of the US. The blog essentially talks about the unintended consequences of preventing banks from investing in PE and VC funds, which would severely hurt community development VCs, which get about 30% of its capital from banks.

The article made me think about my work there, which feels so long ago now! I remember wondering then what exactly makes an investment social -- is it all about job creation? Fascinating that the debate on how to measure social impact has only grown stronger today, with no easy answers.

In a very nerdy way, the best part of the article for me was reading about a call-center in Georgia -- which I had helped research and do diligence on back in 2005... I was excited to learn that since that time and the Central Fund's investment, the company has grown from 150 workers to 3,000 today! A nice thought before heading to bed...