From water-powered USB chargers to a post-disaster housing marketplace, four new socially-conscious startups just graduated from Fledge’s third class ever.
Fledge, an incubator program led by Michael “Luni” Libes, held its third-ever Demo Day at the HUB Seattle Thursday night, as four groups demoed the work they’ve been doing for the past few months.
Fledge is a TechStars-like accelerator, but with a focus on “conscious companies.” To be part of Fledge’s program, each company must demonstrate a socially-conscious mission and model.
Here is the latest crop of “fledglings,” with descriptions provided to us from Fledge:
-
Self Spark – Informing, teaching and measuring lifestyle change, using Open Science techniques. Spark Weekend, coming January 4-5, is a mix of Startup Weekend and TED, helping people learn about tools that can improve one’s life, with a day of hands-on assistance, to ensure those changes stick.
-
Hydrobee – A portable, turbine-powered, battery, harvesting energy from nature to power the growing number of USB powered devices. Hydrobee is initially targeting the American camping market, but aiming to provide power to the 100+ million people worldwide who live off-grid, yet own cellphones and use LED lights.
-
Village Green – Everyone has needs, especially entrepreneurs. Village Green is an online “needs exchange” where needs can be easily posted, searched, followed, and fulfilled. Based on two years’ experience matching needs in-person via dozens of Green Breakfast Club events in New York City and around the world.
-
Close to Home – An online marketplace for post-disaster homes, finally fixing the problem of how to rebuild communities after natural disasters like we’ve seen in Hurricane Sandy, in the floods of Boulder, Colorado, and just this week with the tornados just outside Chicago.
And you can watch the pitches from Demo Day here:
