Observations : Sparrow Capital

Key Principles:
Community-Coordinated Economic Development

Sparrow Capital recognizes the value of entrepreneurial leadership and seeks to empower communities and equip leaders with shared tools and resources. Sparrow is experimenting with equitable ownership structures that reward stakeholders and align incentives to bring undeveloped capital to life. These initiatives enable entrepreneurial leaders and cultivate stakeholder ownership as part of a regional-scale experiment in community-coordinated economic development.

Recognizing Leadership

Entrepreneurial Leaders Are the Scarce Resource

As owners and stewards of capital, we can start by simply acknowledging that the value of our capital is defined by the capacities of our entrepreneurial leaders. This is true of undeveloped capital as well as capital investment.

Equipping Leaders

Communities Can Equip Leaders With Shared Tools and Resources

As a community of stakeholders, we can learn to gather our talents and best practices, coordinate shared tools and resources, and build paths of capital apprenticeship to help equip our entrepreneurial leaders to work with capital.

Rewarding Stakeholders

Stakeholder Ownership Coordinates Capital Work

As partners and investors in capital projects, we can develop ownership frameworks that align incentives and enable stakeholders to participate equitably in the consequences and rewards of bringing undeveloped capital to life.

Cultivating Stakeholder Ownership

Open Equity Is the Evolution of Stakeholder Ownership

Open Equity is an innovative framework for equitable ownership and stakeholder engagement. It adapts nimbly to a broad range of assets and initiatives, diverse contingency scenarios, and various configurations of stakeholder groups.

Entrepreneurial Leaders Are the Scarce Resource

Recognizing Leadership

Communities Can Equip Leaders With Shared Tools and Resources

Equipping Leaders

Stakeholder Ownership Coordinates Capital Work

Rewarding Stakeholders

Open Equity Is the Evolution of Stakeholder Ownership

Cultivating Stakeholder Ownership

This is a four-part series on the key principles informing Sparrow Capital’s philosophy and operating framework.