GHC Companies
Our Mission
We utilize our experience and capital to help build and invest in innovative companies, charities and missions that lead with the heart, focusing on creating a more harmonious world with people we trust.
Return on Energy - The New ROE
We look to invest our time and resources in companies and people that have a high return on energy. Energy in this definition is comprised of a number of factors including: humans helped, financial return on capital, the additionality of the mission, camaraderie and coherence with others, the impact of working on big problems, easing of suffering, creating a healthier world, reversing injustices, love generated, laughter and fun, and the amount of harmony these efforts lead.
It is the combination of these factors that drive our decision making. How much energy (capital/effort/stress) goes in and how much do we think it generates out?
Does this make the world more harmonious and is the return on energy a good one?
It is the total score of these attributes that make up our driving metric, Return on Energy.
Companies We Build
Companies We Invest In and Take Leadership Role
Adventure Capital
We identify those mavens doing something really special and need a little boost in the early days before they have proof, marketing or press or there is a special emergency mission that needs help now. We see they are going after a big problem or injustice with deep passion and they need fuel to accomplish their mission and they don’t fit into a neat box.
Creative Projects
Sometimes we just want to create things because they are fun and want them to exist.
Sample Investments/Grants
Sometimes we invest or donate to companies/people we admire as a way of lending energy and support but solely as a limited partner.
Who We Are
Michael Clark
I am on a journey to continually hone my purpose for being here, a full time job. I love helping heart centered builders who want to serve the world and help jumpstart their ideas and propel their works forward. I am deeply committed to my wife and kids, my family and my friendships. I am constantly seeking to improve myself through an exploration of mind, body and spirit practices, like kundalini yoga and ancient sound techniques, all the while trying to keep up my playfulness, joy and mischief.
Some of my recent endeavors that make me smile are: a direct giving model for connecting those in need with those in surplus through The Change Reaction, building the leading carbon credit investor and developer for restoring ecosystems, building the explorer’s club for consciousness with Ennea, and creating a nature based community in Costa Rica. I spend my time with my wife and kids worldschooling while learning about ancient yogic techniques and consciousness. I also teach real estate private equity and entrepreneurship as adjunct faculty at Columbia University which keeps me connected to that world.
Previously I built one of the premier affordable housing companies with the most wonderful partner, a leading future tech media company with some crazy mavens and a few other cool businesses. I also built quite a few things that didn’t work out, except for the stories, hubris and lessons they provided.
I still have no idea what I am doing, constantly refining and making mistakes, but I am committed to always being curious and letting my heart lead the way and have service be a north star - and of course always keep laughing.
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Greg Perlman
I started off in real estate building one of the leading affordable housing companies in the U.S. Through that exposure to the lowest social economic class I got a real in depth experience of what it meant to live in a scarcity mindset and how difficult housing, food and medical are for the normal working class person. Through this work I dedicated my life to becoming a lighthouse for those hard working people who were left behind, and focused on building a company that worked with social workers and leaders on the ground who could help provide emergency assistance to those in need. Nobody should suffer just because they were born into a system they can’t operate within that literally crushes the working poor and it is up to us to balance these inequities out.
My favorite place to be is in the mountains on my bike, which has brought me a deep reverence for the land and a new connection to our planet. I am deeply interested in healthspan and my connection with my family and being of service. My favorite thing to do is to laugh with my friends, push my physical limits and create amazing parties and music. My latest venture was to create a new music label that took my old favorite songs and layered on live vocals, a new genre called house gospel music where each of the contributors and singers is an owner of the song.
I realize how lucky I have been in my life and working to help spread some of that luck to others is something that lights me up. Most of all I love telling stories and laughing until I cry.