Sure. I am interested in new economic models and Slow Money gave me a chance to explore investing with accredited and non-accredited investors into local enterprises, particularly those in or adjacent to the food system. This felt new to me, though it is a variant of impact investing which has been around for decades. My time was before the 0% interest loans, which is a new model that I haven't participated in. Woody has been in the financial and non-profit world for years, so this was a golden opportunity to get the chance to work next to him.

I believe you have a few levers to make change in the world:

  * your livelihood
  * your free time
  * your spending
  * your investing

I invested because I wanted to see what change we could accomplish with this group of investors. I learned how hard it is to properly evaluate lending to businesses (from many angles, including recruiting businesses to apply for loans, even low interest ones). To be blunt, the end results weren't good in terms of capital return. I do think we impacted the local food ecosystem in a positive way, but there's a reason risk departments are not run by committees of volunteers.

I'm excited to see the new experiments the Slow Money folks are working on. I think that is room and need for some new economic models and am encouraged smart passionate folks continue to work on this.