Wow, what a year!
Things began in December 2011 as an unnamed social venture with an idea to move more investment capital towards social purpose businesses. Over the course of 2012, Pique Ventures evolved with the vision of creating a community of investors committed to an integrated way of investing.
Pique Ventures develops intriguing solutions for integrated investing – it’s about making investment decisions integrating emotion, intuition, body, and analysis. As a result, integrated investing supports investment relationships, experiences, and multiple outcomes, not just transactions, processes, and financial returns.
Various themes really emerged for me this year – such as “meet people before you need to meet them” and “we all make decisions using emotion, intuition, body, and analysis”. I went from wondering where all the women investors were to actively connecting with women investors and leaders in BC, across Canada, in the US, Europe, and Asia. I have gone from speaking metaphorically that investing is not a game, to advocating “taking care of the village” as a different and preferred attitude towards investing. You’ll be hearing more about this in the future as I work towards completing my book on Integrated Investing.
After many twists and turns in the business model and customer discovery process, projects that didn’t come to fruition, positive feedback, comments like “hmm, that sounds interesting”, and building a community of interested investors, entrepreneurs and advisors around me, Pique Ventures emerged as an investor network.
I hosted the first investor gathering on November 27. My intention was to create an environment aligned with the idea of “meeting people before you need to meet them”, that investing was about “taking care of the village”. So there were no pitches. Instead there were 1-to-1 conversations amongst 5 potential investors and 4 entrepreneurs. Investors found the conversation format cool, fun, and very interesting. My mission is to serve investors and help them make better, purposeful, and integrated investment decisions – this is where I feel the greatest change and outcomes are going to come from.
Pique Ventures works predominantly with women investors and we consider investment opportunities that have a sustainability focus or are purpose-driven. Pique Ventures supports women entrepreneurs and businesses that serve women and was identified as a local model for Women Effect Investments, an initiative of Criterion Institute. 80% of the potential investors I’ve reached out to are women and almost 70% of the respondents to my call for entrepreneurs were businesses led or co-led by women. The next investor gathering is being planned for end of March 2013. If you’d like to find out more, please visit the Network section on the Pique Ventures website and contact me at bonnie [at] piqueventures [dot] com.
I have exciting plans for the future including a fund for women investors. I’m keen to work with collaborators and colleagues and will be reaching out to people early next year. If you have an idea for us to work together, do get in contact!
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All the best for a healthy holiday season and wonderful new year,
What a year! It was interesting to read about your 2012 journey. My best wishes for 2013!
Fantastic year Bonnie — and well summarized! I’m looking forward to seeing where 2013 will take you : )
Congrats Bonnie! You have been working hard, and your successes as a start-up entrepreneur are very inspiring. I’m also glad that your vision of building a network of informed, empowered and enlightened investors, particularly women, is manifesting. Best of luck in 2013. I’m excited to see where the year takes you!