About Our Name

We are not just about the environment.

Echoing Green was conceived long before "green" was synonymous with the environment, sustainability, mother earth, and the recycling industry. Twenty plus years later, our gaia is a little different. With the emergence of green jobs, green buildings, a green television channel, green bulbs, and the many confused expressions when staff members explain we are not "just environmentally-focused" - we thought we'd explain where it all came from.

Our name actually comes from a William Blake poem called "The Echoing Green" Yes, our founders were not only venture capitalists, but also lovers of art and poetry. We like to imagine the "echoing green" as the reverberation of seed money in the hands of the right person at the right time, or the multi-plyer effect of being the first to invest in an amazing person with an outstanding social change idea.

The poem was published in the 1879 collection Songs of Innocence.

The Echoing Green

From Songs of Innocence

The Sun does arise,
And make happy the skies;
The merry bell rings
To welcome the Spring;
The skylark and thrush,
The bird of the bush,
Sings lounder around
To the bell's chearful sound,
While our sports shall be seen
On the Echoing Green.

Old John, with white hair,
Does laugh away care,
Sitting under the oak,
Among the old folk.
They laugh at our play,
And soon they all say:
``Such, such were the joys
When we all, girls & boys,
In our youth time were seen"
On the Echoing Green.

Till the little ones, weary,
No more can be merry;
The sun does descend,
And our sports have on end.
Round the laps of their mothers
Many sisters and brothers,
Like birds in their nest,
Are ready for rest,
And sports no more seen
On the darkening Green