Could doing less make us happier?🌱(Q2 2023)
Dear Community,
You probably don’t know this about me, but I surf. I don’t usually say I’m a surfer — that (for me) would imply being much better at it and living a different lifestyle — but let’s say I can work my way in the water.
One of the good things about surfing is that it takes you to wonderful places (any means of transportation can, but perfect waves and warm water are a great excuse). Sometimes it takes you to places so surprising and insightful that we (“surfers”) don’t feel we should disclose them.
In June, I had one such trip. It had been three years since I went on a surf trip and, despite the beautiful landscapes, warm water, and great waves, it was the local community that made it one of my most special trips ever.
From the day we got there, there was no fuel in the whole country, electricity was unreliable and failed 2 to 3 hours every day (thus, so did the internet), and tap water depended on a lorry that came occasionally to fill the tank. What surprised me was that none of this felt like a big deal, life just flows at a different pace. The days I spent there (excluding the flight 😕) were probably as low in carbon emissions and screen time as I’ve been for the past 12 years. Yet, they were incredibly rewarding.
All this got me thinking a lot about degrowth again. Every day, it becomes more evident that a green transition, without reducing resource consumption and without giving the Planet time to regenerate, will no longer be enough to revert the damage we’ve caused.
But could doing less make us happier too?
A great quarter in milestones, impact and human warmth
🚀 April, and then again June were our best months ever — the latter with more than 1,2M€ invested
🔍 We added project updates visible to the investors of the projects only. From now on you can check what’s new at any time (even if you missed our emails or they went directly to your spam box 😉).
👩💻 We are funding Academia de Código! A project that we have admired and known for so long, with whom we have been talking about collaborating for a long time and it finally happened!
👫 We kept our hiring streak — welcoming Francisco Taveira, Thiago, Tiago Julião and Isabel.
The Goparity Annual Get-Together 💃
On the 28th of June we held our second yearly gathering, bringing together investors, shareholders, project promoters and several stakeholders.
🔙 We took a look back at last year.
🗞️ Presented what’s coming next (including a quick demo on our financial area).
🧦 And started handing out the perks from our equity crowdfunding campaign.
🏆 We handed out the Goparity Awards
The ceremony was hosted by the energising Isabel Silva and several personalities from the Portuguese sustainable scene handed the awards.
🧑🤝🧑 Our partner-in-impact Catarina Barreiros handed the Community award to IMMUNETHEP!
☀️ Recap Energy won the Environmental Impact category! Eduardo Rechden left us a message because he couldn’t be on-site 🎬 Manuel received the award, handed by Nelson Lage from ADENE — Agência para a Energia
🏫 Vila won the Team’s Favourite, and it was lovely to witness our soon-to-be-mother Rita Costa deliver the award to a (very) soon-to-be school!
🚌 Our partners-in-finantial-literacy Que Rico Casal handed the Investors’s Favourite, to Valter Duarte from Oceântia!
🪱 EntoGreen (Ingredient Odyssey SA) won the Media category, handed by Ana Varela (Fun fact: the promoter brought snacks to try)
🍫 Working Capital Associates took home the Social Impact prize and sent a video 🎬 Again, our Manuel received the award, handed by Rita Casimiro from maze impact!
We launched in Canada 🍁
After more than one and a half years after we started a company there, with our local co-founding entrepreneurs Emily, Blake and Elliot, we were ready (and authorized) to start operating and finally launched in Canada. We celebrated in a beautiful room full of interesting people in the Center for Social Innovation, in Toronto. Luís, Miguel and Riley went there for the launch.
The first project in the platform is also a beautiful one: funding a project that will provide clean and reliable electricity to indigenous communities.
The question: creating a real community 👫
Over the past few weeks, I have been approached, in person at least three times, by people within our community, usually just to say “hi” or share some words of appreciation or feedback. Of course I love it when this happens, but I also thought: how do we extend this to the rest of our community. This led me to my next question 👇
We’re a large group of individuals wary of the impact our money has on our planet and we want to use it for good. Given we have at least that in common, should we find a way to recognize (and eventually meet) each other more?
Yes, definitely.
I’m not sure. I have some concerns.
I don’t find this relevant.
[You can answer in the comments below]
I would love to hear your feedback on how we can make this happen (for example, by organizing more in-person MeetUps or adding social features to our app) and/or what your concerns are.
Following up on my last question 👩👵
In my last email I asked our women investors if they’d feel more comfortable investing if we hosted “women-only” #MeetUps. Most of the feedback I received was very surprising yet logical: women feel more comfortable investing in companies which have women in leadership roles.
With that in mind, we are taking two actions.
- In September, we will hold a Meetup open to everyone co-hosted by two female leaders doing important work on Gender equality in finance. Register to receive all our MeetUp invites >
- We will start collecting and sharing more data on women in leadership positions within our projects and the promoters we fund. This information will be displayed on the campaign pages.
If you have any other suggestions regarding this topic, please share them by answering this email.
What to expect in this quarter? 🔜
Of course, I can’t end my message without unveiling, as usual, some of what’s coming:
📈 We’re about to launch our statistics page — a long overdue goal that aligns directly with our transparency and proactive information policy.
📊 A new financial area on the platform: soon, it will be easier to follow the performance of your investments, and to have access to all key performance indicators, including defaults.
🇲🇽 Our first project in Mexico! Finally, after several months of work, we have opened our first project in this country, focusing on industrial energy efficiency.
📩🗣️ Don’t forget to join our WhatsApp and Telegram Communities to receive all news about Goparity.
Nuno Brito Jorge
Founder and CEO
