Responsibility is in their sites

SFGate: Responsibility is in their sites (HT Dana Ames) Tree hugging capitalism lives!

Ryan Mickle's life was the stuff young bourgeois dreams are made of. He had a lucrative career as a management consultant, drove a flashy car and lived a few blocks from the beach in an exclusive neighborhood on the Newport Beach (Orange County) peninsula.

Then a year ago he bought a lottery ticket. While jotting down all of the things he would do with the winnings, from spending more time with family and friends to making a real difference in the world, Mickle began to take stock of his life. He was earning a lot of money but was giving very little of himself. And he was the one who was poorer for it.

"I won the lottery that day by realizing that I had everything I needed to start living that life, right then and there," Mickle said.

So Mickle ditched his high-paying job to brainstorm a new venture with friend Rod Ebrahimi. On a napkin they scribbled their goals: Build an online community that changes the world; make a socially responsible business more profitable; and have fun while doing the right thing.

The result was Dotherightthing.com, a San Francisco startup that allows users to rank companies based on their social impact on the world.

Mickle, 26, and Ebrahimi, 25, are among a growing number of entrepreneurs betting they can build ventures that deliver both financial and social returns. Ebrahimi calls it the double bottom line. "We see more and more people and companies focus on doing good socially while still doing well economically," he said. …