A conversation about how startups leverage their mission as a competitive advantage. Each episode we talk to entrepreneurs and investors to get to the bottom of what it means to build a business with impact. From personal founder stories of how they got started, to how they overcame challenges in hiring, sales and fundraising and how building a mission-driven company helps you outperform the market.
Hosted by Better Ventures in Oakland, CA. Backing mission-driven founders building a better world.
Visit us at www.better.vc
Music credit: https://bit.ly/1wwpl
Ulili Onovakpuri of Kapor Capital explores impact investing, dispelling myths about deal flow and returns, and provides advice to founders on choosing the right venture capital partnerships in this interview.
Miriam Rivera, co-founder of Ulu Ventures, discusses her journey from Google's legal team to venture capital, Ulu's investment philosophy, and strategies for founders to approach fundraising in this interview.
Amy Francetic, Managing General Partner at Buoyant Ventures, discusses her journey to co-founding a female-owned VC firm and investing in companies focused on electrification, in an interview with Rick.
13 Apr 2023
Mission Driven - Episode 16 - Astrid Atkinson (Camus Energy)
Astrid Atkinson, CEO of Camus Energy, discusses electrification and creating a marketplace for grid operators with host Rick Turoczy in an interview, offering advice to women in tech and energy.
Rohan Puri, CEO of Stable Auto, discusses software's crucial role in electrification and the evolving EV charging landscape, emphasizing data-driven insights for building sustainable infrastructure in an interview with Rick.
16 Mar 2023
Mission Driven - Episode 14 - Freada Kapor Klein and Mitch Kapor (Kapor Capital)
Freada Kapor Klein and Mitch Kapor discuss their mission to diversify the tech industry, impact investing, and the importance of supporting founders with diverse backgrounds in this interview.
Robyn Beavers, CEO of Blueprint Power, discusses incorporating nature's lessons into the built environment and envisions the future of clean energy in an interview with Rick Alexander.
1 Aug 2022
Mission Driven - Episode 12 - Michael Lombardo (BookNook)
Michael Lombardo, BookNook CEO, discusses the impact of COVID on education, the for-profit versus non-profit debate, and DEIB commitment in an interview with Rick.
30 Mar 2022
Mission Driven - Episode 11 - Dr. Eric Whitaker (Zing Health)
Dr. Eric Whitaker, CEO of Zing Health, discusses addressing social determinants of health and reducing healthcare disparities in underserved communities through innovative healthcare solutions in this interview.
23 Sept 2021
Mission Driven - Episode 10 - Muffi Ghadiali (Electriphi and Ford Pro)
Muffi Ghadiali, Founder of Electriphi and Head of Ford Pro Charging, discusses building an EV fleet electrification company and leveraging a social mission for competitive advantage in the industry, in this interview.
In this episode we talk with Davida Herzl, Co-founder and CEO of Aclima (https://www.aclima.io/), a Public Benefit Corporation focused on environmental intelligence. Aclima has pioneered an entirely new way to measure and analyze air pollution and greenhouse gases, block by block and around the world. The Aclima hardware and software technology platform translates billions of scientific measurements from its network of stationary and roving sensors into environmental intelligence for governments, businesses, and communities.
A Public Benefit Corporation, Aclima is dedicated to catalyzing bold action to protect public health, reduce climate-changing emissions and advance equity.
Topics discussed in this episode
Aclima [1:55]
Tackling Climate Change [3:41]
Hyper-local Air Quality [4:39]
Who are the customers and what are they using it for? [6:26]
Environmental Justice [10:39]
Latest on Aclima [16:56]
How mission has been a competitive advantage for Aclima [19:37]
Davida's advice for early-stage founders [33:00]
Mission Driven is a conversation about startup founders on a mission to address the world’s biggest challenges and how they leverage their social mission for competitive advantage.
If you liked this episode, please share, follow/subscribe and tag us on Twitter!
@BetterVentures (https://twitter.com/BetterVentures)
@aclima (https://twitter.com/aclima)
@davidaherzl (https://twitter.com/davidaherzl)
18 Feb 2021
Mission Driven - Episode 8 - Julia Collins (Planet FWD)
In this episode, we talk with Julia Collins, Founder and CEO of Planet FWD (https://planetfwd.com/) about regenerative agriculture, founding her new sustainable food company, and raising money from a diverse group of investors.
We dig into how having such a strong mission of sustainability has been an advantage for Planet FWD in building their brand, attracting talent, creating culture and in fundraising.
Mission Driven is a conversation about startup founders on a mission to address the world’s biggest challenges and how they leverage their social mission for competitive advantage.
If you liked this episode, please share and tag us on Twitter:
@BetterVentures (https://twitter.com/BetterVentures)
@JuliaCollins (https://twitter.com/JuliaCollins)
In this episode, we talk with Heidi Patel, Managing Partner of Rethink Impact, a venture capital firm investing in women leaders using technology to tackle some of the world’s greatest challenges in digital healthcare, ed-tech, economic empowerment, sustainability. We cover raising their latest fund during COVID, and the ongoing gap and opportunity in funding women-led companies.
19 Aug 2020
Mission Driven - Episode 6 - Marc Tarpenning (Tesla and Spero Ventures)
Marc Tarpenning (https://twitter.com/mtarpenning) is the Co-founder of Tesla (https://www.tesla.com/) and a Venture Partner at Spero Ventures (https://spero.vc/). He was one of the original co-founders of Tesla back in 2003 and shares with us the origin story of Tesla as a mission-driven company, and how that mission was a competitive advantage. Spero Ventures invests in early-stage technology companies solving critical problems in: well-being, work & purpose and human connection. Marc brings his passion for climate sustainability to Spero and focuses on their sustainability-related investments such as Drone Seed (https://www.droneseed.com/), Clarity (https://www.clarity.io/), and Tortuga AgTech (https://www.tortugaagtech.com/).
In This Episode We Talk About:
The inside story of how Tesla got started and what motivated Marc and Martin Eberhard to tackle such a massive challenge.
How Tesla's mission helped them hire top talent, gain buy-in from customers, and raise funding.
How Tesla balanced enticing lucrative early opportunities and sticking to their core mission.
The rationale for Marc's shift to working in VC and why he chose Spero Ventures.
The areas Marc is most excited about investing in.
Mentioned in This Episode:
Other early investors in Tesla: DBL (http://www.dblpartners.vc/)
Spero Ventures: Website (https://spero.vc/), Twitter @SperoVentures (https://twitter.com/SperoVentures)
Marc's Recent Investment at Spero: DroneSeed (https://www.droneseed.com/)
Stay In Touch:
Email us at Missiondriven@better.vc (mailto:missiondriven@better.vc)
Follow Better Ventures on Twitter @BetterVentures (https://twitter.com/BetterVentures)
Visit www.better.vc (//www.better.vc)
13 Apr 2020
Mission Driven - Episode 5 - Nan Li (Obvious Ventures)
Mission Driven is a conversation about startup founders on a mission to address the world’s biggest challenges and how they leverage their social mission for competitive advantage.
In this episode we talked to Nan Li (https://www.linkedin.com/in/nanli) from Obvious Ventures (https://www.linkedin.com/company/obvious-ventures/) about his career in venture, Obvious’ approach to ‘world positive’ investing, and the massive emerging opportunity in investing in biology. We cover his views on computational biology and how the confluence of trends such as the explosion in health data coupled with laboratory automation, advanced robotics, and advanced AI infrastructure have the potential to usher in a new era in drug discovery, green chemical production, food production and many more areas. Having made iconic investments in the category, like Zymergen And Recursion Pharma, Nan walked us through why computational biology is so promising and how it represents Obvious Ventures’ strategy in a microcosm.
If you liked this episode, please share and tag us on Twitter:
@BetterVentures (https://twitter.com/BetterVentures)
@obviousvc (https://twitter.com/obviousvc)
Ideas for a future episode? Send comments or suggestions to missiondriven@better.vc (mailto:missiondriven@better.vc)
Erica Mackey, Co-founder and CEO of MyVillage (https://www.myvillage.com/).
'Mission Driven' is a conversation about startup founders on a mission to address the world’s biggest challenges and how they leverage their social mission for competitive advantage. In this episode Erica shares her journey starting her first company, OffGrid Electric, and her current company MyVillage, which is changing the market for early childhood care.
If you liked this episode, please share and tag us on Twitter:
@BetterVentures (https://twitter.com/BetterVentures)
@ (https://twitter.com/Eko_Health)MyVillageTeam (https://twitter.com/MyVillageTeam)
We're just starting on this podcast journey and welcome your input! Send comments or suggestions to missiondriven@better.vc (mailto:missiondriven@better.vc)
Julie Lein, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Urban Innovation Fund, a venture firm that invests in the future of cities.
'Mission Driven' is a conversation about startup founders on a mission to address the world’s biggest challenges and how they leverage their social mission for competitive advantage. Today Connor and I explored, in particular, how he leverages his mission for hiring.
Urban Innovation Fund (https://www.urbaninnovationfund.com/) is a venture capital firm investing in pre-seed and seed stage startups shaping the future of cities. They invest in areas such as transportation, energy, water, the future of work, all with the goal of growing and scaling to many cities in the US, and hopefully beyond.
In this episode we talk to Julie about her journey with Urban Innovation Fund and her perspective of mission driven founders, or "maniacally driven" as she refers to it, her perspective on talking to investors about your impact story, and some of the investments and categories she's excited about.
If you liked this episode, please share and tag us on Twitter:
@BetterVentures (https://twitter.com/BetterVentures)
@j2ulie (https://twitter.com/j2ulie)
@UrbanInnoFund (https://twitter.com/UrbanInnoFund)
We're just starting on this podcast journey and welcome your input! Send comments or suggestions to missiondriven@better.vc
Connor Landgraf, Co-founder and CEO of Eko Health (https://www.ekohealth.com/).
'Mission Driven' is a conversation about startup founders on a mission to address the world’s biggest challenges and how they leverage their social mission for competitive advantage. Today Connor and I explored, in particular, how he leverages his mission for hiring.
Connor and Eko are on a mission to bring more data to cardiac care. We first met back in 2013 when he was an undergrad and president of his class at Cal Berkeley. In the six years since they’ve built a thriving business bringing data science and artificial intelligence to cardiac care. They’re digitizing heart sounds, analyzing and scoring them, integrating with electronic health record systems and assisting physicians to make better diagnoses and provide better treatment. Eko just raised a $20m Series B round so the timing was great to get to talk to him.
In this episode we cover how he built the business and how having a clear mission has impacted hiring, branding, and their overall success.
If you liked this episode, please share and tag us on Twitter:
@BetterVentures (https://twitter.com/BetterVentures)
@connorlandgraf (https://twitter.com/connorlandgraf)
@Eko_Health (https://twitter.com/Eko_Health)
We're just starting on this podcast journey and welcome your input! Send comments or suggestions to missiondriven@better.vc (mailto:missiondriven@better.vc)
Welcome to our first episode of Mission Driven!
We were excited to sit down with mission driven founder and inspiring leader, Meena Sankaran, Founder and CEO of KETOS (https://ketos.co/). KETOS provides predictive and actionable smart water data needed for agricultural irrigation, industries and cities.
In this episode we explore not just what drives her but how she leverages that drive into a competitive advantage, to outperform and succeed where others can’t. She talks about pitching to investors with authenticity about her social mission turning an otherwise flop of a conversation into a success that led to a full partner meeting. She talks about thinking of interviews as the candidate interviewing her about why they should join the company that can pay as much as Google or Apple, and how she leverages her mission to succeed with the best and brightest candidates. And finally we talk about building a high-performance team that outperforms because of the company’s culture of shared commitment to an important social mission.
If you liked this episode, please share and tag us on Twitter and stay tuned for our next episodes!
@BetterVentures (https://twitter.com/BetterVentures)
@Meena_Sankaran (https://twitter.com/Meena_Sankaran)
@Ketos_H2O (https://twitter.com/Ketos_H2O)
We're just starting on this podcast journey and welcome your input! Send comments or suggestions to missiondriven@better.vc (mailto:missiondriven@better.vc)
Who has been a guest on Mission Driven
Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.
Ulili Onovakpuri
Miriam Rivera
Amy Francetic
Astrid Atkinson
Rohan Puri
Reach and audience
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Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
5 ratings
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