Nancy Pfund
Icon Of Impact: This VC Backed Tesla And Pioneered An Entire Impact Genre
This woman is one of my own personal icons.
Long before impact investing was cool, there was Nancy Pfund. As a founder of DBL Partners, Pfund blazed a trail by battering down historically male-dominated finance doors and helped create a new genre of venture capital that could deliver alpha returns alongside deep impact. She counts Tesla, Pandora, and the RealReal as portfolio companies and she's a big champion of the entrepreneur especially underestimated ones.
I sat down with Nancy on Nantucket to talk about the triumphs of her journey, how the 2008 financial crisis hit her hard, why grit matters so much in a founder, and how a diverse system makes for a stronger investment.