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Part 3:
>> THOMPSON: We simply return and successes we had talked by it often. We, for the social
networking form for example, we have 25 percent were our target. Where one figures to see
whether it is true or we made that up. We will make an exception to that if we are acquiring
the way we believed it could have valued to the rest of the proposition that we actually
make up for it. With the impact investment, it is very different.
>> SPEDALE: Thank you. Going back to the impact investment and giving the partnership that
the two of you have built, Scott, I have a question for you as a marketing guru. Given
that impact investing on the LGBT side is actually quite mutual and I think was even
shocking to people I know you've worked at impact investing. As I was joking there, I
was thinking of gay markets being the Chelsey Boyle and Anthony Warbeck in an apartment
all the weekends having the parties. How do we communicate to investors? What this concept
is? How do we introduce LGBT impact investing the way that people would pay attention to
understand this?
>> SEITZ: Well there is two different things. Because we were involved in the SPIRIT industry
we were actually able to measure stock and that means the money comes easier. Because
we weren't describing the market what they couldn't sincerely see but I think there are
some trends. We are lucky enough that we're probably working with, any point in time,
50 different brand managers and we're also calling on or through our events and promotions
in 15 cities, we see about 2 million gay consumers a year. So we're out there and I think we
have a very solid feel for form of direction and a lot of stuff and I would say the opportunity
here is that more and more, especially on the consumer company, with the consumer brand,
they are trying to find 'where am I new?', 'where am I fresh?', 'where am I under marketed
right now?'. 'Where is my opportunity?'. More and more multicultural is becoming a part
of everybody's strategy for that. Gay and lesbian is not always considered a part of
multicultural strategy but it's the same group of people with the same kind of strategy.
It's a strategy where we just have to stop your regular marketing and think market to
the people that you're trying to send your messages to. As gay and lesbian is seeking
to or starting to be grouped with multicultural, I think that's really the opportunity cause
people are looking at multicultural, people are Ędeveloping multicultural. They want
to have of the brightest possible view of what multicultural might be and funds are
being diverted into BAFF for no reason. I think the other opportunity is that there's
a little bit of the burden with the other thing that's really refreshing about this
and I think that's most important as a marketer. It's not the same. It's not 'I'm getting 10
percent to this.' or 'I'm giving a portion of the proceeds to this'. This is 'I am making
change happen.' and I think that is a very refreshing place for a lot of people to be.
I think that could be a reliable opportunity, even in talking to the foundations of companies
because it's not enough to just sort of be there and give. They don't want the controversy
that comes with it sometimes but I think this is a really refreshing change and it's really
showing your difference and it's the equivalent of not only giving habitat for humanity but
going down to New Orleans and building house. You're involved in a mature way. So I think
when they look at multicultural marketing, when you look at creating infinity with people
and when you create a fresh look at how you're doing it, those are all really important place
to be noticed, to be different and to really attract the attention you considering it from.
>> SPEDALE: To that point about for example, approaching foundation and new idea, can you
tell us if there's a fine line that separates philanthropy and impact investing. Maybe you
could speak of it to how philanthropy and impact investing all related and what the
role of philanthropy should be in the impact investing current sets.
>> DAVIS: I think typically we have this rather bipolar view of things. We think one hand
over here is how we make our money and over here is how we give our money away philanthropically.
And so I think a lot of it is about educating donors and investors that we need to see that
as one portfolio. We need to see that it's all one pot of resources and it's about maximizing
financial return on one end of the spectrum and maximizing social return on the other
and within that, a whole ray of ways to deploy or how to achieve those ends. I think we have
to get away from splitting the two. And I think in philanthropy, it's a perfect case.
With foundations particularly on the LGBT space, we had some meetings here that are
a little bit scary. Those foundations within the LGBT world are even thinking about lining
their graph making with their investment strategy. They maybe funding really great LGBT work
on one side and funding some of the best advocacy organizations in the space, but on the other
hand, where their money was invested is contradictory to what they're social objectives are. That's
just a very basic concept right there within the LGBT space that we need to work on. Having
said that a lot of the real innovation and momentum in this impact investing space has
come out of philanthropy. The business world, if you take microcredit as a good example,
we were sitting in this room a decade ago, I think only a handful of people would even
know what micro enterprising was about. And now we have mainstream investment firms running
businesses around that. And I think we see that as sort of the same trajectory that we're
looking for in this space where the philanthropy may have to be the early sort of risk-takers
to sort of demonstrate in this market but ultimately can be adopted by the mainstream
investment firms and once it's shown that you can generate a really healthy financial
return, and not have to compromise that but do it in a really responsible way. Sometimes,
the business community is not willing to take that risk. We have to use philanthropy to
demonstrate that. So I see that as a real opportunity for bringing philanthropy.
>> SPEDALE: I can obviously go on with questions for hours and hours but I think more interesting
questions would come from you all, the audience, than from the moderator. This point, I would
really want to open it up to get your questions because I know there's a lot out there so
you can go free to ask away. Who would like to start?
>> QUESTIONER 1: It's actually 2 questions. First, for Lee and Paul.
>> SPEDALE: Make sure you speak up, sir.
>> QUESTIONER 1: For two questions, first for Lee. I want to know to what extent have
you ever worked with LGBT companies, LGBT management to perhaps don't service an LGBT
consumer base but how to express the clear desire to contribute a portion of proceeds
to the LGBT community or causes. And as a general question for that, what would be the
minimum foresail? I know you've talked about some of your metrics. Do you have any exceptions
to that? Or do you have case-to-case basis? That's question number 1. And Scott, question
number 2. On these domain names, do you have a sense of how they are being all gated and
has the list been published yet or which ones are coming out? When will the public be able
to see which ones have been put out yet?
>> DAVIS: I think the question is a tough one because I mean, for us it really go else
down to intent. First we have to be sure that the intent of the business really is to create
a social benefit and there are lots of ways to sort of check that and I think clearly,
the most important is that it has to be really built into the business strategy that creating
social benefit is not, sort of, something after the fact that you want to do. It's very
much a part of how you design the business and you build the business and then how decisions
are made in the business too. We spend a lot of time where in a social enterprise different
from a traditional bit for profit. You may see a financial opportunity that you may not
take because it might compromise your social objective and that's not to say that you're
giving up a potential return but you're steering your business decisions in a way it don't
compromise it. So I think that the intent and then business strategy really seem how
to build in to the core of the business.
>> THOMPSON: They commit from market to market that when you invest in our stock, it would
be actually a fund or such like to do financial returns. But then a part of it would actually
go to support such as Galeforce capital and such a little enterprise. We believe in that
perspective the impact on this and the other things that we're investing in. So it's you
know that does a possible direct keeping that really drive us to do this.
>> SEITZ: On a new domain, there's actually a worksite that sort of tracks the announced
new domains. They're probably hundred and twenty of that website now and it's called
the gTLDs which stand for Generic top-level domains dot, maybe, org. Just type-in new
gTLDs and you'll find the ICANN and all sorts of other things and you'll find your way around
to that. The interesting thing is that I mentioned those that are published because what's going
on is well because the number of these domains are things that are going to be much by folks
who are intending to resell them and also don't want the competition that goes along
with this because in the commercial space it will be a bidding war to see who gets dotNEWS
and then who gets dotWINE. So they just aren't published. They have no reason to publish.
In the community space we, you know, part of what's been grading is even though we discovered
and realized the importance of dotGAY, we have to go to the community to get the permission
to do dotGAY. So we've been into our HRC clan, National Centre For Lesbian Rights, the New
York centre, the Ally centre, we've got around 4 million than national, the NGLC and even
the national gay and the lesbian due of converse, the international gay and lesbian travel association
which have 70 members that have domestic, that have tourism departments and centre.
We're now going out, the community domains have to go and get that endorsement to demonstrate
that they are a part of the community so they are the one's more public on that side and
then the few others just decided to announce somebody's doing dotLOVE. I don't know what
that's going to be all about. You've heard dotXXX. Just got improved there. They said
something about teenage girls and then they're like okay. So it's an interesting study and
you know who's thinking about it and more interesting than who is not.
>> QUESTIONER 2: Just wondering if you could tell us what is the size of the LGBT market
first. And the second has got to do with when you see LGBT and you're up to apply investing
a company, can you sort of break down to the LGBT?
>> THOMPSON: It's very difficult to get the size of the market. There are famous publish
in the US and the UK and it's around 700 billion dollars in the US. How the hell they work
that up? We sort of validated some of those numbers by giving it major and I think the
problem is around that sort of figure. It was interesting in the UK when they introduce
the civil partnership. The treasury, actually the commissioner on quite detail. It always
assigned some of the critic they wanted to be financial argument around introducing the
same partnership. They required a few interesting statistics that came out and we've always
said that the LGBT market, at higher disposable input, the figures form the UK came out and
it's bearing 20 percent income. Let alone the higher disposable input in the market
of the UK. It was around a hundred million pounds of today's rate at around a hundred
and sixty billion dollars. But we've actually done ourselves in Asia because it figures
down to exist that we're doing a lot of work in Asia and developing its markets and I realized
I forgot the second question. My jet lag is coming right through me. ĘWe actually produce
the favours and it kinda took the GDP for each country and then actually put in a senses
of LGBT population and then you see the US and the UK favours to start borders and then
some exams and discussions that we're having.