SoCap08 Entrepreneur Profiles: Marc Dangeard and Entrepreneur Commons

by Nathaniel Whittemore

Published October 10, 2008 @ 11:35AM PST

What if peer-to-peer loans weren’t just a tool of international development? What if, even more, they were about more than individuals? What if peer-to-peer loans could be leveraged to create communities of support and opportunity around innovative enterprises?

Marc Dangeard is building Entrepreneur Commons to do just that.

As the discussion of ‘social business’ becomes increasingly mainstream, and as more investors and entrepreneurs begin to align their activities with the notion that (as Muhammad Yunus puts it), “the presence of our multi-dimensional personalities means that not every business should be bound to serve the single objective of profit maximization,” there is a growing discussion about how to change the start-up funding process so that organizations with blended environmental, social and economic impact don’t fall through the cracks.

Attempting to “bring the human back into capitalism,” Entrepreneur Commons is a seed fund for entrepreneurs, managed by entrepreneurs, and attempts to make the funding process more transparent and inclusive. New ventures will be screened by the entrepreneurs who are committing their expertise and financial resources to the project. Like any loan, success is in large part determined by how many ventures can pay back.

The peer-to-peer loan model has begun to see success outside of microfinance, with examples like Zopa (also attending SoCap08). Like many coming to SoCap, Dangeard is looking not only for support and sponsorship to get the project off the ground, but to develop a community of common interest to breathe momentum into the project.