Investing in Impact | Impact Investing

This content is for informational and entertainment purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.----------------------------------------If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe, review, and share this podcast!In episode 13 of the Investing in Impact podcast, I speak with Shankari Mylvaganam, the Director of Strategy and Global Partnerships at Unreasonable, on finding and scaling venture-based solutions to global challenges.Coming Soon: ImpactInvestor - Discover Impact Investors from around the world. Subscribe hereShankari’s impact investment expertise ranges from venture selection and portfolio operations advisory for Unreasonable Group's 200+ ventures (Series A to Series E), to working with Fortune 500 companies on ESG investment and corporate accelerators, to serving on the Advisory Board of two media-technology ventures.Within M&A Advisory, Shankari has worked with Private Equity and Corporate clients on deals ranging in value from $50 million to $20 billion. She is experienced in leading teams across the deal continuum from diligence to transaction planning and capturing value post-deal.Prior to this, Shankari worked in Strategy Consulting advising the C-Suite at MNCs and Private Companies, as well as Leadership of Federal Governments and International Institutions on growth, operations and organizational transformation. Shankari is also a Private Sector Delegate to the United Nations on issues of Public Private Partnerships and private investment into the social sector.The latest project her and her team are processing is UnreasonableFUTURE, a global movement to ensure future generations thrive in the new economy. The Future of Jobs Report 2018, by the World Economic Forum states that 75 million jobs will be displaced worldwide through automation between 2018 and 2022, as many as 133 million new roles could be created.The movement is a collaboration with Fossil Foundation, Pearson and Accenture, Unreasonable FUTURE is aligning the promise of leading edge technologies with the future of inclusive work and social equity.The UnreasonableFuture portfolio aims to support the future of learning, up-skilling, and education and the other half are companies using advanced technologies (i.e. robotics, 3D fabrication, machine learning, nano-technology) to develop human potential and ensure inclusivity in the workplace of tomorrow.Listen to more Causeartist podcasts here.We are powered by:ImpactInvestor - Discover Impact Investors from around the world.Podcast Made with TransistorPodcast cover design Made with CanvaBuild amazing web platforms with Webflow ----------------------------------------Thrive in the Impact Economy.Join 20k+. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for the latest news, exclusive interviews, and curated products that drive the Impact Economy. Our mission is to highlight and celebrate the founders, creators, investors, and conscious brands shaping the future of conscious business and philanthropy.To learn more, please visit causeartist.com

This content is for informational and entertainment purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.----------------------------------------If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe, review, and share this podcast!Bonus episode with Kate Byrne, President of SOCAP Global, on impact investing, the rise of women in global leadership, and rapidly moving an events business online in the wake of COVID-19.SOCAP Virtual: A Global Impact Summit - Register HereKate Byrne is the president of Intentional Media(soon to be SOCAP Global), the purpose-driven platform whose brands SOCAP, Good Capital Project, and Conscious Company Media are at the intersection of business, meaning, and money. Byrne is the former VP of partnership, membership, and sponsorship for Watermark, the Bay Area’s leading women’s leadership community. She’s played executive leadership roles at the Tides Foundation, George Lucas Education Foundation, Future LLC, BusinessWeek, Fast Company, and SF Gate and Inc — focusing on technology and its ability to advance media, drive revenue and promote social good.SOCAP is the largest and most diverse impact investing community in the world. They have created a global ecosystem and marketplace - social entrepreneurs, investors, foundation and nonprofit leaders, government and policy leaders, creators, corporations, academics and beyond - through content experiences that educate, spur conversation, and inspire investment in positive impact. Programming includes the annual SOCAP Summit, SOCAP 365, SPECTRUM conference, World-Changing Women’s Summit and Money + Meaning podcasts.SOCAP Virtual: A Global Impact Summit is the leading gathering of global changemakers addressing the world’s toughest challenges through market-based solutions, October 19 through 23. Hundreds of speakers during more than 150 sessions will explore the following themes: Radical Change. Impact Investing. Meaning. Climate Action. Global Health. Future of Work. Next Gen Leadership. Education for All. Resilience. Inclusion. Arts, Culture & the Creative Economy. Racial Equity. The five-day conference will convene thought leaders from across the impact ecosystem including impact investors, social entrepreneurs, foundation and nonprofit leaders, government and policy leaders, corporations, academics and other innovative cross-sector practitioners committed to increasing the flow of capital toward social good. There will be intimate fireside chats, virtual workshops, a Digital Pavilion, Social Entrepreneurship Scholarship presentations and a host of virtual networking opportunities for one-on-one to small meeting formats. “This year we will lay the foundation for a new decade in impact investing and a more just and inclusive economy. Now more than ever, creative market-based solutions are needed to address the world’s toughest problems,” said Cari Hanson, Vice President of SOCAP, the largest impact investing community in the world. “The speakers and conversations we’ve pulled together for our SOCAP Virtual Main Stage schedule were crafted with the goal of presenting such solutions — and to give attendees ways to take collective action to keep the conversation going long after the final session.”Listen to more Causeartist podcasts here.We are powered by:ImpactInvestor - Discover Impact Investors from around the world.Podcast Made with TransistorPodcast cover design Made with CanvaBuild amazing web platforms with Webflow ----------------------------------------Thrive in the Impact Economy.Join 20k+. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for the latest news, exclusive interviews, and curated products that drive the Impact Economy. Our mission is to highlight and celebrate the founders, creators, investors, and conscious brands shaping the future of conscious business and philanthropy.To learn more, please visit causeartist.com

This content is for informational and entertainment purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.----------------------------------------If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe, review, and share this podcast!In episode 12 of the Investing in Impact podcast, I speak with Elizabeth Yin, Co-founder of The Hustle Fund on changing the landscape of traditional venture capital and opening up access to aspiring founders.Coming Soon: ImpactInvestor - Discover Impact Investors from around the world. Subscribe hereElizabeth Yin is a co-founder and General Partner at Hustle Fund, a pre-seed fund for software entrepreneurs. Previously, Elizabeth was a partner at 500 Startups where she invested in seed stage companies and ran the Mountain View accelerator. In a prior life, Elizabeth co-founded and ran an adtech company called LaunchBit (acq 2014). Elizabeth has a BSEE from Stanford and an MBA from MIT Sloan.Elizabeth has reviewed over 20k startup pitches from around the world in the last few years and has helped numerous portfolio founders raise hundreds of millions of dollars. Her work and writing on startup fundraising has been featured in numerous publications including TechCrunch, Forbes, Huffington Post, BetaKit, and more.The Hustle Fund invests in pre-seed rounds. Not seed. Not post-seed / mango seed. Pre-seed. As their mantra states - "We invest in hilariously early startups". The Hustle Fund's first check is usually $25k unless the team has worked with the founder before. Most of the time, founders can expect to receive a response from the team between 24 and 48 hours after having a call.Listen to more Causeartist podcasts here.We are powered by:ImpactInvestor - Discover Impact Investors from around the world.Podcast Made with TransistorPodcast cover design Made with CanvaBuild amazing web platforms with Webflow ----------------------------------------Thrive in the Impact Economy.Join 20k+. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for the latest news, exclusive interviews, and curated products that drive the Impact Economy. Our mission is to highlight and celebrate the founders, creators, investors, and conscious brands shaping the future of conscious business and philanthropy.To learn more, please visit causeartist.com

This content is for informational and entertainment purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.----------------------------------------If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe, review, and share this podcast!In episode 11 of the Investing in Impact podcast, I speak with Justin Kulla, Partner at TZP Group on the future of Impact Investing and ESG in the global economy.Justin Kulla joined TZP Group as a Partner of Impact Investing and ESG in May 2020. Mr. Kulla began his career at Credit Suisse where he was an engineer working in New York, London and Zurich, and at Google where he worked in business development. Following business school, Justin joined the Hearst Corporation's venture capital group focused on early stage internet and media investments.In 2010, Justin was a founding member of Weld North, an education technology private equity firm backed by KKR. During his tenure at Weld North, Justin invested in Edgenuity, Imagine Learning, The Learning House and Performance Matters and held senior operating roles including as Chief Technology Officer at Edgenuity. In 2015, Justin founded and served as CEO of BusinessBlocks, an education technology company for working adults and small businesses. BusinessBlocks was acquired in 2017 by AmTrust Financial Services, a Fortune 500 insurance company and following the acquisition Justin served as SVP of M&A and Investments. Justin currently serves on the board of Errigal, Inc. Justin holds BS and MISM degrees from Carnegie Mellon University, an MBA from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MPA from Harvard University. He's a lecturer and mentor at Stanford, Menlo College, USC, and Tulane, a board advisor at 826 National, and a Term Member on the Council on Foreign RelationsListen to more Causeartist podcasts here.We are powered by:ImpactInvestor - Discover Impact Investors from around the world.Podcast Made with TransistorPodcast cover design Made with CanvaBuild amazing web platforms with Webflow ----------------------------------------Thrive in the Impact Economy.Join 20k+. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for the latest news, exclusive interviews, and curated products that drive the Impact Economy. Our mission is to highlight and celebrate the founders, creators, investors, and conscious brands shaping the future of conscious business and philanthropy.To learn more, please visit causeartist.com

This content is for informational and entertainment purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.----------------------------------------If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe, review, and share this podcast!In episode 11 of the Investing in Impact podcast, I speak with Tiila Abbitt, Founder of Āether Beauty on disrupting the $500 billion beauty industry through actual clean cosmetics and sustainable packaging.Coming Soon: ImpactInvestor - Discover Impact Investors from around the world. Subscribe hereFounded in 2018 by Tiila Abbitt, a passionate, highly creative product development professional with 11+ years' experience - including the international prestige beauty industry. Tiila has a BFA in sculpture and an MFA in fashion design. She worked in the fashion industry for over 5 years before transitioning to beauty. She is highly passionate for the sustainable beauty product realm. Tiila spent 7 years at Sephora in charge of product development for makeup collaborations and accessories. Her obsession with sustainability lead her to become the lead R+D for sustainable materials while also being on the sustainability leadership council for the retailer.Being a global brand, Tiila quickly learned that in the USA, there are only 11 banned chemicals in color cosmetics while in the European Union, there are over 1300. Because of this, she learned how to formulate color cosmetics with a very large chemical ban list and how to substitute for cleaner alternatives. Tiila has had a long tenure passion for the organic product realm and has been a vegetarian for over 24 years, and also incorporating a plant based diet.Always bringing natural, organic alternatives into her everyday (including learning how to cook organic food at an organic restaurant while in college) she started to look at natural makeup formulation and just found that none of the offerings could truly compete with the efficacy of conventional beauty. The space lacked choice of color and trend, as well as truly sustainable packaging.Plastic makeup componentry is a huge source of pollution globally and Tiila really wanted to create a brand that was ethically-sustainable, beyond the formulation, but in everything that Āether Beauty creates.Listen to more Causeartist podcasts here.We are powered by:ImpactInvestor - Discover Impact Investors from around the world.Podcast Made with TransistorPodcast cover design Made with CanvaBuild amazing web platforms with Webflow ----------------------------------------Thrive in the Impact Economy.Join 20k+. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for the latest news, exclusive interviews, and curated products that drive the Impact Economy. Our mission is to highlight and celebrate the founders, creators, investors, and conscious brands shaping the future of conscious business and philanthropy.To learn more, please visit causeartist.com

This content is for informational and entertainment purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.----------------------------------------If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe, review, and share this podcast!In episode 10 of the Investing in Impact podcast, I speak with Melinda Moore, General Partner at Moore Ventures on investing in the green economy and literally writing the book on raising money through crowdfunding.Coming Soon: ImpactInvestor - Discover Impact Investors from around the world. Subscribe hereMelinda Moore is also the Co-Founder of TuesdayNights. She is an entrepreneur, investor, advisor and global speaker with over 20 years of experience, and two exits (STV Communications and LovingEco). Melinda is the author of How to Raise Money: The Ultimate Guide to Crowdfunding and has raised over 100 million via equity crowdfunding.She served as the Senior Vice President for Entertainment Media Ventures. Her work has been widely recognized by Digital LA (Top 50 Digital Women in 2015), the Green Business Bureau and the National Association of Women Business Owners’ Hall of Fame.  Melinda serves on the Board of A Sense of Home and has a  B.A. from UCLA.Listen to more Causeartist podcasts here.We are powered by:ImpactInvestor - Discover Impact Investors from around the world.Podcast Made with TransistorPodcast cover design Made with CanvaBuild amazing web platforms with Webflow ----------------------------------------Thrive in the Impact Economy.Join 20k+. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for the latest news, exclusive interviews, and curated products that drive the Impact Economy. Our mission is to highlight and celebrate the founders, creators, investors, and conscious brands shaping the future of conscious business and philanthropy.To learn more, please visit causeartist.com

This content is for informational and entertainment purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.----------------------------------------If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe, review, and share this podcast!In this bonus episode, I speak with Dinesh Tadpalli, Founder of incrEDIBLE, on creating the first company to mass-produce edible cutlery and help alleviate waste from 100 million plastic utensils used every day in America. Dinesh is an Impact based entrepreneur, hiker, engineer and angel investor. Crazy enough to sell his home for the sake of the planet and startup.He is the founder of incrEDIBLE, edible spoons, and sustainable cutlery. Plastic cutlery takes 1000 years to decompose - compostable products take equally as long if thrown in the trash. This makes Edible Spoons the most ECO-Friendly option for your special occasion.100 million plastic utensils are used every day. As the first company to mass-produce edible cutlery, you can help us grow to put an end to this crisis. Saving the planet never tasted this good!Listen to more Causeartist podcasts here.We are powered by:ImpactInvestor - Discover Impact Investors from around the world.Podcast Made with TransistorPodcast cover design Made with CanvaBuild amazing web platforms with Webflow ----------------------------------------Thrive in the Impact Economy.Join 20k+. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for the latest news, exclusive interviews, and curated products that drive the Impact Economy. Our mission is to highlight and celebrate the founders, creators, investors, and conscious brands shaping the future of conscious business and philanthropy.To learn more, please visit causeartist.com

This content is for informational and entertainment purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.----------------------------------------If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe, review, and share this podcast!In episode 9 of the Investing in Impact podcast, I speak with Dr. Angela Jackson on leading New Profit’s $15M Future of Work global fund to invest in entrepreneurs and companies developing innovative technical solutions to upskill low-income and entry-level workers at scale. Dr. Angela Jackson leads New Profit’s Future of Work Initiative, which seeks to close the career-readiness gap for Americans from low-income backgrounds. Angela’s career started in the private sector leading business development for organizations like Viacom and Nokia. While working internationally, she began to wonder: if multinational companies can deliver their products consistently and with quality at scale, what would it take to deliver social interventions like education and health in a similar manner?She began to tackle this question by founding Global Language Project, a social venture that aimed to transform how we prepare students with skills to succeed in a global economy and workforce. Angela completed a Doctoral degree at Harvard University, where her focus was on this question, along with the role of scale and strategic capital deployment and philanthropy in systems change initiatives.Angela’s work with New Profit allows her to marry her research interests with practice. She currently leads New Profit’s $15M Future of Work global fund to invest in entrepreneurs and companies developing innovative technical solutions to upskill low-income and entry-level workers at scale. Angela recently launched a $6 million Future of Work Grand Challenge, powered by XPRIZE and MIT Solve, to rapidly reskill 25,000 displaced workers into living-wage jobs in the next 24 months.About New Profit: New Profit is a venture philanthropy organization that backs breakthrough social entrepreneurs who are advancing equity and opportunity in America.Her work and writing has been featured in CNN, Huffington Post, Chicago Tribune and Harvard Business Review. You can read her thoughts on the intersection of race and the Future of Work on Medium and follow her on Twitter at @angjack.Listen to more Causeartist podcasts here.We are powered by:ImpactInvestor - Discover Impact Investors from around the world.Podcast Made with TransistorPodcast cover design Made with CanvaBuild amazing web platforms with Webflow ----------------------------------------Thrive in the Impact Economy.Join 20k+. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for the latest news, exclusive interviews, and curated products that drive the Impact Economy. Our mission is to highlight and celebrate the founders, creators, investors, and conscious brands shaping the future of conscious business and philanthropy.To learn more, please visit causeartist.com

This content is for informational and entertainment purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.----------------------------------------If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe, review, and share this podcast!In episode 8 of the Investing in Impact podcast, I speak with Craig Jonas Ph.D., CEO and Founder of CoPeace on using the holding company model to create a long term impact investing approach.Coming Soon: ImpactInvestor - Discover Impact Investors from around the world. Subscribe hereDr. Craig Jonas is a lifelong entrepreneur with success across business, academic, and athletic industries. Craig has over 30 years of experience in management with a passion for team-building and drawing individuals with big ideas together.Craig founded CoPeace in 2018 after serving as COO of Basketball Travelers and BTI Events, an elite sports event management and media conglomerate, for over 20 years. In his role, Craig supervised international sporting events and tours worldwide. He served as the head or deputy head of the American delegation for the Summer and Winter World University Games from 2007-17.Craig has always had a passion for bringing true impact to global sport, supporting the idea that sports can bring cultures and people closer together. He was one of the first American coaches to travel to South Africa post-apartheid to host basketball clinics for local youth. Craig also represented the United States at the International Olympic Academy in Greece after earning national basketball “Coach of the Year'' honors.Previously, Craig served as vice president for business development for the broadcast media technology firm, Sportvision, best known for bringing revolutionary visual enhancements to live sports broadcasts, including American football’s yellow first-down line and baseball’s strike zone. Prior to Sportvision, Craig served as the executive vice president of Coach’s Edge and helped initiate its $100- million merger with Sportvision.Craig earned his doctorate in conflict management from the University of Kansas, where he also taught leadership, marketing, and management courses to undergraduate and masters students. As an undergraduate student, Craig attended Carleton College in Minnesota, and went on to complete his graduate degree at Colorado State University. Craig is a father of two sons. He lives with his wife, Seanna, and dog, Fergus, in Colorado. About CoPeace:CoPeace is a first-of-its-kind holding company in the impact investing space. We are building a portfolio of carefully-screened, for-profit companies which are achieving measurable social and/or environmental impact, while providing competitive returns to investors.A unique CoPeace feature is that a direct investment in the company, and its holdings, is accessible to the average investor, not just wealthy accredited investors. CoPeace is a Certified B Corp and also registered as a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC). As a Certified B Corp and PBC, CoPeace meets the highest verified standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability and is one of only 400 companies worldwide with both B Corp and PBC designation. Listen to more Causeartist podcasts here.We are powered by:ImpactInvestor - Discover Impact Investors from around the world.Podcast Made with TransistorPodcast cover design Made with CanvaBuild amazing web platforms with Webflow ----------------------------------------Thrive in the Impact Economy.Join 20k+. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for the latest news, exclusive interviews, and curated products that drive the Impact Economy. Our mission is to highlight and celebrate the founders, creators, investors, and conscious brands shaping the future of conscious business and philanthropy.To learn more, please visit causeartist.com

This content is for informational and entertainment purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.----------------------------------------If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe, review, and share this podcast!In episode 7 of the Investing in Impact podcast, I speak with Brad Feld, Co-founder of Techstars and Foundry Group on turning his entrepreneurial and venture capital journey into global startup communities dedicated to solving complex challenges.Coming Soon: ImpactInvestor - Discover Impact Investors from around the world. Subscribe here Brad Feld is co-founder of the Foundry Group, and has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Brad previously co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and Techstars, and prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures. Feld was an early investor in Harmonix, Zynga, MakerBot, and Fitbit.A writer and speaker on venture capital investing and entrepreneurship, Brad has written a number of books as part of the Startup Revolution series, and writes the blogs Feld Thoughts and Venture Deals. He currently is chair of the National Center for Women & Information Technology and on the boards of Path Forward, the Kauffman Fellows, and Defy Ventures. Brad holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Management Science from MIT and has completed 25 marathons as part of his mission to finish a marathon in each of the 50 U.S. states.His new book, The Startup Community Way: Evolving an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, is an explanatory guide for startup communities. Rooted in the theory of complex systems, this book establishes the systemic properties of entrepreneurial ecosystems and explains why their complex nature leads people to make predictable mistakes. The Startup Community Way offers practical advice for entrepreneurs, community builders, government officials, and other stakeholders who want to harness the power of entrepreneurship in their city.About the Foundry Group: The Foundry Group helps entrepreneurs and venture capital fund managers turn promising ideas into market-defining and market-leading businesses. They are committed to spreading the Foundry Group ethos through investment activity as well as in the other ways the team engages with the entrepreneurial ecosystem.Listen to more Causeartist podcasts here.We are powered by:ImpactInvestor - Discover Impact Investors from around the world.Podcast Made with TransistorPodcast cover design Made with CanvaBuild amazing web platforms with Webflow ----------------------------------------Thrive in the Impact Economy.Join 20k+. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for the latest news, exclusive interviews, and curated products that drive the Impact Economy. Our mission is to highlight and celebrate the founders, creators, investors, and conscious brands shaping the future of conscious business and philanthropy.To learn more, please visit causeartist.com