How a Safeguard investor jumpstarted the social impact movement in Philly

Before Philadelphia got its own social entrepreneurship accelerator and a local investment arm to match, the local social impact scene was a small group kicking around an idea, a question: How do we create companies that prioritize profit and social good?
Our sister site Generocity featured an oral history on the impact investing scene featuring, among others, former Safeguard Scientifics investor and GoodCompany Ventures founder Garrett Melby, former Investors’ Circle president John Moore and former Resources for Human Development CEO Bob Fishman. She’s not mentioned in the oral history but we’d be remiss not to shout out Zoe Selzer, who founded the sustainable business incubator GreenVillage that later merged with Melby’s GoodCompany in 2012. Selzer left GoodCompany in 2013 and now runs Philadelphia University’s Blackstone Launchpad student entrepreneurship program.

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