Kevin Jones
Co-Founder – Good Capital, Social Capital Markets (SOCAP), and the Hub Bay Area
January 2011
I got to know Patrick a year ago, when I started working with him and mentoring him on the concept that would become the Hoop. I find Patrick to be a rare combination of passion, creativity and practicality. He believes deeply in making the world a better place, but he’s focused on building better options rather than trying to just stop bad ones.
I am also impressed with how well he fits the business he is building, both in skills and experiences. Not only is Patrick a software engineer, but he spent years helping companies and poor communities to build businesses that could serve them both. So the Hoop is result of this intersection of Patrick’s experiences and strengths, someone that can bridge the multiple worlds that the Hoop will need: a technology platform that serves both for-profit companies and low-income communities while driving real world actions & behaviors among consumers.
Patrick has demonstrated a remarkable ability to empathize with others and to earn their trust. In my experience, the world of Fair Trade and social enterprise has its fair share of egos and purists, who can be a tough crowd to break into. Patrick has done a remarkable job of earning trust, even when first viewed as an outsider: although Patrick had been working within the same overall space of impact-oriented enterprise, his work had been mostly overseas and outside of Fair Trade. He makes people feel comfortable with the balance of mission-driven and market-driven values the Hoop is striving for, and in doing so he has attracted an impressive team and a number of important partners: including Alter Eco, Indigenous Designs, Root Capital, ourselves at Good Capital and others.
He has also demonstrated great resilience and creativity in getting around obstacles. Early on there were several incidences where key partners or funders who seemed critical to the Hoop didn’t work out. A few of those times I wasn’t sure if the venture could keep moving forward, but Patrick found a way: focusing on creating enough forward momentum to draw people and resources to him.
For example, last summer it became clear that they didn’t have the resources to build a full technology platform, so Patrick scraped together the resources to build another one, more limited in scope but enough to begin demonstrating the concept and getting in front of real people. Since then the Hoop has gathered great interest from other Fair Trade brands and from publications like Fast Company, the Chronicle of Philanthropy, and the Huffington Post. He understands the importance of getting off of Powerpoint and into the real world, and is able to make difficult decisions when necessary, recognizing that available solutions are not always perfect ones.