Allison Wolff emphasized that investor and shareholder expectations often clash with the complex societal problems startups aim to address, stating, "I think in some ways, we're a little bit stuck." This highlights the difficulty startups face when trying to balance impactful missions with financial viability.
Wolff advocates for structuring businesses as public benefit corporations, which require annual impact reporting alongside financial results: "That's an elegant structure to consider...a good forcing function to do the reporting side of that, to really think through every year, what impact are we having."
Areeb Malik spoke about aligning profitability and purpose when launching Glacier, indicating, "If you can find a place where you can align, for instance, climate impact...then I welcome a PE fund to come and take over my business, because they will juice us for money." This underscores the potential for financial success supporting positive environmental outcomes.
Hyuk-Jeen Suh warned that having a mission isn't enough if a company doesn't scale, stating, "A lot of founders get focused so much on their mission that they just forget about growing the business." This highlights the importance of growth in achieving impactful goals.
#startups #impact-investing #public-benefit-corporations #profitability #environmental-sustainability
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