Impact Hustlers - Entrepreneurs with Social Impact

Sançar's Sahin, Co-founder at Oliva, a B2B2C startup that provides on-demand therapy, coaching, and classes. It has previously worked with employees of companies like HubSpot and Sifted. Oliva focuses on effective process matching to build a value-based platform. In today’s episode, Sançar shares his personal story of experiencing burnout while working in a fast-growing startup and the importance of addressing mental health in the workplace. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS KEY LESSONS & QUOTES Support the show

In this episode, Sarah Kingston, co-founder and Chief impact officer of In Good Company, discusses their mission to help good businesses thrive. They define good businesses as those that have a positive impact on people, planet, and communities. Sarah shares how their journey began when she met her business partner, and they discovered the problem of finding and connecting with these impactful businesses. They also highlight the challenges these businesses face in reaching and growing their customer base. Tune in to learn more about how In Good Company is bridging the gap between consumers and businesses making a difference. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS [00:00] Introduction [00:36] Discovering problem. [03:55] Social and environmental impact of business. [05:27] Acquiring first customer. [06:36] Advice to future founders. [07:50] Being part of the impact hustlers. KEY LESSONS & QUOTES “Building social presence helped us acquire our first customers” “My advice to founders is to find business partners that share your values and goals” ‘’We define good businesses as those that are having a positive impact on people, planet, and or communities.” Never miss an episode Support the show Support the show

In today's episode, I speak to Rodney Williams, who's the co-founder, chairman, and president of SoLo Funds, which is a B-Corp-certified community finance platform that's now used by more than 1 million users. Members can borrow and lend money between themselves rather than go to traditional lenders, loan sharks, or banks. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS [01:16] Rodney's personal background [03:18] What other alternatives exist [04:50] How does SoLo work? [07:25] When and how do your customers use SoLo [08:56] Difference between Credit score vs SoLo score [11:50] Fighting the step crisis [14:27] SoLo's plan for the future [16:15] SoLo’s expansion to Nigeria [18:22] SoLo's approach to fundraising & growing revenue [19:53] Investors' feedback on the business [24:36] How did SoLo approach investors [27:53] How did Solo get to become [33:04] Undeniable product market fit [37:32] 10-year vision KEY LESSONS & QUOTES " You can't build wealth without growing it. " [12:12] "Subprime product, underserved communities, helping people that usually doesn't sound like a big business you’d want to invest in." [19:44] "Our goal to market strategy is done right and do good because if you can't buy users, you need users to really like what you do.” [21:46] “A challenge that has made this extremely difficult is that the same financial system that has created the market that we live in today has created so much discrimination.” [20:30] “The majority of the group who use this predatory product, tend to be women. Women are taking advantage of these products significantly more.” [26:30] “All of the impact investors who have turned down Solo, I think they're a joke.” [24:57] “As we made the consumer experience better, our growth rate accelerated and that's when I knew it was an undeniable product market fit.” (35:01) Never miss an episode Support the show Support the show

Mark Horoszowski, the CEO and co-founder of Moving Worlds, a platform that's supporting social enterprises by connecting them to corporate content and pro-bono professionals that can really help them get ahead. In today’s episode, we discuss how their platform can help social entrepreneurs or if you're in a corporation, how you can actually work with social entrepreneurs all over the world. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS KEY LESSONS & QUOTES Moving World’s Program- Website Support the show

In today's episode, I speak to Krish Himmatramka, the founder of Do Amore, a direct-to-consumer startup that sells engagement rings with conflict-free diamonds. Each ring also funds water projects, which can be traced using GPS coordinates and photos that prove there's an actual impact. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS [01:05] Krish's Journey [03:47] How the Water Project Happened [07:50] Approaching Do Amore with Traceability [11:56] Verifying source and responsibility of Diamonds/Gold [15:01] Outsourcing Lab Created Diamonds [16:14] Future for mined Diamonds [17:26] The Journey of a Diamond [22:07] Blockchain Tracking [25:17] Hardest lesson building the company [29:49] Acquiring first customers [32:15] Current playbook [34:52] Marketing and growth channels on Organic SEO [36:16] The Future of Do Amore [38:20] Way to change big companies [29:49] Acquiring first customers [32:15] Current playbook [34:52] Marketing and growth channels on Organic SEO KEY LESSONS & QUOTES "The hardest thing I learned is that social impact can only take you so far. To really succeed, you have to go beyond it." [25:23] "When you have so much passion for something, It's very easy to only care about that. But the thing is most of your consumers might not." [26:41] “We got our very first customers by doing things that we didn’t expect to scale” [30:49] “My biggest lesson from starting as a company that had to be profitable was knowing that to really make the mission work, the economics of scale had to work.” [34:09] Never miss an episode Support the show Support the show

Eleanor Kaye, Executive Director of the Newton Venture Program. Program helping people from underestimated and overlooked backgrounds break into the venture capital industry and also advance their careers once they are in the venture capital industry. In today’s episode, we discuss her journey in the venture capital industry and talk about some of the challenges in the industry and how the Newton Venture Program is curbing them. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS KEY LESSONS & QUOTES Newton Venture Program - Website Support the show

Rene Haas, the co-founder, and CEO of NeoCarbon. A company that has created a product that removes CO2 from the atmosphere by retrofitting industrial cooling towers with direct air capture devices. Direct air capture has been promoted as one of the most promising solutions to climate change. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS KEY LESSONS & QUOTES “Hardware is different to scale than software for manufacturing companies” [16:05] “Big companies and manufacturers have crazy high margins on their products hence easier for them to do service maintenance on their equipment” [18:29] ”Our next step, is going from lab to the real environment as fast as possible, because we started, prototyping super early, before we had proper models” [20:44] Support the show

In today's episode, I speak to Max Stossel—an award-winning poet and filmmaker, as well as the founder and CEO of Social Awakening. Max has spent the last year speaking in front of more than a hundred thousand students, parents, and educators, talking about how social media and social media addiction affects our lives. With Social Awakening, he has made it his mission to help teenagers thrive in a digital world where apps are radically optimized for engagement by leveraging addictive behavior. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS KEY LESSONS & QUOTES Support the show

Tess Cosad, the co-founder and CEO of Bea Fertility. A company making fertility care more convenient and affordable. The company is leveraging a method called IntraCervical Insemination or ICI, which has proven to actually have a 50% success rate at only a 10th of the cost of IVF. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS KEY LESSONS & QUOTES Support the show

Chieu Cao is the co-founder of Mintago, a financial wellbeing platform for employees offering financial education, financial planning tools and pensions through salary sacrifice. He’s worked for many years at some of the world’s most renowned brands like Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo. Before Mintago, he co-founded PerkBox which became one the fastest growing employee service platforms. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS KEY LESSONS & QUOTES Support the show

In today's episode, I speak to Matt Semmelhack, the co-founder and CEO of Boox, reusable boxes, and shipping bags, eliminating single-use plastic and cardboard from eCommerce shipments. The rise of eCommerce has been massive in the last few years and further accelerated by the pandemic. We'll dive into some of the most sustainable options to reduce the negative environmental impact of shipment. KEY LESSONS & QUOTES Support the show

In today's episode, I speak to Khyati Sundaram the CEO of Applied, a platform helping businesses to take bias out of their recruitment processes through anonymized recruiting, and algorithms that help them predict which candidates will be performing best in their roles, based on objective criteria rather than anything subjective and any biases. The company also offers AI-based tools to help write job descriptions that are likely to attract a diverse set of candidates rather than biasing towards a certain set of candidates. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS KEY LESSONS & QUOTES Support the show

In today's episode, I speak to Erin Davis, co-founder, and COO of Enduring Planet, which is a revenue-based financing platform for climate tech startups. The platform allows climate tech companies to raise funding without dilution, without giving away equity, and without any personal guarantees and collateral. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS KEY LESSONS & QUOTES Support the show

Tom Foster-Carter, the founder of Lollipop, (online shopping assistant ) is on a mission to help solve the health and obesity crisis and reduce the food plastic waste on the planet. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS KEY LESSONS & QUOTES Support the show

Amee Richie and Jake Elliot-Hook, the co-founders of S'wheat Bottle. S'wheat Bottle has developed a reusable plant-based water bottle made from sustainably sourced bamboo and wheat straw For every bottle sold. The company plants a tree and removes plastic from the ocean. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS KEY LESSONS & QUOTES Support the show

Robin Saluoks, the CEO and co-founder of eAgronom, a platform helping farmers adapt to sustainable farming practices and increase revenue through the voluntary carbon market. In today’s episode, we discuss how he built his company from the ground up. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS KEY LESSONS & QUOTES Support the show

In today's episode, I speak to Anna Maybank, co-founder of Break Room, a platform with a mission to improve working conditions for low-income jobs by creating transparency, sharing salaries, working conditions, and employee ratings publicly. Break Room has raised more than 7 million dollars in funding from the likes of Pro-founders Capital and North Zone, has about 65,000 members, and more than 600,000 jobs rated on its platform. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS KEY LESSONS & QUOTES Support the show

Peet Denny, the founding partner at Climate VC, which is a new venture fund investing in climate tech ventures, and the fund is based in the UK. Climate VC is planning to actually fund a hundred startups over the next three years. In today’s episode, we discuss how he built his company from the ground up. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS KEY LESSONS & QUOTES “Being quite on top of your game in understanding where your impact is coming from. And having the long-term view of making that more and more sophisticated over time, will make it easier for you to raise money.” [12.11] “We wanna see a team that will just roll over all of the rocks in the road without breaking the pace. Typically founders are amazing problem solvers and that's why we love them and need them in our lives. ” [16.22] “ If a potential customer is excited about a product, then that's so much of the problem solved. ” [18:19] “If you look at a founding team as a team and not as a set of individuals, it doesn't really matter who you are as long as you're great in some way” [24:37] Support the show

Martin Holden-White, the founder of Grubby, (one of the highest-rated recipe kits in the UK) is on a mission to make plant-based cooking more accessible across the world. In today’s episode, we discuss how he built his company from the ground up. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS KEY LESSONS & QUOTES Support the show

With the increasing severity of the climate problem, thankfully, there are organizations like Cervest that offer their climate intelligence program to empower companies and individuals to analyze their climate risk and make climate-informed decisions. For this reason, Cervest’s Founder and CEO Iggy Bassi joins us today to educate us on why we need to quantify and act on climate risks. Some of the highlights of this episode include the extremely useful advice that Iggy shares on building a mission-driving business, hiring the right people, finding the right investors, cultivating great relationships with both your staff and investors, and getting through the dark days. He also talks about why you need to marry method with conviction, which he emphasizes a lot, as it has a big role to play for founders when building a company. This is an episode you won’t want to miss. Iggy’s key lessons and quotes from this episode were: “Conviction needs to be high on mission, but also needs to marry with method as well, because the real impact you're looking to make has to be scalable.” (27:17)“There'll always be dark days… The question is, who do you want around your board when times get dark, and do they believe in the same thing that you believe?” (27:52)“You may be very strong on vision, but you've got to surround yourself with the right talent, and you have to build the right culture, because [...] for every power you have, you have a corresponding weakness as well.” (31:43)In this episode, we also talked about: Cervest and how it works (6:32)Why people use Cervest (17:54)Iggy’s hardest lessons learned (26:47)Finding mission-aligned investors (34:55)Support the show