What’s the next big financial innovation to unleash billions for impact? Sir Ronald Cohen - a pioneering venture capitalist, philanthropist, and the “godfather of impact investing” - gave me an inside take on that, the future of capitalism, and (of course) his favorite tea. It’s all part of his just released book Impact, that’s a playbook for the modern values-driven investor. We caught up after his recent series with SOCAP on reimagining capitalism.
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The Hinduja name is global. As one of the largest diversified groups in the world, it employs over 150,000 workers and touches nearly every sector of our economy. It’s also a century’s long story of family entrepreneurship. Karam Hinduja is the next generation of Hinduja entrepreneurs who at 30 years old is modernizing the family business while staying true to its social philosophy. Recently named the CEO of Swiss-based S.P. Hinduja Banque Privee, I caught up with Karam to see how he’s navigating his new role and how he sees connecting the bank with the next generation of impact investors and business builders.
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Many climate investors remember the early 2000s with a shudder. The promise of greentech riches mostly left a trail of green tears (with a few notable exceptions like Tesla, Beyond Meat, and Sunrun). But while investors pulled back, climate change doubled down and our decarbonization needs only accelerated. So when venture capitalist Andrew Beebe announced earlier this year that we’d really entered the climate decade, I was relieved but skeptical. Hadn’t we seen this ad before? Why was today different? So I sat down with Andrew to understand how climate startups can reach “escape velocity,” where Bill Gates is wrong, and what’s the hottest climatetech sector that most investors overlook.
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Two years ago, I made the leap to plant-based eating and never looked back (here’s why I jumped). Vegans in the 20th century had it hard. Today, we have sizzling burgers, creamy milk, cheesy pizzas - basically if you crave it, plants can make it. I’m always on the look out for disruptive moves in the industry. So I was surprised when I saw a group LIVEKINDLY had quietly raised a monstrous $550M in less than a year to scale plant-based foods globally. I wanted to know who was behind it, where they’re headed, and whether in fact I’d ever eat cultured (aka “lab grown”) meat. Still not sure on the latter but Roger Lienhard is on a global mission to make plant-based eating cool and global.
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The death of George Floyd sparked widespread protests and a national reckoning on racial justice not seen since the assassination of Dr. King. One individual blazed an original path that connected heartbreak, activist art, the audio-only app Clubhouse, and the exploding industry of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to drive not just awareness but investor capital toward grassroots justice. David Bianchi created the first ever, award-winning spoken word film to be minted as an NFT.
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Kristine McDivitt Tompkins, the former CEO of Patagonia and a self-described wild child, is one of the most prolific biodiversity philanthropists in history. She’s a tenacious peace broker between people and wild nature.