Editor’s Note: This announcement is now fully public. See the post on TechCrunch and our internal announcement below.
It is an important day for us here at Green Options. Today we announce our acquisition by Virgance, another Bay Area startup which has generated incredible buzz for its novel approach to creating change.
Virgance is based on the observation that sometimes, campaigns for change can be scaled most effectively with business models behind them—an assumption that GO Media was originally founded upon.
Although my personal realization of this idea was based on my experience working at a nonprofit before starting Green Options, this assumption is not intended as a slight to the nonprofit world. Indeed, there are many functions which only nonprofits can reliably and independently perform. But the double- and triple-bottom line movement proves that there is also room for human activity that does good AND sustains itself financially.
People will do anything for money. Virgance is betting that “anything” includes making positive change. That’s a bet that I can get behind.
Those who follow GO Media blogs know that I’m not much of a blogger. I’ve always worked behind the scenes to keep our little blog network humming, while other talented and knowledgeable writers built our reputation for interesting, useful, unique content.
Over the past two-plus years, more than a hundred writers have made their mark somewhere on our network. But it all started with just a few. Jeff McIntire-Strasburg (founder of Sustainablog, a green blog that predates even Treehugger) and other professional bloggers provided GO street cred in the blogosphere in the early days. Jeff in particular brought a professional editorial voice and a strong sense of corporate conscience to our young venture.
After less than a year of blogging, we realized that normal people access ‘green’ topics most effectively through niches that they already care about, such as cars or family care. There was an obvious opportunity to create a blog network which would address each of those niches more consistently. GreenOptions.com relaunched as GO Media at GreenFest 2007, and we spent the early part of 2008 building out the network, which would soon become 15 blogs, covering everything from craft-making to eco-politics.
That’s how startups go, evolving constantly in features and business model. And that evolution continued throughout 2008 as GO Media’s reach continued to grow. Along the way, there has been no shortage of challenges: maintaining a virtual newsroom, training green experts to blog, matching writer payments to advertising revenue, and countless others.
But there have also been many, many amazing accomplishments by those involved with GO, and proud moments for me. To name a few: multiple stories on the homepage of yahoo.com (including one yesterday), literally hundreds of items on the frontpage of Digg, and syndication deals with major newspapers, magazines, and web media. Smart college grads and amateur journalists who started writing with GO Media have used what they learned through our writer training and support to start their own popular, sustainability-focused blogs and have gone on to blog for the likes of the New York Times, Fast Company, and the Sundance Channel.
Throughout the journey, there have been many dedicated writers who’ve taken on additional editorial duties for little or no extra compensation. This commitment (by Alex Felsinger, Ariel Schwartz, Tim Hurst, Nick Chambers, Jennifer Lance, Gavin Hudson, Reenita Malhotra, Lucille Chi, Jeff, Mark Seall, and many others) helped GO continue to grow through a period where many online media outlets were failing outright. It’s my hope that those who worked so hard when GO was on its own will have even greater opportunities to make a difference under the aegis of Virgance.
Part of the reason joining Virgance felt so right is that the stories of those who helped make Green Options Media what it is absolutely mirror those of the crew at Virgance. Every early employee at Virgance has sacrificed financially and personally in order to play a part in scaling a sustainability revolution. I know this firsthand because my role post-acquisition is to handle Virgance’s operations and HR, and I’ve already seen the same extraordinary commitment in the people at Virgance that the people at Green Options have been displaying for over two years.
But the most compelling thing about applying the value created by GO Media to Virgance’s broader mission is the amazing potential for yin-yang-style synergy (I know, I hate that word too) between what we’ve built and what Virgance is building. GO Media specializes in giving people interesting, accessible information, and Virgance specializes in enabling individuals to take action in an effective, collective way. Connecting information and action seems like a no-brainer, but effective, scalable examples of this are somewhat few and far between.
The idea that Green Options Media can play a role in keeping people informed and changing attitudes toward sustainability has been a primary driving factor for all involved since its inception. We hope to amplify those effects by exposing our readers to actionable options provided by Virgance.
I believe that we are truly entering a new season for business, which is why the ‘coming-out party’ Virgance is having in San Francisco next week has been dubbed ‘Equinox‘ — even though it’s coming a few weeks after the actual beginning of spring. The event is hosted by SF Beta, and if you’re in the Bay Area, check it out to see what all the excitement is about. If not, keep an ear to the interwebs for more rumblings over time.
Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this odyssey. I can’t wait to see where we go from here.
-David Anderson, Founder of Green Options.
