graylightning

SF Beta: Greenly-ness is Out in the Sun

I made it to SF Beta's "SF Green" last night, and of the three SF Beta events I've been to in the last six months, this was by far the best attended. It took me 30 minutes just to work my way to the bar through the crush of entrepreneurs pitching their plans to save the planet and make a million bucks.

While the "Green Wave" has become a marketing movement of its own (complete with Hillary Clinton claiming a "real plan" to create "thousands of green-collar jobs"), there's been real news (as opposed to the fake kind) in the last few months about the growth of solar home installations.

A Green Industry Takes Root in California - NY Times
Something New Under the Sun - WSJ

While its clear that some of the recent adoption of old PV technology is spurred by the increasing availability of state and local tax credits from Sacramento, San Francisco, and Berkeley, increasing economic scale in the production of PV cells and improved power conversion efficiency over the last decades has brought down the price and shortened the return on investment cycles of solar home installations.

But to me - the biggest change seems to have come in people's mindsets. Almost two years after An Inconvenient Truth debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, being green is no longer just for the fringe, or the geeks - its becoming a key component of the way many people think about their lifestyle, at least out here in crazy California.

Just this month California's PG&E even launched a series of TV spots highlighting their commitments to solar and solar thermal energy...cool stuff, I can't find on YouTube but will link to them when i do.

Dosas for Yuppies

I tried out San Francisco's 'hottest' Indian restaurant yesterday, Dosa, a trendy Bay Area take on traditional South Indian cuisine.

It was good - and may have been one of the cleanest Indian restaurants I've ever been to - but it wasn't cheap. While $35-40 per person for an appetizer, a main and a beverage is a good deal for a San Francisco foodie, it might shock the average Bangalorian used to street wallahs hawking these items in Koramangala for two to three hundred rupees ($6-8 US).

But I enjoyed my Dosa, Dahi Vada (Lentil dumplings, topped with cool Strauss organic yogurt, piped with tamarind and mint and gently spiced) and Cochin Peppercorn chicken, and washed it all down with a cool mango lassi, my first since slurping up a last one at the Delhi airport on my way out of town.

Still, it was a bit strange to sit down in an Indian restaurant filled with white people and watch them all digging their fingers into uttapam, curry and sambar. How many Gorays does it take to bid up the price of lentils? Apparently, a lot, as the place was packed from the time we arrived to the time I reached for the saunf.

Dosa is located at 995 Valencia (@ 21st Street) in San Francisco.
You can find them on the web at dosasf.com.

Cavuto, Larsen and Stack!

My friend and roommate Alex Stack was on Fox News last week chatting with Neil Cavuto and Prosper CEO, Chris Larsen about what the impact of the credit crunch will be on alternative sources of finance.
Here's the video, (the first 10 seconds are a bit grainy.) Alex is a long-time lender on Prosper, the online peer-to-peer lending marketplace. The thesis is, a tightening by the banks will drive demand up for services like Prosper.

This is a company I've been blogging about for a year now, here are my earlier posts from bankerinindia:

Prosper Prospers - June 20, 2007
Peer to Peer Lending - March 23, 2007
Join Facebook, Make Loans - May 29, 2007

Prosper had their annual conference last week, "Prosper Days."  Freakonomics co-author Stephen Dubner
was the keynote speaker.

Interestingly enough, NetBanker claims that Prosper is one of the only national financial retailers to have a conference for their members - to me, thats evidence enough that there is a gap in customer service from the incumbent banks and lending institutions doing personal finance in the U.S., not to mention pricing.

If anyone went to the conference, it would great to hear the highlights.

Prosper has been making significant progress over the last year. They're now at 540,000 borrowers, up from 330,000 last summer. And Prosper members have cumulatively funded more than $100M in loans.

But they increased their rates on most of their loan originations up a percentage point this January. It sounds like the current model wasn't driving enough revenue. Netbanker explains it here.

I'll keep posting about this space as it matures. Right now, Prosper seems to be the clear leader in the category. Here's an old comparison with Zopa that breaks down the details a bit.

But how big can this category get? The next twelve months should tell us a lot.