15 April 2008
Green Entrepreneurship: No Risk, No Reward
The venture capital industry invests in green technologies
The speakers are Dan Burstein, managing partner, Millennium Technology Ventures; Ray Lane, managing partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; Wendy Gordon, founder of National Geographic’s Green Guide; Chris Skelley, co-founder and president, Green Apple Cleaners; and David Kistner, founder and CEO, Green Apple Cleaners.
This video was produced in April 2008 by America.gov and Crossborders.
(begin transcript)
Dan Burstein: “Well, one of the great new frontiers in the world of venture capital investing is alternative energy and every type of green technology.”
Ray Lane: “Well, I think the venture industry is investing in green for a couple of reasons. There’s no question there is a moral obligation here.”
Burstein: “Today we’re seeing whole venture capital funds set up to explore different kinds of green technologies.”
Wendy Gordon: “There are some exciting new businesses and new technologies that are coming into play.”
Lane: “We want to find all sorts of opportunities, not only to be more environmentally conscious but also to make money.”
Chris Skelley: “My name is Chris Skelley, president and co-founder of Green Apple Cleaners.”
David Kistner: “Green Apple Cleaners is fortunate, you know, we’ve made the investment and we have one of the first Solvair machines in the country.”
Skelley: “Here’s our brand new CO2 Solvair dry-cleaning machine. We had the opportunity to take something in an industry that really needed to go green, and it’s nice to be on the forefront of that.”
Kistner: “Green Apple Cleaners is not just a name. There was a kind of a mission to start an environmentally friendly dry cleaner that used no toxic chemicals at all. And with a little bit of research, I found out that the best way to clean your clothes is CO2 and water.”
Gordon: “It’s a fabulous example of an innovative and entrepreneurial, very important service to people.”
Lane: “Companies can assume a number of financial risks when they go green. It depends on how fast they do it.”
Kistner: “When you’re talking about machines that cost $150,000 plus ancillaries, it’s a pretty hefty investment for your average dry cleaner to make.
Lane: “Businesses that are consumer product companies [have] to have this built in today because the world’s consciousness about ‘green’ has been raised.”
Gordon: “Companies can be both green and financially successful.”
Kistner: “People are conscious. People want the product.”
Skelley: “You know, there’s a lot of time and effort into it but I think if you stick to your plan, it does all work out.”
Kistner: “Within the first six months of opening we doubled our revenues out of that store. And we’re in the middle of opening two more stores, one down 34th Street and the other on the Upper West Side.”
Burstein: “The beauty of being in the venture capital business is it’s possible to believe that you’re both changing the world for the better and making money for yourself and your investors while you’re doing it.”
Kistner: “If you look at any great company, there’s always a moment that they said, ‘We’re going to do something different.’”
Burstein: “I think it’s a really vibrant trend, and it’s going to grow bigger in our culture.”
(end transcript)
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
