EA Forum Podcast (All audio) “Can for-profit companies create significant, direct impact?” by T.K.
Thank you to @Jacintha Baas, @Judith Rensing, and the @CE team for your help in editing and improving this post.
Introductory Context
Hi, I’m Trish. This is my first post on the EA forum. I spent the past decade building VC-funded, high-growth startups (from pre-revenue to $10M+, from founding team to 250+ employees; pre-funding through Series B), and supporting 100s of early-stage founders through the communities at On Deck and Unreasonable Group.
Last year, I joined the team at AIM to help build the Founding to Give program, which helps people start high-impact for-profit tech startups.
AIM's Founding to Give program aims to launch for-profit startups that create impact through two ways:
- Build a startup, exit, and donate to effective charities (similar to earning to give)
- Direct positive impact created through the startup
AIM's research and Founder's Pledge data show high expected value (EV) for the [...]
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Outline:
(00:18) Introductory Context
(01:33) Summary
(02:10) Overview: The Bull & Bear Case
(03:05) Reasons often given for why for-profits can't have significant impact (and their counterexamples)
(03:13) #1 You can't serve two masters
(03:56) #2 Show me a for-profit that is solving for rural malaria prevention
(05:02) #3 For profits can't solve problems for those suffering the most
(06:37) #4 But what about the perverse incentives that will inevitably emerge
(08:07) #5 It would have happened anyway
(10:24) #6 DuoLingo is designed to keep you using the app, not to deliver real learning outcomes
(11:42) Some ideas for where for-profits might be able to create significant direct impact
(13:15) Some ideas for where for-profits might be able to uniquely contribute to the impact ecosystem
(15:06) Next Steps
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First published:
July 11th, 2025
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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.