Podcasts about impact fund

“Why are we measuring Impact? To make sure we are maximising impact” Across the impact investment industry there is an ongoing evolution of impact measurement. But how often do you hear details of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that impact funds are actually using and the reasons that they were chosen? In this impact masterclass, Lara Viada of Creas, Spain's pioneering impact investment intermediary, now in the process of raising a third fund of €70m, reveals all, including:- The magic ingredients impact investors are looking for in founder teams- Detailed IMM framework and KPI examples across elderly care, nutrition and education- How the European Investment Fund (EiF) has been instrumental in scaling the impact investment sector- The advantages of impact fund sector/vertical specialisation and why Creas transitioned to 'Empowering people, Caring for People and Regenerating the Economy'- Using Theory of Change to identify actionable impact KPIs that inform strategic decision making- How Creas use the EiF impact carry model to tie in the impact performance of their funds with 100% of their potential carried interest to safeguard and maximise their impact- How funds can stand out to entrepreneurs in an increasingly competitive impact fund marketplace- Novel approaches to getting into the impact finance sector, book recommendations, inspiration from India and more!“If the social impact multiple of the fund is below 60%, then we don't get any carried interest” Creas - Impact FundCreas 2024 Impact Report (EN)Creas investees discussed:QidaZenEducateSmileatThe European Investment Fund (EIF)EIF and Creas Impacto II FundA day in the life of Abed Salama, by Nathan ThrallInvesting for PurposeImpact EuropeSocial Value InternationalImpact FrontiersGlobal Impact Investing NetworkSDG Goals#ImpactInvesting #ImpactKPIs #Marketbuilding Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Remember the days of don't ask, don't tell in the armed forces? The policy for gay and lesbian service members ended 10 years ago, but it still reverberates. As does the issue of transgender service members. Now a group of veterans discharged back in the don't ask, don't tell days has reached a settlement with the Defense Department after a long-running class action suit. Joining me with the details, attorney Joselyn Larkin of the Impact Fund. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Remember the days of don't ask, don't tell in the armed forces? The policy for gay and lesbian service members ended 10 years ago, but it still reverberates. As does the issue of transgender service members. Now a group of veterans discharged back in the don't ask, don't tell days has reached a settlement with the Defense Department after a long-running class action suit. Joining me with the details, attorney Joselyn Larkin of the Impact Fund. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mark Norbury, Chief Executive of UnLtd, explores the dynamic world of social entrepreneurship, highlighting the organisation's commitment to empowering leaders who are transforming their communities. UnLtd has long championed social entrepreneurs across the UK, providing both financial and practical support to help innovative ideas flourish. Over the past five years, the organisation has seen a seismic shift in its approach and impact, driven by the challenges of the pandemic, economic inequalities, and rising demand for support in an increasingly volatile social landscape. A key focus of the episode is the Growth Impact Fund, UnLtd's pioneering social investment vehicle. Designed to foster equity and opportunity, the fund prioritises entrepreneurs from underrepresented backgrounds, including Black, Asian, minority ethnic, and disabled communities. This initiative reflects UnLtd's recognition of the untapped entrepreneurial talent in these groups and its commitment to dismantling systemic barriers to access. Mark sheds light on the evolving definition of social entrepreneurship, emphasising its core: creating financially sustainable solutions that drive meaningful social change. From supporting grassroots innovators to scaling high-impact organisations, UnLtd's efforts encompass not only financial assistance but also wraparound support, including business mentorship, peer learning opportunities, and pro bono professional services. This holistic approach is vital for fostering sustainable growth and enabling social entrepreneurs to navigate complex challenges. Thank you for downloading this episode of the Do One Better Podcast. Visit our Knowledge Hub at Lidji.org for information on 300 case studies and interviews with remarkable leaders in philanthropy, sustainability and social entrepreneurship.  

If you would like to support EMM's work of training, we invite you to join us by partnering financially. We encourage you to make a gift to EMM's Impact Fund by December 31. You can give online. We are so thankful for your continued generosity!

Chris Male is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Autism Impact Fund, where he oversees the firm, leads its Tech- and Data-Enabled Services practice, and serves on the boards of auticon, Cortica, Joshin, and SpectrumAi. Prior to AIF, Chris was Managing Director of RBG Capital LLC.Motivated by personal experiences, Chris founded AIF to invest in companies that disrupt the status quo in diagnosing, treating, and living with autism and other complex chronic conditions. As a result, AIF's innovative work has been regularly featured in Forbes, The New York Times, CNBC, Axios, and TechCrunch.Chris holds an M.B.A. in Finance and Strategy from Case Western University's Weatherhead School of Management and a B.A. in History and Economics from Denison University.  

Have you ever wondered what it takes to transition from a successful corporate career to a vibrant role in the world of angel investing and entrepreneurship? In this episode of "The Angel Next Door Podcast," we look into the captivating journey of Amy Jacobs, who took the bold step to leave the world of corporate banking and immerse herself in the dynamic environment of first, nonprofit organizations and now start-ups. Her story is both inspiring and a testament to the power of following one's passion and continuous learning.Amy Jacobs is no stranger to change. Growing up in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio, she journeyed south post-college to Charlotte, where she embarked on a notable career in corporate banking with giants like Bank of America and Ally Bank. However, driven by a yearning to explore new avenues, Amy shifted her focus to the nonprofit sector, taking on pivotal roles within organizations such as the Women's Impact Fund and Share Charlotte. Her dedication eventually led her to the role of Executive Director at Share Charlotte, where she played an instrumental part in linking nonprofits with the wider community through innovative tech solutions. Now, as a relatively new angel investor, she offers her unique insights and experience.Host Marcia Dawood explores Amy's professional evolution, from her tech and nonprofit ventures to her recent foray into angel investing. Amy shares her strategies for navigating the startup landscape, the importance of networking, and the crucial role of understanding both philanthropic and investment communities. This episode is a must-listen for aspiring entrepreneurs and potential angel investors alike, offering valuable lessons on risk-taking, community impact, and the boundless opportunities in the startup world. To get the latest from Amy Jacobs, you can follow her below!LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-jacobs-aa01a920/ Sign up for Marcia's newsletter to receive tips and the latest on Angel Investing!Website: www.marciadawood.comLearn more about the documentary Show Her the Money: www.showherthemoneymovie.comAnd don't forget to follow us wherever you are!Apple Podcasts: https://pod.link/1586445642.appleSpotify: https://pod.link/1586445642.spotifyLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/angel-next-door-podcast/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theangelnextdoorpodcast/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@marciadawood

On December 31, 2025, the current federal lifetime estate and gift tax exemption amount is scheduled to revert to pre-2018 limits, effectively reducing the tax benefit by 50%. This has the potential to greatly impact the asset profitability of investment fund managers and other high-net-worth individuals. Without adequate and timely estate planning, these individuals may miss out on potentially millions of dollars in tax benefits.In this episode of The Drawdown, Marci Spivey, Partner and Private Client Services Leader, welcomes Mike Kirkman, Partner and Estate, Gift and Trust Leader. Also joining the conversation is Clint Costa, Senior Wealth Strategist at Choreo, a wealth management firm and strategic alliance partner of Cherry Bekaert. Together, the team discusses how fund managers, can proactively plan with trusted advisors to protect their assets ahead of the exemption sunset. Related Guidance Article: Use It or Lose It: Estate Tax Exemption “Sunset”  Article: Federal Estate and Gift Tax Exemption Will Sunset After 2025: How to Prepare NowAbout ChoreoChoreo, LLC is an investment adviser registered with the SEC. Registration as an investment adviser does not imply a certain level of skill or training of the adviser or its representatives. This document contains general information, may be based on authorities that are subject to change, and is not a substitute for professional advice or services. This document does not constitute audit, tax, consulting, business, financial, investment, insurance, legal or other professional advice, and you should consult a qualified professional advisor before taking any action based on the information herein. Information has been obtained from a variety of sources believed to be reliable though not independently verified. Choreo, LLC its affiliates and related entities are not responsible for any loss resulting from or relating to reliance on this document by any person.

On December 31, 2025, the current federal lifetime estate and gift tax exemption amount is scheduled to revert to pre-2018 limits, effectively reducing the tax benefit by 50%. This has the potential to greatly impact investment fund managers and other high-net-worth individuals. Without adequate and timely estate planning, these individuals may miss out on potentially millions of dollars in tax benefits.In this episode of The Drawdown, Marci Spivey, Partner and Private Client Services Leader, welcomes Mike Kirkman, Partner and Estate, Gift and Trust Leader. Also joining the conversation is Clint Costa, Senior Wealth Strategist at Choreo, a wealth management firm and strategic alliance partner of Cherry Bekaert. Together, the team discusses how fund managers, can proactively plan with trusted advisors to protect their assets ahead of the exemption sunset. Related Guidance Article: Use It or Lose It: Estate Tax Exemption “Sunset”  Article: Federal Estate and Gift Tax Exemption Will Sunset After 2025: How to Prepare NowAbout ChoreoChoreo, LLC is an investment adviser registered with the SEC. Registration as an investment adviser does not imply a certain level of skill or training of the adviser or its representatives. This document contains general information, may be based on authorities that are subject to change, and is not a substitute for professional advice or services. This document does not constitute audit, tax, consulting, business, financial, investment, insurance, legal or other professional advice, and you should consult a qualified professional advisor before taking any action based on the information herein. Information has been obtained from a variety of sources believed to be reliable though not independently verified. Choreo, LLC its affiliates and related entities are not responsible for any loss resulting from or relating to reliance on this document by any person.

Analise Roland is an impact entrepreneur, neuroscientist, and movement leader in the field of regenerative development. She is the CEO of Anura, a real estate fund that aims to generate financial, social, and environmental returns. She has a deep belief that developments based on regenerative principles can produce substantial returns that benefit the investor, but also the local community and natural environment. With this mindset, we can foster a regenerative economy and a system of regenerative capitalism, that challenges the extractive capitalism which has dominated our era. Analise and show host Neal explore her diverse background, from her childhood spent in the Montana countryside, to her academic pursuits studying neuroscience at Brown University, to her early entrepreneurial ventures in sustainable farming and development. They talk about her experience investing, and communicating the advantages of regenerative economies to traditional investors. They also delve into her current work, including the hospitality fund which, through its various projects will support local communities and environmental projects, through the bioregional hub model. For more information about her work, visit anura.earth.———————-At Latitude, we're more than a real estate firm; we're your partner in the transformation of homes, communities, and habitats towards healthy, resilient, and thriving communities. By combining specialized real estate consulting services with a creative agency model, we work with property stewards and developers on capital and fundraising strategies, team formation, branding, marketing, and sales. ---------Are you a professional wanting to create transformational outcomes with your work? Join the Regenerative Real Estate Community to get access to workshops, regenerative real estate investment opportunities, and connect to other leaders and culture creators within the greater real estate industry to create the impact you seek in your work.

Join host Rashel Hariri in this captivating episode of She's Interesting as she sits down with Zoey McKenzie; former model turned investor and founding partner of Public Ventures. Discover Zoey's journey from her active childhood learning to embrace ADHD to becoming a renowned advocate for health equity and climate preparedness. Next, dive into impact investing and learn how Zoey's $100 million fund drives positive change in climate change, poverty, and health disparities. Zoey shares her non-traditional path to VC and offers valuable insights on building a successful fund. This episode will help you gain practical advice on overcoming imposter syndrome, fundraising for entrepreneurs, and navigating the business world. We also discuss horoscopes and spirituality because a She's Interview wouldn't be complete without examining the human psyche. Scroll down to get links to Zoey's suggested VC and Fund support networks. Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review! In this episode, we discuss:  (02:31) Zoey's Early Years: From a precocious child to discovering her ADHD  (09:15) Tech Passion: Pitch competitions, syndications, and government work  (12:45) Impact Investing Journey: The pivotal moment leading Zoey to health sciences and the UN  (21:20) Building a Fund: Ground-up strategies for fund-raising and reputation building  (31:08) Founder Advice: Tips for raising funds, brand elevation, and building support systems  (34:43) Spiritual Insights: Unveiling spirituality's role in business and embracing your divine plan Let's Keep In Touch:  Newsletter:⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://shesinteresting-newsletter.beehiiv.com/ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠@shesinterestingpodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠@shesinterestingpodcast ⁠⁠⁠Website:⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠shesinteresting.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/shes-interesting-podcast Here's how to keep in touch with Zoey:  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoeydash/  Links and resources mentioned in this episode: CVCA - https://www.cvca.ca/ Venture University -  https://www.venture.university/ VC LAB - https://fi.co/apply/vc/home-trio Fund Launch - https://app.fundlaunch.com/ Music Credits Intro music: Lifeline by Kaleido Sponsors:  Studio Sponsor - CreatorClub Studios Shift Collab - https://www.shiftcollab.com/

What a week, everyone. Two full days of Y Combinator demo day activity kept us busy, but the latest accelerator cohort's launch was far from the only big story in startup-land. Today on the Equity's Friday news roundup, Mary Ann, Becca, and Alex gathered to dig into favorites from the hundreds of new YC companies that pitched, and a new venture capital fund that wants to become “the investment and innovation arm of the autism community.”Becca wanted to talk about Seso and its fascinating fintech play in the agricultural space, while Alex brought Home From College and its recent Seed round to the mix.Then to close out, we chatted through the impending Ibotta and Rubrik IPOs. The latter deal could provide a fascinating heat-check for unprofitable unicorns that need to find some sort of exit, and quickly. All told we chatted through startups from their very earliest form all the way through their most mature. A very fitting capstone to the week! Hit play, and let's have some fun.Equity is TechCrunch's flagship podcast and posts every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. You can subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts.You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.For the full interview transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, read on, or check out our full archive of episodes over at Simplecast. Credits: Equity is hosted by TechCrunch's Alex Wilhelm and Mary Ann Azevedo. We are produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

Fran Marie interviews Patricia Massey Hoke, our Executive Director with The Women's Impact Fund. Their motto and mission is to strengthen communities by maximizing women's leadership in philanthropy through collective giving, education, and engagement. The Women's Impact Fund awards deserving nonprofits with a $5,000 grant that has NO restrictions, and we adore that model of giving in the Carolinas. Shout-out to the hard-working SPARK members for making the world a better place to live. Are you a nonprofit or an individual that would like more meaningful connections? Check them out here.   Women taking on the weight of the world is taxing so always take intentional time to renew yourself before helping others. 

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, we ask: How does a small Barcelona-based startup transform into Spain's second tech unicorn, expanding across 25 countries and impacting millions of lives? Join us as we explore this intriguing journey with Sacha Michaud, co-founder of Glovo. Sacha delves into the fascinating story of Glovo, conceptualized with his co-founder Oscar Pierre. From its inception as a simple delivery service, Glovo has evolved into a multi-faceted platform, offering various products beyond restaurant food - including groceries, flowers, electronics, and even fashion. We'll uncover the strategies and innovations that propelled Glovo to its unicorn status and how it's reshaping the delivery industry. But Glovo's story isn't just about business growth; it's also a tale of social responsibility and positive impact. Sacha shares insights into Glovo's Impact Fund and the groundbreaking Courier's Pledge, initiatives demonstrating a deep commitment to couriers and communities. We'll hear about the significant strides Glovo has made in enhancing the lives of its couriers through social rights, benefits, and learning opportunities. Sacha also sheds light on the vibrant startup scene outside Silicon Valley, particularly in Europe. He offers valuable advice to both burgeoning and established businesses on fostering growth and navigating the challenges of the tech world. As we delve into Glovo's journey from a local startup to a global player, we also discuss the company's acquisition by Delivery Hero and its vision for the future, including the burgeoning field of quick commerce. How does a company like Glovo balance rapid growth with social impact, and what lessons can other businesses learn from their experience? We invite you to join the conversation and share your thoughts on this inspiring story of innovation and responsibility.

Have you ever heard the term “Impact Investing” but weren't sure what it was? If so, you're in luck! Today's episode is divided into two parts. First, the President of the KeHE Cares Foundation, Rusty Bland, will explain what Impact Investing at KeHE means. Then, we will hear from two representatives from Pureflow, a beneficiary of KeHE's Impact Fund, to learn about their incredible lease-to-own motorcycle program in East Africa. You can learn more about Pureflow by visiting their website, www.pureflowboda.com.   

Christ's transforming love compels us to cross cultures, engage the world, and multiply disciples of Jesus.We invite you to join us as we focus on least-reached people groups in several regions around the world. Your gift to the Impact Fund sustains these efforts and so much more.

Have you ever considered the interplay between philanthropy and social entrepreneurship and its power in shaping  Black communities globally? Brace yourself for an eye-opening journey into the heart of the Black philanthropy movement, guided by none other than Dr. Jackie Bouvier Copeland, the brilliant founder of Black Philanthropy Month. We explore her inspiring journey from her roots in a Black community of the '60s and '70s to her groundbreaking initiatives that are now transforming lives in over 60 countries.Discover how passion, resilience, and an unshakeable belief in human potential led to the creation of the Women Invested to Save Earth (WISE) Fund. Dr. Copeland highlights the myriad forms of social finance and how the WISE Fund is championing change by supporting businesses and nonprofits in Black and Indigenous communities. But that's not all. We delve into the nuances of the multi-trillion-dollar social finance industry and how the People's Impact Fund aims to democratize investing, making it accessible to the average person. In the spirit of this year's Black Philanthropy Month, we also immerse ourselves in the deeper currents of love and collective giving. Learn from Dr. Copeland as she elucidates on the transformative power of giving back, creating sustainable change, and investing in our own institutions. As we celebrate Black Philanthropy, we also acknowledge its role in fostering social entrepreneurship and community empowerment. So tune in, get inspired, and discover how to participate in this remarkable movement.Support the show

Our guest this week on the pod is Tanya Beja.  Tanya is a serial entrepreneur passionate about for profits with a social conscience and non-profits with a sustainable business model.  She is a General Partner at AlleyCorp where she leads the Social Impact Team. Resources mentioned in this episode include: AlleyCorp Social Impact AlleyCorp site Robin Hood Foundation Upwage Tom Vozzo interview Social Change Career Podcast New Mexico Impact Investing Collaborative Paul's Strategy Sessions

David Bank catches up with Courageous Capital Advisors' Laurie Spengler to talk about what the mainstreaming of impact investing means for smaller impact fund managers closer to the problems and community-based solutions. Plus, host Brian Walsh has the headlines.  --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/impact-alpha/message

David Bank catches up with Courageous Capital Advisors' Laurie Spengler to talk about what the mainstreaming of impact investing means for smaller impact fund managers closer to the problems and community-based solutions. Plus, host Brian Walsh has the headlines. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/impact-alpha-briefing/message

In this week's episode we have the pleasure of welcoming back Hussain Gandhi, for the fifth year running as a PCN Clinical Director. During the conversation, Gandhi reflects on his time as a Clinical Director, sharing both the achievements and the challenges his PCN has encountered. Gandhi and Ben engage in a discussion about the difficulties associated with adapting to the changes of the IIF, the issues PCNs are currently facing, and challenges such as retention due to financial uncertainty. Gandhi also presents his vision for a ‘hub' and discusses the topic of additional roles, specifically Physician Associates. They talk through the implications of contractual changes and funding issues which have posed significant challenges for practices and PCNs. Finally, Gandhi shares his reflections on the past four to five years of his role as a PCN Clinical Director.   Introduction (0:09)   Gandhi's PCN.. (0:45)   The PCN's biggest achievements (1:19)   Investment and Impact Fund criteria (1:48)   The PCN's ‘lessons learned' (2:52)   Funding changes.. (3:38)   Challenges as a PCN.. (4:13)   Uncertainty.. (5:09)   Additional roles.. (7:38)   Supporting additional roles.. (9:18)   Further challenges as a PCN.. (10:45)   Bureaucracy.. (11:23)   The hub.. (12:06)   The hub's staffing.. (13:08)   Effects of contractual change (13:32)   Funding issues within practices and PCN's.. (15:01)   Disengagement within practices.. (17:04)   Active planning for the future.. (18:29)   Is Gandhi staying? (19:39)   Impact of PCN's on General Practice.. (20:16)   How to move forward? (21:37)   PCN's sustainability in the future.. (23:00)   Gandhi's reflections over the last 4 to 5 years.. (24:10)   For all enquiries about the Ockham podcast, please contact Ben Gowland here.  

“When I started 25 years ago doing this, there was a huge disparity between leadership roles of Latinos in kitchens.”   Chef Aarón Sánchez        Because restaurants are so prolific across the United States, there are many, many jobs in kitchen service, but historically an under-representation of Latinos in chef and managerial positions. Out of the almost 150,000 chefs currently employed in the United States, 60% are white, followed by Latino chefs at 17%.   Chef Aarón Sánchez– who you may recognize as the award-winning chef/owner of Johnny Sánchez in New Orleans, or from culinary TV shows such as FOX's MasterChef, Food Network's Chopped, and Cooking Channel's Taco Trip– knows this from personal experience.    When Chef Aarón started in the restaurant industry 25 years ago, he saw the huge disparity between leadership roles of Latinos in kitchens and thought through what needed to change in order to remove barriers and excuses. In 2016, he founded the Aarón Sánchez Impact Fund to begin closing that diversity gap, offering impactful opportunities that allow Latino youth to move up and be taken seriously.   The Aarón Sánchez Impact Fund began with Chef Aarón and his friends hosting dinners and parties to raise money to fund scholarships for culinary education. The program grew and became more formalized, and in 2022 the Fund formed a partnership with the Emeril Lagasse Foundation, a nationwide program focused on developing and supporting youth; Jennifer Killian was brought on board as Director.   As of 2023, the Aarón Sánchez Impact Fund has awarded almost $1 million in scholarships to 14 individuals. Its stated mission is to uplift the lives of Latino youth across America through food, doing so through three pillars: Culinary Arts Education, Mentorship, and Human Services. “His goal is to help uplift these young Latinos who have the vision to chase a culinary dream, because the kitchen leadership is not as diversified as it should be at this day and age.”   First, the Aarón Sánchez Impact Fund provides scholarships to send young Latinos to award-winning culinary arts education programs in New York City. After they've learned foundational skills and mastered the administrative portions of their curriculum, students spend time with food leaders within different sectors to better define what arena of the food service industry they want to go into, and internships are tailored to their strengths and interests.    Chef Aarón is the primary mentor, but students are encouraged to make a list of people that they admire and would like to learn from. Chef Aarón and Jennifer then work to facilitate those mentoring relationships.    Human services work is the newest arm of the Aarón Sánchez Impact Fund, giving money through grant programs that improve food access, nutrition education, and crisis feeding initiatives. The first human services grant, in conjunction with Hispanic Heritage Month, supported a California school system with a large number of parents working in agriculture. They had been awarded a commercial refrigeration unit through a grant to help provide produce, dairy and meats to students, but lacked the funding to have it professionally installed. The Aarón Sánchez Impact Fund granted gap funding for the installation, helping to triple the amount of produce that these children will be able to access.  “This is the type of work that we would like to do more of as we continue to grow. And of course, that's all based on fundraising. The more we can bring in, the more we can give and the more lives we can change.” Jennifer Killian (22:03-22:14) The Aarón Sánchez Impact Fund welcomes all donations to help support its mission, as well as opportunities to spread its message. No donation is without impact!   You can find out more about the fund at aaronsanchezimpactfund.com, and learn more about Chef Aarón (including the podcast he hosts with his mother, Cooking In Mexican From A to Z) at chefaaronsanchez.com.   How to get involved   Join The Produce Moms Group on Facebook and continue the discussion every week!  Reach out to us - we'd love to hear more about where you are in life and business! Find out more here.    If you liked this episode, be sure to subscribe and leave a quick review on iTunes. It would mean the world to hear your feedback and we'd love for you to help us spread the word!  

Today we happy to welcome Emma Steele from Ascension VC. Emma is a Partner at Ascension's Impact Fund a Seed-stage venture fund focused on creating resilient societies by backing impact driven founders that are driving commercial value and, hopefully, on their way to become the next impact dragons.Ascension has an established portfolio of more than 180 companies and notable investments led by Emma including Wagestream, Credit Kudos and Tembo.

In der Mittagsfolge sprechen wir heute mit Tim Seifferth, CEO und Co-Founder von Eaze, über die erfolgreich abgeschlossene Pre-Seed-Finanzierungsrunde in Höhe von 1,7 Millionen Euro.Eaze hat eine personalisierte Schlaf-Coaching-App entwickelt, die den Usern dabei helfen soll, besser zu schlafen. Die App bietet eine datengesteuerte Online-Behandlung durch qualifizierte Schlafexpertinnen und -experten, die skalierbar gestaltet ist. Die Anwendung nutzt die Methoden der kognitiven Verhaltenstherapie, um Schlafprobleme auch auf langfristige Sicht lösen zu können. Konkret startet das Schlafcoaching mit einem Schlaftest, bei dem eruiert wird, ob die Schlafprobleme psychische Ursachen haben. Im Folgenden wird dem User eine Schlafexpertin im Online-Chat zur Seite gestellt, die anschließend noch individueller die Schlafsituation ergründet. In einem letzten Schritt erstellt die Expertin einen personalisierten Coachingplan, der aus zwei 10-minütigen Techniken in der Woche besteht. Das Startup wurde im Jahr 2022 von Tim Seifferth, Timur Nohut und Noah Nawara in Berlin gegründet. Mittlerweile vertrauen mehr als 1.000 Kundinnen und Kunden auf das datengestützte Schlaf-Coaching. Mit einem besseren Schlaf wird ihnen nicht nur Lebensqualität zurückgegeben, sondern auch psychisches Wohlbefinden, eine höhere Produktivität und eine Verbesserung der langfristigen Gesundheit.Nun hat das Berliner Startup in einer Pre-Seed-Runde 1,7 Millionen Euro unter der Führung von Redstone und dem EnjoyVenture Human Impact Fund eingesammelt. Zu den weiteren Kapitalgebern zählen Barmenia Next Strategies, APX und Business Angels wie Philipp Man und Anton Rummel. Das frische Kapital soll für die Weiterentwicklung der innovativen Schlaf-Coaching-Lösung eingesetzt werden.

In this week's special episode, Jason talks about the Lark Veterinary Impact Fund. He dives deep into many important bullet points: Who is Lark Capital, why he decided to launch a Fund, and most importantly, why now. Listeners will also learn the philosophy behind the Fund, the team that brings it to life, an overview of their investment strategy, and the reasoning behind including small businesses. If you want to know more about Dr. Jason Balara and the Know your Why Podcast: https://linktr.ee/jasonbalara Audio Track: Back To The Wood by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Artist: http://audionautix.com/  

Investing In Companies For Social Impact - Meredith Shields, Citi Impact Fund “We have an allocated pool of capital that we are investing in early stage startups that are solving some of the world's most critical challenges. And…we care just as much about the financial success of the company as we do the impact that that company is going to make on the world. When I say impact… we think about that in two parts. One, who is running this company? Can we deploy more capital into diverse founders, meaning women, people of color, who have traditionally not received the investment capital that's warranted? And the other impact lens that we take is what we would define as ‘thematic impact,' which means, what social problems are we solving?...And again, we care about that just as much, if not more than the financial return.” Meredith Shields on Electric Ladies Podcast To solve the climate and equity crises, we need funders who are willing to back innovative – aka risky – ventures by people who come from different backgrounds with different perspectives. Some big companies are stepping up with venture funds and the like. One of them is Citi Impact Fund, which provides capital for early stage companies by a range of traditionally underserved founders whose companies are seeking to make a positive social impact. Listen to the head of that Fund, Meredith Shields, explain how they work and what they invest in – and much more – on Electric Ladies Podcast in this value-packed interview with host Joan Michelson.  You'll hear: How Citi Impact Fund defines “impact” – and how it fits in their focus. Tips for what to look for in investors for your entity – and why What impact she thinks the SEC's new climate risk disclosure rules mean. What makes up the best board of directors to maximize today's marketplace. Plus, insightful career advice, such as… “My advice is to get really clear about what you're good at and what your functional skillset is, and what your managerial and or leadership skillset is. And then if you want to make a difference, think about where that's needed….As the world has changed and as this notion of impact has changed, there've become more opportunities to use my skillset in different ways, like many different ways that didn't exist previously. But I think you have to be open to that as a concept. And so just again, getting really clear on what are you good at and is that portable? And many, many things are in lots of different arenas.” Meredith Shields on Electric Ladies Podcast Read Joan's Forbes articles here too. You'll also like (some may have been recorded under our previous name, Green Connections Radio): Jean Case, CEO of the Case Foundation, Chair of the National Geographic Society board, on ESG and Impact investing Kristina Wyatt, Chief Sustainability Officer & Deputy General Counsel, Persefoni and former leader of the SEC task force developing the Climate Risk Disclosure rules. Helle Bank Jorgenson, CEO of Competent Boards, on ESG and boards of directors. Shelly Porges, Managing Partner & Cofounder, Beyond the Billion, driving investments in women-founded companies. Julie Gorte, SVP, Sustainable Investing, IMPAX Asset Management on the SEC's proposed climate rules Michele Wucker, author of “You Are What You Risk: The New Art & Science to Navigating an Uncertain World.” Subscribe to our newsletter to receive our podcasts, blog, events and special coaching offers.. Thanks for subscribing on Apple Podcasts or iHeartRadio and leaving us a review! Follow us on Twitter @joanmichelson

With the new fund, Positive Ventures intends to invest in between 20 and 25 companies at the pre-seed and seed levels.

Chad Sutton interviews Bryan Chrisman and Chris Lane. Bryan Chrisman is the Senior Advisor - NCF Network. Prior to joining the team at Impact Foundation, Bryan served as President of The National Christian Foundation Colorado (NCFC) and was a huge proponent for using charitable capital in donor advised funds for impact investing and helping the Impact Foundation launch. As our Senior Advisor, Bryan continues to serve families and encourage other NCF Affiliates to unleash the power of impact investing with the Givers they serve. Prior to NCF, Bryan spent 26 years launching two start-up life insurance companies. Bryan currently lives in Kitty Hawk, NC with his wife Suzanne.  Chris Lane is the Executive Director for Miami, South Florida, National Christian Foundation, where she develops an outreach plan to serve Miami with tangible expressions of Christ's love, uniting churches and ministries behind a common cause, working as well with local leaders to meet a felt need in the community.   Learn more about ALTERNATIVE BUSINESS and INVESTMENT STRATEGIES through QUATTRO CAPITAL!   LinkedIn: /TeamQuattroCapital Instagram: @TeamQuattroCapital Facebook: @TeamQuattroCapital Website: www.TheQuattroWay.com    [00:00 - 07:22] Maximizing Your Giving: National Christian Foundation • Introducing Chris and Bryan to the show • The National Christian Foundation (NCF) is a non-profit organization that helps individuals maximize their giving through personalized service and expert strategies. • NCF has been around for 40 years and has mobilized over $15 billion to over 71,000 charities. • NCF offers a Donor Advised Fund, which is an easier alternative to starting a private foundation and allows for complex gifts.   [07:22 - 15:50] The Benefits of Donor Advised Funds vs Private Foundations for Charitable Giving • Donor advised funds offer higher deduction limits than private foundations for cash gifts and non-cash assets • National Christian Foundation offers a "charitable checking account" for simplified giving and management of donations • Complex gifts, such as interest in a business or real estate, can be donated to donor advised funds for tax benefits and ongoing revenue streams for charity • Donor advised funds handle compliance and operational tasks, eliminating the need for a private foundation team • Donating complex gifts to a donor advised fund can create ongoing revenue streams for charity.   [15:50 - 23:31] Unlocking Tax Advantages • National Christian Foundation (NCF) offers tax advantages for pre-tax giving • Selling shares through NCF's donor advised fund can result in significantly more proceeds than selling independently and paying capital gains taxes • It is advisable to contact NCF's gift planning team before selling any assets to optimize tax benefits and increase charitable giving • How NCF's expertise and national team make pre-tax giving simple and easy • Donors can involve their legal, CPA, and financial advisor teams in the process with unlimited questions and reassurances from NCF   [23:31 - 31:39] National Christian Foundation's Impact Fund allows donors to invest in redemptive and transformational enterprises with their charitable capital • NCF assists donors in deploying their gifts effectively • Donor advised funds allow for flexibility in giving • NCF checks the status of charities to ensure the legitimacy • NCF provides options and guidance for giving choices • Impact fund allows for investment in businesses with social or spiritual impact   [31:39 - 38:13] National Christian Foundation offers tax-efficient solutions for efficient giving and impact investing. • National Christian Foundation offers a tax-efficient way to donate pre-tax dollars through a donor advised fund • They have a team to help deploy your donation and find the best place for it in the community • NCF also offers an impact fund for equity investments in good causes • Impact Foundation offers opportunities for impact investments using charitable capital   Quotes:  "It really helps Christians steward their resources well and allows givers to support causes that God places in their hearts." - Chris Lane "Talk about building a river for charity, not just a cash infusion." - Chad Sutton  "Putting the right army and village behind you with the knowledge know-how in vehicles to really be the most efficient with your pre-tax even giving dollars, it's gonna be amazing to see what you can do with it." - Chad Sutton "If you don't remember anything about this podcast, don't sell without first contacting the National Christian Foundation." - Bryan Chrisman   Resources Mentioned: Book: An Uncommon Guide of Retirement by Jeff Haanen Impact Foundation   Connect with Bryan through LinkedIn or visit Impact Foundation Connect with Chris through LinkedIn, or visit National Christian Foundation   LEAVE A 5-STAR REVIEW + help someone who wants to explode their business growth by sharing this episode. Find out how team Quattro can help you by visiting www.TheQuattroWay.com. Real Estate Runway Podcast is all about alternative business and investment strategies to help you amplify life, and maximize wealth! Click here to find out more about the host, Chad Sutton.  

Today we Steven Libman on the show! Do you want to learn from a real estate investing pro who has launched his first fund and is raising $500 million? Learn the secrets to success that Steven Libman has gained over 12 years of real estate investing experience. In this episode you will learn; Steven's journey into real estate investing, why he and his partner chose to shift to a fund model, their focus on impact investing, what their requirements are for partnering on deals. Listen and learn! For links and resources discussed in this episode, please visit our show notes at https://darinbatchelder.com/real-estate-equity  

In der Rubrik “Investments & Exits” begrüßen wir heute Lisa Liu, Investment Manager bei UVC Partners. Lisa spricht über die Finanzierungsrunden von AMSilk und HeatTransformers sowie über Polestar Capital:Der Münchener Hersteller von Seidenbiopolymeren AMSilk hat in seiner Series-C-Finanzierungsrunde weitere 25 Millionen Euro eingesammelt und insgesamt 54 Millionen Euro erreicht. MSilk setzt auf die Produktion von pflanzlichen Rohstoffen für Anwendungen in verschiedenen Branchen wie der Bekleidungs-, Luftfahrt-, Schuh- und Automobilindustrie sowie als chirurgische Biotech-Materialien. Die Erweiterungsrunde der Serie C wurde vom bestehenden Investor ATHOS (AT Newtec) angeführt, mit Beteiligung von Novo Holdings, Cargill und MIG Capital über seine MIG-Fonds. Das Unternehmen will das Geld nutzen, um die industrielle Produktion und den Vertrieb seiner biologisch hergestellten Seidenproteinmaterialien zu erweitern. Die niederländische Investmentgesellschaft Polestar Capital erhöht ihren Circular Debt Fund um 85 Millionen Euro auf insgesamt 187 Millionen Euro, um innovative Unternehmen bei der Entwicklung neuer Lösungen für eine kreislauforientierte Zukunft zu unterstützen. Der Fonds investiert in innovative Kreislaufprojekte, die das Potenzial haben, weltweit positive ökologische Wirkungen zu erzielen. Der staatliche niederländische Impact-Investor Invest-NL und die Versicherer Onderlinge s'Gravenhage und De Hoop haben bereits in eine neue Investition in Höhe von 85 Mio. EUR investiert, die Provinz Limburg hat ihre Investitionsentscheidung getroffen, befindet sich aber noch im Prozess der Formalisierung ihrer Beteiligung. Das niederländische Unternehmen HeatTransformers hat 15 Millionen Euro in einer Series-A-Finanzierung erhalten, um sein Wärmepumpengeschäft auf Deutschland und Großbritannien auszuweiten und seine Belegschaft zu erweitern. Die Finanzierungsrunde wurde von Energy Impact Partners geleitet und schließt die bestehenden Investoren Fair Capital Partners' Impact Fund und ENERGIIQ ein. Das Unternehmen begleitet seine Kunden bei der Beratung, Installation, Optimierung und Wartung von Wärmepumpen mit dem Ziel, die Verbreitung von Wärmepumpen auf dem gesamten Kontinent zu steigern.

This week on Mills on the Mic, host Jen Mills and Hannah Kay are talk about their experience volunteering at the East Valley Animal Shelter through the Chargers Community and the Chargers Impact Fund. They discuss the amazing initiatives the Chargers Impact Fund has provided to the shelter, such as the donation of funds to create two large play areas, the donation of treats and fleece blankets, and even the payment of adoption fees. They also discuss the heartbreaking experience of seeing scared animals in the shelter and the importance of volunteering at animal shelters. Finally, Jen and Hannah shares how to get involved in volunteer opportunities and how to adopt a pet. Tune in this week to learn more about giving back and to hear Jen and Hannah's fun stories from their volunteer experience.Story Notes:Charger's Impact Fund partnered with East Valley Animal Shelter to volunteerThousands of applicants wanting to volunteer at the animal shelterChargers donated items for adoptions and hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony with city officials and playersTwo play yards created with fresh turf and paddingDogs were scared in the kennels but were more playful in the play yardsFor people interested in volunteering look up local animal shelters and get on the waitlistComment on video to be chosen for two free pet adoptions with Mills On the MicConnect With Jen on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JenniferMills21

Host Jeremy C. Park talks with D'Juan Epps, Executive Director of the Anchor Impact Fund, how highlights the impact-driven nonprofit organization developing and educating Vanderbilt student-athletes as community leaders, and uniting them with charities and donors.During the interview, D'Juan discusses name, image, likeness (NIL) and how it has impacted college athletics and specifically, Vanderbilt. He talks about the work the Anchor Impact Fund is doing to educate student-athletes and connect them with nonprofit causes so they can use their platforms to make a difference in the community. He also shares why this work is important not just for the student-athletes, nonprofits and Vanderbilt supporters, but for the larger community, as a whole; and then talks about how the community can get involved and support their efforts.The Anchor Impact Fund is a Tennessee 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation formed for charitable and educational purposes to promote community engagement and strengthen local community charitable organizations and initiatives. Specifically, the Anchor Impact Fund provides opportunities for Vanderbilt student-athletes to learn about community and civic engagement and use their name, image and likeness to participate in and promote local charitable causes. This initiative will also bring much-needed public awareness and attention primarily to underserved local community organizations and initiatives.Twitter:                  https://twitter.com/anchorimpactWebsite:                https://anchorimpactfund.org/Instagram:             https://www.instagram.com/anchorimpact/

Startup กับ VC ถือเป็นของคู่กัน เพราะการเข้าถึงแหล่งเงินทุน สำหรับ startup บางรายแล้ว ถือเป็นสิ่งที่สำคัญมาก โดยเฉพาะอย่างยิ่ง Startup ที่มุ่งแก้ปัญหาของโลก ไม่ว่าจะเป็นเรื่องความเหลื่อมล้ำ หรือเรื่องโลกร้อน Startup เหล่านี้จะอยู่รอดได้อย่างไร วันนี้คุณเจน ไพลิน สันติชัยเวคิน Investment Manager จาก Disrupt Impact Fund จะมาเล่าให้ฟัง ว่ากองทุนเพื่อโลกกองนี้ ตั้งขึ้นมาเพื่ออะไร ติดตามได้ในตอนนี้ครับ . คำถาม - Fund, VC คืออะไรและมีความสำคัญอย่างไร  - Impact Fund ต่างกับ Fund อื่นๆ อย่างไร - Startup ใน port หรือการลงทุนเพื่อโลกเนี่ย จะได้กำไรจริงไหม - สิ่งที่มองหามาเข้า port ดูอะไรบ้าง - อนาคตอยากดูด้านไหนเป็นพิเศษบ้าง . #missiontothemoonpodcast #TechMondayPodcast . . ติดตาม Mission To The Moon Media ได้ที่  . Website: https://bit.ly/3oHFe99 Facebook: https://bit.ly/32Oe4nW Twitter: https://bit.ly/2TyBOH6 Blockdit: https://bit.ly/3jI0pEk YouTube: https://bit.ly/2TyTXVg TikTok: https://bit.ly/35Gq8aX SoundCloud: https://bit.ly/3e4Tzax Podbean: https://bit.ly/3oCqU1g Spotify: https://spoti.fi/37MNajh Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/3oK1JKy Instagram: https://bit.ly/2OMR30a Clubhouse: @mttmclub

Click Here to read Marcia's profile on LinkedInClick here to read Jenny Lane's profile on LinkedInClick here to learn more about the Ohio Impact FundClick here to learn more about SSBCIClick here to learn more about JobsOhioClick here to find out more about the Angel Capital AssociationTake courses to learn how to be an angel investor at Angel University - click here for info!Want to reach the Angel Capital Association? CLICK HEREHave ideas for the show?  Email us at theacaangelnextdoorpodcast@gmail.com

In our latest TPM episode, Aarón Sánchez joins us, who's an award-winning chef, TV personality, author, and philanthropist who founded the Aarón Sánchez Impact Fund as a means to support Latino youth across the United States. Jennifer Killian also joins the pod, who is responsible for identifying critical funding that supports Chef Aarón Sánchez's philanthropic initiatives, as well as managing his impact programs for Latino youth.  Also learn how, The Emeril Lagasse Foundation joined forces with renowned Chef Aarón Sánchez to help create the Aarón Sánchez Impact Fund and more! To keep up with the latest in the produce industry, be sure to follow The Produce Moms on all of your favorite platforms, including our blog, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok accounts. You can also watch The Produce Moms Podcast here.

Shalini Chhabra is the Managing Partner at 3i (Impact India Investments) Partners, a Silicon Valley-based Impact Fund with the objective of supporting enterprises looking to solve some of the most pressing challenges faced by India's lower-income millions. She is a seasoned Banker with over two decades of experience in Credit Risk Management. She has managed diverse portfolios including Large Corporate, Inter-bank, SME, Financial Institutions including Mutual Funds and Insurance, Government / PSUs, and Structured Finance including Supply Chain Financing, Factoring, Securitisation, Inter-bank Participation etc. She has also managed Risk Policy and processes, Basel Implementation and Development of Risk models for PD estimation for HDFC Bank. She is huge proponent of gender equality, and currently mentors young students with AFH (“Aspire for Her”), hoping to bring about the change in perspective and reduce, if not eliminate the various self-limiting reasons for success by Women. Prior to becoming a VC, Shalini was also an experienced angel in the impact space, primarily looking at livelihoods creation at the Bottom of the Pyramid.Episode notes:1. Career in banking (3:34)2. Learning from the banking sector that Shalini has carried over to VC (6:25)3. Framework for risk appetite (18:05)4. What has Shalini learned about herself as a result of her work in banking and venture capital? (28:42)5. Shalini discusses what it takes to be a fund manager and success frameworks for operators (44:50)6. Shalini's professional career (58:50)7. Shalini's views on investing in personas (1:05:24). . . Social Links: 3i Partners on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/3i-partners-india/Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vcAkash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakashPodcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivcAkash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Christa Williams-Collett is a Principal Investor at Citigroup's Impact Fund. She makes direct investments in double bottom line companies and venture capital firms. Prior to joining Citi, Christa was an investment banker at RBC Capital Markets and J.P. Morgan focused on technology transactions. She is a graduate of Columbia Business School in New York and resides in San Francisco. Follow Christa on Twitter @ChristaWCollett.

Eric Rice is Head of Impact Investing at BlackRock and the portfolio manager and the architect of the world's first diversified public markets impact investing strategy, Global Impact.  Global Impact is an alpha-oriented strategy that invests in companies whose goods and services help address the world's great problems, as defined by the UN Sustainable Development Goals.  He also collaborates with other investors at BlackRock to help germinate additional impact and sustainable investment strategies.Blackrock is the world's largest asset manager, which has reported more than US $10 trillion in AUM as of January 2022. Eric grew up in Berkeley, California, and studied close to home at the University of California Berkeley, where he was awarded an AB degree in economics. He began his career as a Diplomat in Rwanda with the U.S Department of State. It was during this posting that Eric quickly became aware that he wanted to do development work and projects that would make a difference.Following his posting in Rwanda, Eric went on to earn a PhD in Economics at Harvard University.  He then spent several years as a country economist at the World Bank, then moved on to Wellington Management, where he transitioned into portfolio management and eventually got permission to launch an impact fund strategy that he proposed after explaining what exactly sustainable investing was. Eventually, he and his Sustainability team at Wellington Management landed at Blackrock in 2019, where he designed and launched the world's first diversified public market impact investing strategy. In this episode, Eric discusses Impact Investing in the context of a public equity fund and how, with the Global Impact Fund, he has worked to take the very best characteristics of impact investing that have been developed over the years in the private market and adapted them to public equity investing, to create an authentic impact strategy.Show notes: https://sri360.com/podcast/eric-riceAbout the SRI 360° Podcast: The SRI 360° Podcast is focused exclusively on sustainable & responsible investing. In each episode, Scott Arnell interviews a world-class investor who is an accomplished practitioner from all asset classes. In my interviews, I cover everything from their early personal journeys—and what motivated and attracted them to commit their life energy to SRI—to insights on how they developed and executed their investment strategies and what challenges they face today. Each episode is a chance to go way below the surface with these impressive people and gain additional insights and useful lessons from professional investors. Connect with SRI 360°: Sign up for the free weekly email update: https://sri360.com/newsletter/ Visit the SRI 360° PODCAST: https://sri360.com/podcast/ Visit the SRI 360° WEBSITE: https://sri360.com/ Follow SRI 360° on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/SRI360Growth/Follow SRI 360° on FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/SRI360Growth/

Join Lori and her guest, Dianne Bailey, as they discuss how philanthropy can be for anyone. Dianne is the national philanthropic strategy executive at Bank of America. She talks about the joy of working with a company that aligns with your values and also gets into how she got so deeply involved with philanthropy. Stay tuned!   Here are the things to expect in this episode: What do philanthropic strategists do? How Dianne's mom became an inspiration for doing social work and philanthropy Having the privilege of working with a focus on the power of women. Interesting trends with philanthropy.  And much more!   Connect with Dianne! LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/diannechippsbailey/  Women's Impact Fund in Charlotte: https://womensimpactfund.org/  Bank of America Philanthropic Strategy: https://about.bankofamerica.com/en/making-an-impact/charitable-foundation-funding  Twitter: https://twitter.com/dianne_c_bailey    Bank of America Study of Philanthropy Article: https://www.privatebank.bankofamerica.com/articles/2021-bank-of-america-study-how-affluent-households-gave-back-in-2020.html    Connect with Lori Kranczer! Website: https://linkphilanthropic.com Email: info@linkphilanthropic.com 

Autism Impact Fund (“AIF”) Founder Chris Male aims to become the investment and innovation arm of the autism community. AIF's mission is to revolutionize diagnosing, treating and living with autism through a venture capital model. With 1 in 44 children in the US diagnosed on the autism spectrum, over $350 billion in direct spend (over $60,000 per child with autism) and an 85% unemployment rate for autistic adults, AIF hopes to harness the power of the capital markets to create transformational change for people on the spectrum and with other neurodiverse challenges. AIF is advised by silicon valley heavyweights like Emergence Capital's Brian Jacobs and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.

ENA member Karen Jansky-Koll didn't want to wait too long to help pay it forward to emergency nurses, so she worked with the ENA Foundation and its Impact Fund program to make scholarship funds more immediately available.

Kerry Bannigan is a social entrepreneur, and the Founder of The Fashion Impact Fund as well as The Conscious Fashion Campaign. The mission is to support female founders in the fashion industry, advancing education, media, and workforce development programs to accelerate women's economic empowerment and leadership. She's also working in collaboration with the United Nations Office for Partnerships developing solutions to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Heart Stock is a production of KBMF 102.5 and underwritten by Purse for the People

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: The Maximum Impact Fund is now the Top Charities Fund, published by GiveWell on September 8, 2022 on The Effective Altruism Forum. Author: Elie Hassenfeld, GiveWell Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer We've decided to rename the Maximum Impact Fund to better describe what opportunities this fund supports. The Maximum Impact Fund will now be called the Top Charities Fund. We recently announced changes to our top charity criteria that include a new requirement for our top charities: that we have a high degree of confidence in our expectations about the impact of their programs. Alongside this update, we also introduced a new giving option, the All Grants Fund. The All Grants Fund supports the full range of GiveWell's grantmaking and can be allocated to any grant that meets our cost-effectiveness bar—including opportunities outside of our top charities and riskier grants with high expected value.[1] The new All Grants Fund is a complement to what we have called our Maximum Impact Fund, which is granted to cost-effective opportunities among our top charities. However, we've received feedback that describing the fund that supports grantmaking only to our top charities as having “Maximum Impact” is confusing in light of the opportunity to support a wider range of opportunities (with potentially higher expected value) through the All Grants Fund. Based on this feedback, we've decided to change the name of the Maximum Impact Fund to the Top Charities Fund. Only the name is changing—we aren't making any further changes to the underlying fund beyond those discussed in our previous post, so any incoming donations designated for the Maximum Impact Fund will automatically be allocated to the Top Charities Fund. We will continue to use donations to this fund to support the highest-priority funding needs among our top charities each quarter. As before, we will apply the same cost-effectiveness bar across our grantmaking, regardless of whether the funding comes from the All Grants Fund or Top Charities Fund. We appreciate everyone who provided feedback and hope that the new name provides more clarity about how donations to our funds will be used. More details about our funds and their impact are here. Thanks for listening. To help us out with The Nonlinear Library or to learn more, please visit nonlinear.org.

New Majority Capital is one of a new crop of emerging impact investment firms that are turning to crowdfunding platforms such as Republic and Wefunder to overcome historic barriers to fundraising. New Majority's Havell Rodrigues speaks with Dennis Price about how the approach has worked for them, and the strategy they're using to seed a new generation of diverse entrepreneurs (3:00). Plus the headlines. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/impact-alpha/message

New Majority Capital is one of a new crop of emerging impact investment firms that are turning to crowdfunding platforms such as Republic and Wefunder to overcome historic barriers to fundraising. New Majority's Havell Rodrigues speaks with Dennis Price about how the approach has worked for them, and the strategy they're using to seed a new generation of diverse entrepreneurs (3:00). Plus the headlines. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/impact-alpha-briefing/message

Samara Mejia Hernandez of Chingona Ventures joins Nick to discuss Lessons from the Largest Latina Solo GP, Being Impactful Without Being an Impact Fund, and How to Use Sales Tactics for Success in VC. In this episode we cover: How Authenticity Benefits the Bottom Dollar Tips on Raising a Fund While Facing Adversity Maintaining Mental Health in VC And more! Missed a recent episode? Go to The Full Ratchet blog and catch up! Also, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. The host of The Full Ratchet is Nick Moran, General Partner of New Stack Ventures, a venture capital firm committed to investing in founders outside of the Bay Area. Learn more about New Stack Ventures by visiting our Website. Also, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter! Founders, are you frustrated by trying to find the ideal VC's for your stage, sector, and geography? Answer five questions with VC Rank and generate your customized list now.

One of the worst things you can say to an African parent is: I don't want to be a doctor, lawyer or accountant. I want to be an artist!In Africa, being an artist doesn't carry the same prestige as other professions. But musicians, painters, filmmakers, and designers all have a huge influence on the way the world sees Africa.In this episode, Claude Grunitzky talks to an investor in the creative industries, a museum director and a DJ. He asks: Isn't it time for Africans to respect artists?Sonia Lawson is the Director of the Palais of Lome, Togo's first art centre. She explains why it's important to exhibit local artists where their family and local community can appreciate their art. Roberta Annan from Ghana runs several investment and venture capital funds including the Impact Fund for African Creatives and the African Fashion Foundation. For her, respect comes down to money! She's passionate about helping creative people turn their ideas into successful businesses. DJ Elly is working and actually making a living as an artist. She is one of Angola's biggest DJs. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Corporate campaigns for chicken welfare are 10,000 times as effective as GiveWell's Maximum Impact Fund?, published by Vasco Grilo on July 28, 2022 on The Effective Altruism Forum. Summary This analysis estimates the cost-effectiveness of corporate campaigns for chicken welfare (CCCW), and compares it with that of GiveWell's Maximum Impact Fund (MIF) (see Methodology). The results were obtained with this Colab, and the key ones are summarised in the table below (for more, see Results). Comments about how to interpret them are welcome. The mean ratio between the cost-effectiveness of CCCW and MIF is estimated to be 10 k (i.e. 10^4). The specific value depends on very uncertain parameters, such as the ones defining the badness of the conditions of factory-farmed chickens relative to the goodness of fully healthy chicken life, and the moral weight. However, it appears to be robustly larger than 1 (see Discussion). ResultMeanMedianImprovement in the conditions of broilers (cQALY/cyear)1.120.505Improvement in the conditions of laying hens (cQALY/cyear)1.410.806Improvement in the conditions of chickens (cQALY/cyear)1.370.783Improvement in the conditions of broilers (%)45.449.8Improvement in the conditions of laying hens (%)64.665.2Improvement in the conditions of chickens (%)62.863.4Moral weight of chickens relative to humans (QALY/cQALY)2.410.0180Cost-effectiveness of CCCW for broilers (QALY/$)64.40.0269Cost-effectiveness of CCCW for laying hens (QALY/$)2040.656Cost-effectiveness of CCCW (QALY/$)1510.494Ratio between the cost-effectiveness of CCCW and MIF12.2 k38.9 Acknowledgements Thanks to Cynthia Schuck-Paim, Kieran Greig, Lewis Bollard, and Saulius Simcikas. Introduction About 2 year ago Stephen Clare and Aidan Goth (S&A) published an analysis comparing the cost-effectiveness of The Humane League (THL) and Against Malaria Foundation (AMF). The analysis presented here has the same motivation of better allocating resources between different causes (namely, animal welfare and global health and development). In addition, it relies on data from the Welfare Footprint Project (WFP; overviewed here) to model more accurately the relative improvement in the conditions of broilers and laying hens. Methodology The ratio between the cost-effectiveness of CCCW and MIF was calculated via a Monte Carlo simulation in this Colab. All distributions were assumed to be independent, and their parameters were estimated from quantiles as explained here. The methodology to determine the cost-effectiveness of CCCW and MIF, and assess room for more funding are presented below. Cost-effectiveness of corporate campaigns for chicken welfare The cost-effectiveness of CCCW was based on its cage-free campaigns, and determined from the product between: The cost of improving the conditions of chickens (cyear/$). The improvement in the conditions of chickens (cQALY/cyear). The moral weight of chickens relative to humans (QALY/cQALY). Cost of improving the conditions of chickens The cost of improving the conditions of chickens was supposed to follow a lognormal distribution with 5th and 95th percentiles in cyear/$ equal to: For broilers, 0.2 and 90. For laying hens, 12 and 160. For both combined, 9.6 and 120. These are the lower and upper bound of the 90 % subjective confidence interval estimated for the cost-effectiveness of "broiler and cage-free campaigns" in this analysis from Saulius Simcikas. Potential concerns with those estimates are discussed here. Improvement in the conditions of chickens The improvement in the conditions of chickens were calculated assuming weights of: 12 % for changing broilers from a conventional scenario (CS) to a reformed scenario (RS). 88 % for changing laying hens from conventional cages (CC) to cage-free aviaries (CFA). The fractions above were computed with the Guessti...

Grace 'Ori' Kwan (Orca Co-Founder) joins The Zeitgeist to discuss design at Orca and how she approaches building for the Web3 ecosystem. Show Notes00:05 - Intro00:39 - Ori's background / working at IDEO04:20 - Human centered design in Crypto06:03 - The design process at Orca07:37 - Sourcing for UX research09:11 - The culture at Orca10:28 - Qualitative vs quantitative feedback11:55 - Orca's success12:55 - The magic bar14:02 - Branding14:26 - Whirlpools 17:31 - Who is the target user?19:07 - Branding in Crypto20:50 - Advice for designers looking to crack into Web 3.022:01 - Building a new product at Orca23:10 - Climate impact work at Orca24:47 - Working with co-founder, YutaroTranscriptJisi (00:06):Hi, everyone. Welcome to The Zeitgeist, the show where we highlight the founders, developers and designers who are pushing the Web 3.0 Industry forward. I'm Jisi Guo, design lead at Phantom, and I'm incredibly excited to introduce Grace Ori Kwan. Ori is the co-founder of Orca, the most user-friendly decentralized exchange on Solana. Ori, thanks so much for being with us today.Ori (00:27):Really a pleasure.Jisi (00:28):Yeah, you are actually in Japan. Am I correct?Ori (00:32):Yeah, I'm currently in Japan. I usually bounce around a lot, but lucky enough to be here for the spring.Jisi (00:37):Nice. That's amazing. Tell us a little bit about your background. How did you get exposed to crypto and Web 3.0?Ori (00:45):It's a funny story, actually. I was never really into crypto for most of my life. In fact, I was one of those people who really didn't care about money in any form besides just using it to survive. But it all really happened during COVID where actually in Tokyo I moved into a shared house, which is pretty common in Tokyo actually, where adults who are looking for a more communal living place will move into this type of shared apartment situation. Right across the hall from me was my co-founder, Yutaro. One thing led to another with COVID and the lockdown. We were all bored, and we were like, "Should we try building something together?" Yutaro was like, "Well, if we're going to build something, I'm only interested if it's crypto," and so it went from there.Jisi (01:33):Wow. That's insane. That's awesome. How did you start, were there different side projects that you started with, or was Orca the first project that you thought of?Ori (01:45):It definitely was not. We went in with zero intention of ever starting a company. I think because my background's from Stanford, everyone's like, "Oh, you probably wanted to be an entrepreneur your whole life," but that's totally not the case. I didn't really have that plan. I'd always seen an entrepreneurial lifestyle as very tiring and probably something that I wouldn't be suited for. So it really was just like, "Hey, let's start hacking on some projects on the side." Our first project, which we sometimes joke about was really just a little weekend thing. We made it like a little quiz that told you which crypto you were. It was supposed to be one of those Facebook shareable ones.Ori (02:20):Then it led to hacking on apps and Ethereum. Then, when defi summer came and the gas fees became really insane on Ethereum, that's when we started really taking notice of the other options available and landed on Solana.Jisi (02:34):Nice. That's amazing. What crypto were you on that quiz? I'm just curious.Ori (02:41):I think I was Bitcoin. Yeah. Maybe I was more traditionally minded at the time.Jisi (02:47):You were the OG. Nice.Ori (02:49):Yeah.Jisi (02:51):Yeah. Well, it's pretty nice to chat with you because a lot of people know you as a design founder within crypto, and it seems like there are very few designers within Web 3.0 and you previously even have experience working at IDEO. Could you tell me a little bit about that?Ori (03:10):For sure, yeah. IDEO was actually a culture shock for me, because I had spent my entire career before that more in engineering-driven places, and I started my career as an engineer. I studied computer science, worked at Coursera, really building fronted applications on the web. Then it was in New York that I started working across design and engineering, this feeling like I wanted to be kind of higher up in the decision-making process, higher up in ensuring that the products we were developing were really going to be useful to people. But at IDEO, it's not entirely a consulting business, but I was working on the consulting side and especially in IDEO Tokyo, that particular office, a lot of it was really about inspiring clients, which is an art in itself.Ori (03:56):I learned so much about storytelling, about working with different types of clients and people who have very different mindsets and backgrounds, but it was not as much about shipping products that are really used by people every single day. I quickly learned that my passion is creating products that real people are getting real value out of, which led me to crypto, because nobody is here in crypto just to play around or be inspired necessarily. People want results is my sense of the space.Jisi (04:30):Yeah, for sure. I recently read your op-ed in CoinDesk and it was really interesting. You were talking a lot about bringing human-centered design to crypto. Can you talk a little bit more about that?Ori (04:50):Yeah. Thank you so much for reading the op-ed. It was actually my first time writing one for this type of magazine, so it was really a fun experience, fun and stressful. But human-centered design, it's a fuzzy thing, but really what I think of it as is focusing on building products that solve needs for people, which sounds so obvious. But when you look at many technology products, especially crypto products, you can really see how the design is accommodating the technology.Ori (05:20):As an engineer, it's very easy for me to see how "Oh, well the data structure or the data is structured in this way and it's being returned from the API in this way, so let's just build a UI that spits that out with as little effort as possible to transform that into something that humans can actually make sense of, which results in people just thinking crypto is scary and complicated." At the end of the day, what I think human-centered design is about is keeping in touch with humans throughout the entire process, starting your design and product building journey by thinking about something humans need, continually showing your wire frames, your high-fi designs to people, getting their feedback and thinking very deeply about what the type of person you're trying to build for is.Jisi (06:04):Yeah, that's amazing. That's especially relevant because Orca as a DEX, it's a complicated subject matter, but you're known as one of the most easy-to-use DEXs on Solana and being able to really hone in on the user and make that more approachable is super relevant. Could you talk a little bit about the design process that you use at Orca and how do you get insights into what users are trying to do and to make something that they want?Ori (06:36):It all starts with interviews. That sounds very formal, but a lot of the time it's really just like my co-worker's friend who happens to really fit the profile of who we're trying to target, and sometimes I like to categorize it this way. For example, we have this friend of a friend like Humphrey, who's a little bit of a Degen, but maybe it doesn't have that many hours a day to spend. So sometimes I'd be like, "Oh, we're designing for a Humphrey right now," or, "We're designing for an Elise right now." So I'll start by like finding the type of people who we think we are trying to cater to and just having a conversation with them.Ori (07:08):I think the art of design research is something that I've been very blessed to have experience by working at small startups where designers wear every single hat. So it is about asking these open-ended questions to really just understand what really makes people tick? What they're really looking for, and you won't necessarily get that by just showing someone a design. I think starting actually without even a piece of visual to come from is usually where I begin, so it becomes very exploratory, but then it's about distilling the insights from that open-ended conversation, understanding the needs. Then I go into wire framing, talking to people again, getting feedback, and rinse and repeat all the way until we have hi-fi designs that we deem good enough; not perfect, but good enough.Jisi (07:54):Yeah. It seems like you have identified people that are your target personas and you're able to interview them and maybe even observe them and give feedback directly from them, which is amazing. It feels like it's difficult to do that kind of UX research within crypto because a lot of times users are anonymous or you're not quite sure what cohort they may be in. Are there any tips or tricks that you've had and enable to sourcing for that UX research?Ori (08:25):I don't hold our candidate sourcing to the same level of fidelity that a very large firm might, because I think it's honestly not necessary. A lot of the types of people that we're looking for are often in our circles, just because maybe I wasn't, but certainly Yutaro and a lot of our team are just in these circles of Degens who love to spend time on this stuff. I think just talking to maybe three to five people usually get a pretty good representative sample, just keeping in mind that everyone carries their own bias and not necessarily trying to identify Humphrey's particular needs and build exactly for those, but more to identify the larger patterns, and also to practice the general design research practices of encouraging the person to speak their mind, encouraging the person to say critical things. I do avoid, I guess, interviewing usually first-degree connections. Someone you're a little bit too good of friends with, I think can affect the results, but someone who is mostly a stranger, but is a friend of a friend is usually fine.Jisi (09:33):Yeah. I think that really makes sense, and especially when you're building a product that you yourself use, you can do some testing through people within the company or people that are friends of friends, and so that's pretty nice. I'm curious, how have you been able to instill this design culture within Orca as a whole?Ori (09:55):Yeah. I think that question is actually funny to me in a way, because I think everyone at Orca embraces the ethos of user friendliness and it's something that they're very passionate about, but actually nobody else does design at Orca. I'm the only person who does any of the design, and so in some ways, it's actually a design monoculture, I guess, because it's mostly me, which in some ways, is shocking to me that I could just design this thing and put it out there and people would love it, because it hasn't gone through endless rounds of design review, and there isn't a design boss telling me what I should tweak, which is actually very new to me.Ori (10:34):I guess what the culture that I've tried to instill, which I think is, you could call it a human-centered design culture as well, is just being accepting of our mistakes and this culture that everything is a trial and error, which I think I really learned actually from my engineering manager at this startup I worked at in New York called Button, where everything he'd do, he'd be like, "Okay, we're just going to try this. It's a two-way door. We'll put it out there for two weeks, and if it doesn't work out, we'll just go back the other way." I try to instill that in everything, and when I share designs with the company, I'm not like, "This is the right way," but I'm like, "This is what we're trying."Jisi (11:11):When you get that feedback, is it mostly qualitative or quantitative? How do you gauge where to go off from those initial designs?Ori (11:23):I would say it's mostly qualitative in the past. We're getting more and more quantitative in our analysis, starting to look more at things like daily active wallets, starting to look more at geographic breakdowns, et cetera. But one of the things about DeFi is that there is no KYC, so it's impossible to know in a very precise way what your users are doing. I think for a giant product like Facebook, it makes more sense to get really granular with things like AB testing. But honestly, I think what's carried Orca the farthest is leaning very heavily on intuition and that's something that I believe we'll continue to do.Jisi (12:01):Yeah. I would imagine it'd be hard to lean on data as well. There's a lot of spikes and changes in those patterns that it's hard to attribute to certain things. More recently, today is the number four exchange across all chains for total volume.Ori (12:19):It's mind blowing, right? We're-Jisi (12:21):Yeah.Ori (12:21):... what is it, 15? Not even 15 months old and kind of up there. We hit number three, I think, a day or two ago as well, and that's like flipping with Uniswap and PancakeSwap. For someone like me, I couldn't tell you what Ethereum was three years ago. It really goes to show that the space has changed, and I think it's starting to embrace a much wider audience.Jisi (12:44):It's so amazing, so definitely congratulations there. Also, just daily active users, like it's crossed 100,000 thresholds, so that's amazing as well.Ori (12:54):Thank you. Yeah. A lot of people, they're asking me, "Where is this spike coming from?" To be honest, in some ways it's like, I just tweeted about this recently, but it's UX in a different sense of developer experience, because I think we've created this SDK that developers find to be very user friendly. We've created this brand through our communications, through our community managers of having great support, and those things are also part of the user-friendly package that builds this brand that people ultimately trust and want to use, including other apps that integrate Orca under the hood.Jisi (13:29):Yeah, that's definitely true. I think developers are definitely a huge subset of your customer base and providing a good SDK is great design for them. It just adds the flywheel of more users finding Orca through DAP or more adapt or learning about Orca. You mentioned the brand, I think there's a lot of things that you've done really well like having the Magic Bar and making sure that you're showing that this is the best price, just reassuring users, so that's definitely building a lot of brand loyalty there.Ori (14:01):Thank you. Yeah. It's the most fun part of building a company for me, I think, is actually just building the product that, again, people are using every single day, regardless of whether they know that they're using it or not. Whenever I'm asked, "How did you come up with the Magic Bar? How did you come up with the Fair Price Indicator?" It really was just research either observing people using other AMMs. I remember watching people price compare when using Uniswap and saying, "Why are we making people do this? The point of technology is to automate the things that people don't want to do." So whenever we can do that, I do aim to include that in the product.Jisi (14:42):Yeah. That's definitely really interesting, because I think if you were to ask someone, they might not have told you that they're doing all these price comparisons, or ask for that feature, but being able to observe them directly, you were able to hone in that they were doing that comparing across prices. Branding it too is super interesting as well.Ori (15:03):Yeah. Branding, I would say, it's like a hobby. It's my favorite part is naming things of like, "All right, what are we going to call our liquidity mining program? Well, it's a little farming. It's all ocean themes, so let's call it Aquafarms." It's like that's my that's my hobby is coming up with names for things, but it's such a pleasure to actually do it, right?Jisi (15:24):Yeah. Well tell us a little bit about your new product Whirlpools and concentrated liquidity.Ori (15:32):I would be very happy to. It's pretty mind-boggling, to be honest, like what on earth is concentrated liquidity, right? It's just like this jargon, but I think at the end of the day, what Whirlpools is really just more advanced AMM technology that the average person doesn't really have to understand, except that it gives better prices on trades. Now, if we're going to peek under the hood and you ask, "Okay, well where do those better prices come from?" Then the answer would be, more efficient deployment of capital from liquidity providers, which is still really jargon-y. So if we peel that back a little bit more, I think what it means is that people who are providing liquidity can choose to provide their liquidity for a particular price range. So on a normal constant product, AMM, liquidity providers are forced to service trades at any price.Ori (16:25):Regardless of whether one SOL is 100 USDC or one SOL is 500 USDC or 3 USDC, liquidity providers for SOL USDC have to provide those trades. But instead, on a concentrated liquidity pool, like a Whirlpool, you could say, "I'm only going to provide trades when the price is between 100 and 120." Then, if you imagine on that curve before where your liquidity was spread out all across the curve, now all of that liquidity is concentrated in just that 100 to 120 buckets. These buckets in these price ranges are little mini AMMs. So each of these little mini AMMs has more liquidity than if it was across all of them, which allows this liquidity to be more impactful when it comes to providing better prices on trades. Hopefully, that makes sense. I know it's a little abstract.Jisi (17:17):Yeah, definitely. Seems like you get a much better yield and you have a little bit more leverage with the amount of capital that you can provide by choosing that range. How does Orca help users determine what's the best range to choose?Ori (17:32):Minimally, I would say. I think this is one thing where we've taken a deliberately moderate path. We don't mandate the price range. We do provide some presets that people can select, because one thing I observed from users on Uniswap v3, which is, of course, the OG concentrated liquidity AMM is that many people, even very sophisticated folks would just get to the point of choosing a price range and then be like, "I don't freaking know," and then just give up. So I think even just giving someone like a reasonable default, it might not be the most optimal, but a reasonable default is pretty good. So we give defaults based on things like volatility over the last 30 days, or over the last X days, which are generally a reasonable place to start. Then we give a very lightweight suggestion of, "With this kind of price range, you'll want to rebalance your position more often, or less often." But ultimately, the folks who are very competitive about it are almost always going to go custom.Jisi (18:30):Yeah, definitely the presets and having a recommended thing from Orca is definitely really useful. Obviously, concentrated liquidity is something really complex, but Orca is making it more intuitive to understand. How do you find the sweet spot of that kind of abstraction when you're catering to your users that may be more crypto native and some of them may be new to crypto, how do you find the right point to extract complexity and simplify?Ori (19:00):This is where we come back to that discussion of, "Who's our target user right now?" Our target user for concentrated liquidity is not my dad, very sweet, still doesn't really understand what Orca is; knows it's a coin, not much more. We're not trying to convert people like him to become liquidity providers right now. So when we are thinking about something like Whirlpools, it's folks who maybe have a bit of experience with liquidity provision already on a constant product AMM, all the way to people who have already been very sophisticated market makers on order books, or on concentrated liquidity AMM elsewhere. It's from there that you can imagine, "Okay, what vocabulary does this person who already does constant product AMM provision have? What do we need to teach them in order to get them onto concentrated liquidity?" That's where we have a progressive reveal approach in our UI. Not everybody loves tool tips. I fully admit that they're not elegant or beautiful, but they do serve a purpose of allowing someone to gain extra information when they want it without cluttering the UI.Jisi (20:08):Yeah, definitely. I think that reassurance and that extra education is pretty important, but it's nice to keep things simple as well. What are some of the biggest challenges you see in crypto in terms of user experience?Ori (20:21):The biggest challenges I see, well, I think there's two. Actually, one that I'd love to highlight just because we talked about branding already is just the branding of crypto. It's terrible. It's so off-putting, I think, to the average person, like very sci-fi just very complex jargon and terms and mining and proof of what have you. I think all of these very complicated terms and all of these very technology-oriented terms can be very scary for people, and so just overcoming that. Even the name crypto alone, think of the term like digital money versus cryptocurrency.Ori (21:01):Cryptocurrency is so much scarier, so I think first just getting people over the hurdle into thinking that they're smart enough to use crypto is one thing. Then second, I'd say DeFi has its own set of challenges. Compared to something centralized where there's KYC, there's usually more of an insurance fund for users. With crypto, it's like you're just thrown out into the water and you better swim. If you lose your private key, it sucks to suck. So I think creating a more gradual bridge for people is a huge challenge.Jisi (21:34):Yeah. That makes sense. It seems like crypto needs to hire its own copywriter or someone in branding, and then also just more education, more, more on ramps to becoming full Degen instead of learning by yourself and making those huge mistakes, but ones that you do remember.Ori (21:54):Yeah. Even the term Degen, I think, is very telling. It requires such an investment of effort to learn to use this stuff.Jisi (22:03):Definitely. Yeah. I have a question, there's a lot of designers that are in Web 2.0 and they want to crack into Web 3.0. That was actually one of your points in your op-ed in, in that there are a lot of design patterns or design decisions that were pushed forward by Web 2.0 that could be brought into Web 3.0. I'm curious, what kind of advice would you give to a designer that's looking to crack into Web 3.0 That may potentially have some Web 2.0 experience building?Ori (22:31):First is to, of course, learn about crypto, Defi, Web 3.0. People will find it a lot easier to onboard you into their Web 3.0 company if you don't have to ask all the questions about the basics, and there's tons of free resources about this nowadays. I'm part of a couple of communities online that really target towards beginners with their educational resources. Your experience as a Web 2.0 designer is incredibly valuable, and I think anyone in the crypto space knows that crypto companies desperately want to hire designers nowadays, but just can't necessarily find them. So I think if you come with a clear interest in breaking into Web 3.0 and also with just a little bit of due diligence, knowing the basic concepts, you'll be pretty much welcome with open arms.Jisi (23:18):Nice. I'm curious, looking ahead, what are you most excited to build at Orca?Ori (23:24):Good question. Yeah. I've spent the past couple of months, obviously, building Whirlpools, which is this super technical product. Looking forward, I'd love to spend some time building a much less technical product, or at least a product that looks a lot less technical on the surface; something that could potentially black box some of the complexity and open back up some of these opportunities to people who are maybe just starting out, or maybe just a little bit nervous about dipping their toes into crypto. I don't have very specific plans to share yet, but that's definitely where we're thinking nowadays and I feel like we're in a good position to potentially build out something very different than what you might normally see in Defi.Jisi (24:13):Nice. Well, that sounds super aligned to the Orca brand and seems like a really good place for orca. Also, dipping your toes is probably a good tagline with the whole ocean theme.Ori (24:26):Yeah. One day I'm going to run out of ocean puns, but I'm not done yet. Jisi (24:31):Speaking of ocean theme, could you talk a little bit about some of the climate impact work that you're doing with Orca?Ori (24:38):I would love to. The Impact Fund, it's like my child, I suppose. I just really love to see where it's grown into, but it really was the result of just a conversation that I had with Yutaro one day, because I've spent a lot of my career in the past really focused on just impact work; whether that's ed tech or trying to work in FinTech for developing countries, that type of thing. One thing I worried about with crypto is, "Is my time really being spent to make the world a better place?" I've become convinced that building out essential infrastructure for crypto is, in its own way, a good thing. Having influence in this space to try to push it in a positive direction is a good thing, but I wanted something a bit more concrete.Ori (25:24):When I floated the idea of just directly donating a portion of all of our training fees to charity, I was actually really pleasantly surprised to find that everybody was very much in support of it, like Yutaro, our advisors, even our legal council, they were like, "Yeah, great. I love it," and so we do do that. We donate a portion of every single trade that goes through Orca. A little bit of those fees go to charity and it's over a million dollars accumulated to date, and so we'll be donating those to charities that are focused on climate change and sustainability, which is both what I think is the most pressing problem facing the world today, and something that happens to be very aligned with Orca's marine brand. So it's something I'm very, very proud that we have the opportunity to do.Jisi (26:09):Yeah, that's amazing. It's definitely super aligned to the brand and definitely a great thing that Orca is pushing as a company for our closing question, who is a builder that you admire in the Solana ecosystem?Ori (26:23):This is totally a cop out and a shill, but the first thing that comes to my mind really is my co-founder, Yutaro. I think often I get a lot of the spotlight just because, well, I'm much more talkative than he is, and people, I think easy to talk about human-centered design and all that we're at. But he's really the brains behind the operation. And also the one who's invited us all in into crypto. When people ask, "How did you start learning about crypto?" I think back, and I'm like, "I was so lucky that whenever I had any question, I would just ask Yutaro.Ori (26:57):He would very patiently and excitedly just tell me all about it. He has these deep roots working for the Ethereum Foundation, and so I think those are something that was very respected. In Solana, it's not about this tribal, "It must be Ethereum." "It must be Bitcoin." "It must be Solana," but really more of this holistic look that he has into the ecosystem and where it's going to go. I think the fact that he saw Solana back in September 2020 and said, "This is the place to build," and was absolutely correct just says it all.Jisi (27:28):Yeah, definitely. We would love to have him on the podcast as well one day. That would be amazing.Ori (27:35):Yeah, you should totally bring him on. He was also voted in the share house that we live together, best voice mail by our co-living mates. He has a great podcast voice, so I'm sure you'll have a great time talking to him.Jisi (27:49):I like hearing him in the Orca demo videos.Ori (27:54):Oh, I'll tell him that. I think he'll be like, "Oh, that's interesting," but actually very happy under the hood.Jisi (28:01):For sure. All right. Well, thanks so much for coming to the podcast, Ori. It was great to meet you. If you like to check out Orca, you can access the Dex at orca.so and at Twitter @Orca_so. You can find Ori on Twitter @Oritheorca.Ori (28:19):Thanks so much. This was a really fun conversation.Jisi (28:22):Yeah, for sure. Thanks so much. Have a great day.Ori (28:24):You too.Jisi (28:25):Bye-bye.

Jeff Meyers is a lifelong Citi banker and founding member of Citi's $200 million Citi Impact Fund, investing in for profit, for purpose venture scaleable businesses driving impact. Jeff's volunteer role with StreetWise Partners, a NYC-based nonprofit – bringing job skills to the unemployed – served as the impetus to bring impact into his role at Citi. The Fund invests in four areas: Environment/Sustainability, Financial Inclusion, Physical and Social Infrastructure and Workforce Development from Series A and B to pre-IPO. Citi also allocated $50M to investments in black founders.