Jeffery: Welcome to the Supporters Fund Ask An Investor. I’m your host, Jeffery Potvin. Let’s please welcome Eva, the GP of Beyond Capital Adventures and the author of “The Good Your Money Can Do,” our investor for today. Eva, we’re super excited to have you today. Thank you very much for joining us.
Eva: Thank you. I’m happy to be here with you.
Jeffery: Well, Eva, I’ve gone through your book. I’ve gone through a lot of the online content you’ve created and I can say you’ve done an amazing job in really hyper focusing which I love to talk about, focus on countering the market on what it takes to be an Impact Investor. So, absolutely amazing. And I can’t wait for you to share more about your background and all the great things that you’ve accomplished all the way back from school, all the way through. If you can go back to that. And share one thing about you that nobody would know.
Eva: I’m a trained yoga instructor.
Jeffery: I love it. I’m a big fan of yoga. Now, is that Pilates or which one of those? Which one does it fit in?
Eva: No, yoga. I mean I actually happen to do Pilates every day because at the age of 37, I have arthritis in both of my hips. But I’m working on that and I do Pilates every day and I’ve got a great teacher. But I am a trained yoga instructor and that’s to focus on the practice of yoga as a life practice, not just the practice of yoga on the mat.
Jeffery: ah, that’s awesome. Brilliant. And do you prefer hot yoga or regular? Or, I’m going to mess up the name Ishani? like there’s a few different variables I guess on the types of yoga. Is there a preference?
Eva: Yeah, the lineage I was trained in is centered around Hatha Yoga. So, the more traditional yoga. I find that that’s really what I need as a venture capitalist, as somebody who sometimes does things a little bit more intensely. It’s really a grounding exercise.
Jeffery: I love it. I do find it to be very grounding. And because of the pandemic and shutting everything down, I now do everything myself, yoga movements and positions. But I do miss the hot room where you can just focus in on the darkness and just get out of your head and then just work away. So, I do miss that and can’t wait for that to open up again. But besides that, we got to dive into your background and all the great things that you’ve been up to. So, love for you to share that as well.
Eva: Sure. Well, thank you for mentioning my book and my fund Beyond Capital ventures. I’ll rewind to even my childhood. I grew up in a place called Staten Island in New York City. Me, Colin Jost and Pete Davidson and the Wu Tang clan and many more people. And why that’s relevant for my background is that my upbringing in the burrows of New York City made me realize that finance and capitalism is a gated community and I was literally cut off by bridges and tunnels from Wall Street. I could see Wall Street from the house I grew up in, but it took 45 minutes to get there by car and bus or ferry. And why that really matters is because I was lucky to work hard to have a tremendous amount of privilege and to fall into a career in finance and learn the language of finance and capitalism. But not everybody has the keys to that. And as I progressed in my career, amid the big short trade, amid the financial crisis, amid Bernie Madoff’s stealing millions, I realized that there was more I could do to use my skills as an investor to express my values. So, I became what’s known as an Impact Investor. And just so happened, I have a family that lived in Africa in the 1960s, in Tanzania. I didn’t have the biases around emerging markets that a lot of investors do. So, I decided to pivot and focus on Venture Capital in Africa, in emerging markets, as a part of how I would be more aligned with my values. And that’s how I started my first fund. We have top quartile venture returns, very strong impact as well. Every dollar we invest impacts a lot of lives. Now we are in the process of raising and deploying our second fund. And our strategy is diversified, emerging markets turnkey Venture Capital and we have an impact focus embedded and we believe that impact is not a trade-off, that it can be baked into a sustainable business model. And you mentioned my book. So, I’ll touch on that as well as a part of this broader thinking of speaking to a wider audience, that it is possible to be an Impact Investor and that everybody can be an Impact Investor even with a 401k or a thousand dollars in an investment account or less. That’s when I decided to write my book because I had a message to communicate. that this doesn’t have to be only for Musk and Zach. This can be for you and me and all of our friends and peers. And I didn’t think that message was communicated widely enough in the impact investment space. So, that’s why I wrote my book, “The Good Your Money Can Do,” and it’s a playbook for anybody who wants to consider becoming an Impact Investor.
Jeffery: I love it. And I want to unpack all of that because there’s a lot of great things, especially on the book side. But to go back a little bit on the finance side, you talked a little bit about it but being able to see Wall Street. But maybe not be able to play in the same investment areas that all of these big investors were going into. Now you’ve got a whole world changing into D5 and everything is about having you manage it yourself and take care of all these things yourself. So, I think the timing is brilliant for the book release. And of course, all the things you’re doing. It’s just aligned nicely, that the world is hey wait a sec. I want to be sitting at that table too and I want to invest in these companies and I want to be able to do these things that we weren’t allowed to do really obviously, to touch spaces that we weren’t able to do or were blocked from when you were working as that financial analyst. I find that in anything that we do, your background really defines your forward push of what you end up becoming, especially when it comes to investing. I find that bankers or people that have worked in finance have a really big effect on startups and early stages. They have a really strong understanding of how a startup works from a financial standpoint. So, taking your experience, and as you work through that, how did you decide that you wanted to get into early-stage companies? Did that start in that time period when you were working and doing your work as an analyst and building your way forward? Were you seeing that a lot of these companies were lacking a lot of that knowledge and that you were just a real shoe foot right into that company?
Eva: I decided to focus on the early stage because I wanted to have more intention and purpose behind my investing the companies that were out there that were doing that were young and this in 2009. while yes, there were the Tom’s Shoes of the world and other businesses that have their element of impact. That’s not baked into a business model. And those companies that were more mature were few and far between. And Ben and Jerry’s are a good iconic example of a business that really truly walks the talk when it comes to thinking about all stakeholders. But the new wave of companies that were developing were all startups. So, that was almost, like by default, to get involved in this space, particularly in India and East Africa where we invest. It was to think about how to fund the emerging markets, how to fund the early-stage businesses in emerging markets and to learn about venture. And I was really lucky that we’ve recruited some incredible team members over the years. And one of them was our chief investment officer for a number of years. He was a venture lawyer and was a venture capitalist and he’s a good friend but he’s definitely also a mentor. He’s our deal counsel now. So, I get to work with somebody that I have worked with for many years on the investment side as our deal council because he’s now continuing to practice law and he really taught me about venture and the nuances of venture. And then we put our own spin on it. because speaking very honestly, I agree that people with a finance degree have a good insight into how companies work because that’s basically what they do. It is invested in companies. There is a need to tweak the model. And our tweaks were centered around investing in conscious leaders who are thinking about all stakeholders because we believe. And on my podcast which has two seasons just called the Beyond Capital Podcast, we concluded that how impact can be baked into a business model is really centered around the leader and his or her priorities and how she is valuing all stakeholders including shareholders, employees, customers, the government, the community, around the business, et cetera. So, that’s one tweak we made. And we also decided to give a percentage of the profit share of this fund to every founder in the portfolio. And that’s another way that we wanted to change the way, change the tone around being founder friendly. It’s not just we’re founder friendly which is what a lot of VCs say. It’s more about we’re founder friendly and we’re going to make you an owner. And as an owner, we’re going to be on even footing and we’re going to be in alignment and we’re going to build this relationship together and we’re going to help you really build your company.
Jeffery: I love that. And that’s a fantastic idea, I guess. A way to really tie everybody in. So, not just the investors that are coming into the founders. Even if the company fails, they have an opportunity because they are part of your fund that they have an opportunity to build up some value later on and there’s probably a pretty good chance you’re going to want to bring them back in and invest in their next company regardless of failure or not. If they had a good relationship with you and the rest of your investors, you’re probably going to follow on with them and continue to want to invest in them for sure.
Eva: absolutely. It makes part of that impact. there’s a lot of terms that have come up in the last few years, especially around impact and fasting. And I think certainly, when you were doing this back in 2009, it was probably earth shattering for people to hear a lot about impact and what this all meant. So, you were 100% one of the percent of trailblazers that kicked this off and I think that that’s probably steered into today where everybody’s an Impact Investor or every company has some sort of impact. But when you dive into it, it’s maybe not as impactful as they may have perceived it or none at all. It’s like saying I have an Ai code when there’s no Ai involved whatsoever. So, when you have this triple bottom line, maybe you can share a little bit more on what the Triple Bottom Line means. What is Impact Investing and what is the value for, say your stakeholders or even for the people that invest in a fund that is around impact investing?
Eva: Sure. It was not cool to be an Impact Investor in 2009. nobody really cared and that’s okay. But I think what was always true, Impact Investing or not, is that no investment is neutral and that is the key phrase and key paradigm that I think is really important in this new wave of Impact Investing to help with finding authentic companies right. because those that are just green washing or pink washing or blue washing or whatever, maybe they’re always going to be there, but they really don’t understand the paradigm that no investment is neutral. But when you start to think that way, you see every choice is an opportunity to have an impact. So, Triple Bottom Line investing is simply just taking a step back and realizing that performance is more than financial performance. its social performance and its environmental performance, and that’s what Triple Bottom Line investing ultimately is. that really matters because, not only is it good to do good and to make a mark on maybe something that you as an investor have a material passion for, but all these are also risk factors and I think the pandemic really showed in the cracks some of the challenges that companies really do face, climate change, corona without a vaccine, and that in and of itself will start to bear risk factors as well coming out of due diligence. So, that’s why, I think the Triple Bottom Line really matters. Were you looking for an example as well? I missed the last part of your question.
Jeffery: Oh, I would love examples. They are fantastic. So, that would line it up nicely for sure. Please.
Eva: Yeah. I mean I can give you an example of a company that we’ve invested in called Care Point. It is a roll-up of healthcare facilities across the African continent. The founder believes deeply in healthcare equity, healthcare affordability, and high quality healthcare. But that’s just not the case when a lot of these clinics are and hospitals are operating on a standalone basis because they have to create or buy their own electronic medical records (EMR) system. They have to find their own sourcing. making that more efficient allows for them to actually do what they do best, which is healthcare. And the company is using a lot of Tech and all of our portfolio companies are Tech enabled. But it’s using a lot of technology to roll across the business. But they care more about than just the patient and the shareholders and the owners. They care about the employees and the human capital and solving that challenge around healthcare in Africa. They are also doing the only and first study on climate and health care as a part of a fellowship that the founders are a part of. So, this founder is really understanding and recognizing that the picture is much bigger than just buying the health facilities, spending the Tech on it and moving on. And that really helps I think drive outcomes. It’s a very exciting business that purports to list the company later on and we’re really excited to get involved. But that is because we see the value in actually all three areas: financial, social and environmental impact, and taking a business that hits that Triple Bottom Line, obviously, that’s interesting and exciting for Impact Investors. There’s an extra added cost to being an impact company. And what I mean by that is that we had a conference. I think it was a year and a half ago and it was based around Impact Investing in startups. And they were talking about how they had built their company. They originally started it as being 100 impact, and they realized that in order for them to sell and do everything they wanted to, the cost was extremely high and they couldn’t balance out the value of it. So, they pulled back on some of the pieces. So, it wasn’t 100% sustainable, 100% fully impactful. But they were working their way to get to that. So, as they built through KPIs and showed that they were growing their business financially and hitting the revenues as an early-stage company, they were also making changes to the product line all the way through. So, by the time they got to that seven year or five-year revenue model, they would be 100% impactful. But they felt they weren’t able to do that from the get-go and from the start. But that’s how they dove into it. Is that the right way or the wrong way when looking at these companies? and is that really a big impact on the cost? and they really do need to go to investors right away because of that impact that would affect their business and their bottom line. It really depends on the sector and it really depends on the geography as an emerging markets investor. I get to invest in basic goods and services where there is no additional impact as a part of those models. It’s just providing a service, good or service that hasn’t been provided to a specific population. It is more complicated in sustainable fashion. For example, taking plastic out of the equation is not straightforward right now. Like one of my friends who’s a sustainable fashion entrepreneur likes to tell me, we’re all wearing plastic right now. So, there are some times, when you’re pioneering, like all birds did, and I wrote about them in my book. When you’re pioneering, you typically are subsidizing a little bit of the future cost of a new product or new material or new methodology. But I would not presuppose that impact creates additional cost at all because I think a smart entrepreneur can do a really good job of mitigating that cost and making it worthwhile long-term for long-term value. And I think another space to just look at, is the energy transition.
Jeffery: Yeah. There have been a lot of businesses that have come and gone. solar was too expensive. this is not the case anymore. And what will be created going forward is a tremendous amount of impact and a tremendous amount of wealth. While there was some additional, there’s always some additional upfront for new innovations that will bear out to be profitable. just like Tech companies were in the late 1990s when the internet, like in the 1990s, when the internet came about. So, I think it’s just all about innovation and how yes, there is an RD need for impact. And sometimes, that impacts multiples. This came up in an investor conversation recently about revenue multiples. But over time, it creates a know-how that can be applied to value impact and financial value. So, it sounds like, it’s something that may not happen on day one, but it’s certainly something that the entrepreneur can sort out through innovation. And just being able to better understand the markets and figuring out how they can shift their business to being 100% impactful and hopefully they can do it sooner than two, three years out or whatever. That time frame is utilizing the impact of other companies and their technologies that might enable them to move faster. Like you said, everybody’s wearing plastic. So, they might not be able to shift that paradigm today. But hopefully, with all of the new companies that are coming to the forefront, they’ll be able to make that impact pretty quickly.
Eva: Yeah. I mean I don’t think it’s bad to copy or learn from others. And we are all in this together for real. We’re all humans on the planet. I think we all want to be happy and healthy and feel good every day and we want the people around us to ultimately feel the same. So, I would just say, maybe it is about finding and supporting a community. And in doing that, there’s a lot of change that’s occurring as well. you call it the green washing. And all of these other things that are going on where of course, you’re going to have bad players in the market.
Jeffery: Now, a lot of this space has now brought in carbon offsets. So, everybody’s trying to figure out a way. Hey, I’ve got a great business. It generates a lot of revenue. But I need to fit into this impact side of business. So, I’m going to go. And Amazon, they did it by staying. in the next five years, they’re going to be 100% carbon neutral governments. Everybody’s playing in this field. Now you’ve got this whole market of carbon offsets that has gone crazy and a carbon offset that used to cost a penny. It is now costing like a thousand dollars. So, when you’re working with investment potential companies, how are you looking at that side of the equation? where you’ve got all of these carbon offsets and everybody’s trying to find an easy way out. Is that something that you’re coming across and seeing as a negative in the environment that you work in? Or, is it something that it’s not really that big of a deal?
Eva: I think it’s a big deal. We don’t have to deal with that. Our companies are focused on needs. So, we are focused more on the social impact. although environmental impacts are very important to me personally. But there’s really no situation where impact is not baked into a business model. And like buying a carbon offset tells me that impact is not baked into your business model. That being said, I really do think that carbon offsets are the tip of the iceberg. There are a lot of burgeoning carbon negative strategies and products out there that can actually achieve the same goal and I really hope that the Amazon boardrooms of the world are not sitting around looking out 10 years and figuring out how much carbon offsets are going to cost. I think that there’s much more that they can do with packaging these carbon negative strategies throughout their whole value chain where they can become carbon neutral just by offsetting, using maybe even the carbon negatives products services, whatever that may be. But it doesn’t have to be a carbon offset. I think that there are some more creative and entrepreneurial solutions and I think that the Tech companies that purport to be creative and entrepreneurial should probably figure that out.
Jeffery: You mentioned, I think in one of the chapters of your book, where some of your founders, I think is one of the ladies in India, was transferring products and shipping it from one area to another and found that travel cost is too much for one. And that was a negative impact against the business because maybe you couldn’t carbon offset it. But she needed to redirect it. Instead of doing something in Peru, I should do it here instead and set up different distribution channels to offset things. That sounds like obviously, in a way, every company should be looking at this. every company should be evaluating. If I’m going to go from country to country, region to region, and start to scale my business, there’s going to be costs and people don’t realize that there’s a lot of issues in transportation. there’s a lot of things that come in distribution, building your company to scale. But they may not look at that as being a negative impact against their business. So, are you guys going through and analyzing this and saying, hey look, we’re going to scale. But I don’t like the approach you’re taking because you’re sending a thousand trucks to Peru. What’s the difference between doing them in the US? Can we find a different way of doing this and offsetting that? So is there a lot of that strategic work that’s helping these companies as they scale and build from country to country to find offsets or to find more effective ways to deliver products or to get products through Amazon and get it to a customer?
Eva: there’s a lot of things out there that we don’t calculate. And if we did, I’m sure everybody would realize, man, our businesses are very non-impactful. I think there’s a study done with Tesla, and they said that the battery actually creates more carbon waste than filling your car up with a thousand liters of gas and burning it every second of the day. So, all of a sudden, this is coming out ten years later.
Jeffery: So, how do you guys’ approach that in the companies that you’re working with?
Eva: what you’re talking about is unintended consequences of making an impact investment. We try to evaluate this by funding a leader who is committed to impact, being baked into their business model and all stakeholders, which means that in maintaining fidelity to their shareholders and their customers and their employees, they would not sacrifice the environment, necessarily as a stakeholder in their activities. This is much easier said than that. And I think there are certain companies that really like Tesla, I feel bad for them because on one hand, they sparked an industry. They pioneered an industry. I don’t particularly think Elon Musk is a great leader or example to hold up as a leader. That being said, he certainly is an innovator. And yes, there’s a need for a source of batteries and that is rare. Earth has its own unique problems. It’s basically the new oil. Why? I think it’s more interesting. a company like Tesla should figure out how to recycle batteries. a company like Nike should figure out how their shoes don’t end up in landfills or oceans. ultimately because, that’s what’s in the great pacific garbage patch is microplastic. And it’s about truly investing in businesses that are going to think about all these areas. The CEO of Care Point doesn’t have to care about healthcare and climate. He’s doing that as a part of an Eisenhower Fellowship where he applied and selected his own project. He could have done it on health outcomes and something that maybe was a little bit more typically related to his business. But he’s thinking about all stakeholders. And I do think it’s possible to spend a little time and think on innovation. just going one step further than what these unintended consequences would be because people have been making mistakes for decades. And they’re never going to stop making them. But what we want to see in our companies is to know they’re doing their best.
Jeffery: I love it. And I think the whole storyline to this is that they’ve got a plan. They’re starting somewhere and then they’re going to take this a lot further and they’re always going to innovate. And just as you said with Elon, he’s built all of this. He’s worth a lot of money et cetera et cetera. Now why don’t you take a step back and figure out where you can start to correct some of the areas that are not as impactful and start to clean those up? because at the end of the day, you’ve got the time and energy to put into innovation and this would be a good way to help support that, or maybe a startup comes in and helps solve that problem for them.
Eva: Yes. you think that in all of this timing of Impact Investing and how impactful it is today in 2022 and going forward, I have this thought back in when this first came out. When Larry Fink released his annual report back in 2020 and said there’s a problem here. We need to start shifting our stuff and getting more impactful. by 2050, we’re going to have a 100% impact, changing the way we invest. being that they’re a three and a half trillion-dollar portfolio, do you think that today, who’s that next person or that next entity that’s going to step up to take and become that next impact leader or director that’s going to help the world say, oh my god, I got to open my mind up again to this because I think that started that little bit of a wave that got people talking. Did it do anything?
Eva: I think so. I think it opened up investors to start thinking more into the space of course of everything else.
Jeffery: But who’s that next person that you think or business that really needs to step it up? And I’m assuming it has to be some conglomerate versus a few entities. But what do you think is going to change?
Eva: It’s funds like mine, hands down. And it’s this. not about plugging my fund. It’s about emerging managers. In fact, the working title for my next book is emerging because we think that it has to be some big company that’s going to come and save us. That big company has vested interests that go back centuries and we will never undo that. So, we will never undo those interests. So, it really is. It’s the 399 other female general partners that are part of Transact Global, a network of female GPs that I’m a part of. It’s emerging managers who are genuinely focused on climate innovations and building out climate innovations. I think it is much more on the private side so that we can develop these companies to one day be investable by a BlackRock. But I really don’t believe that at all that BlackRock can rewrite history itself alone. It needs deeper financial innovation. And one of the things that we’re doing that I encourage any investors in funds or any funds to think about is, we’re giving a percentage of our general partner profit share to every founder in the portfolio. And in doing that, we’re making them owners. And that’s a win-win. And again, going back to founder friendly, this is something that’s really core to our strategy of support for our companies. But this is how we actually structurally inculcate change. Otherwise, it’s just the same old game with a different name.
Jeffery: I totally agree with that. And again, I love the whole 1 to the founders. I think that’s a phenomenal way to distribute and get people baked into what you’re doing. And I do agree with you that when it comes to the emerging markets, it’s going to be a lot of funds like yourself that are going to make that impact. But I also think it’s someone that is going to and I don’t think this a saving grace. It’s nothing to do with that. It’s not that this BlackRock’s going to save the world. not at all, not even close. It’s more of who’s going to be the voice? so Greta was the voice for climate. I think if it’s Oprah that’s the voice for impact, it’s finding someone that carries the weight to move the room. It’s not about a million ships in the water. It’s the one big ship that’s going to help steer the million and Greta was able to be pushed into that place and I think there’s going to be many more people along the way. And hopefully as you and the rest of the groups build up another great Impact Investor that I had the privilege of being able to interview with, Catherine Wardsman. She’s from Toronto and she’s fantastic. If you don’t know, I’m going to introduce her to you because she’s amazing as well. And she had the same start that you did. She worked in the financial sector and then she moved her way into Impact Investing. And I believe she’s now on her second fund too. And she’s incredible and doing a lot of great things in space as well. So, again thank you very much for sharing all of that. Again, we could keep talking for hours because I have notes galore because there’s so much of this world that fascinates me. We impact investment. We invest in CPG. And I love making sure that the companies that we invest in are 100 percent that. from Flow Tetra Pack water to snow canning, they all take care of that impact side and ensuring that from day one, they’re working to build up to be 100 renewable and impactful so a big fan of what you’re doing we’re going to shift a little bit now into if you could share more of a story or a use case that really intrigued you or got you excited about what it takes to be an entrepreneur and this could be your own experience or one where you work with a founder she or he came up with. Maybe it didn’t work out and then all of a sudden, they turned the corner and boom, they took off like a rock star. I’m just looking for that heartfelt story that really shows what it takes to be an entrepreneur.
Eva: Sure. I’d love to tell you the story of how we got invested in a company called Frontier Markets. And they talked through on the opportunity that the entrepreneur saw at the time and then developed over time to be India’s true only rural distributor of fast-moving consumer goods and consumer durables. In 2012, we decided to look at solar lanterns which were big in our markets. because like cooking with a wood stove or having kerosene in the house is dangerous and not good for your health, there were a lot of products on the markets, pure play products and we just decided after reviewing a dozen of them that we really didn’t want to take like a one product play. So, we looked for a distributor and we found a Jada Shaw who was an echoing green fellow and she was starting a company called Frontier Markets and she was distributing solar and renewable energy products in rural areas. So, it was an energy access business at the time. We invested in her seed round. In fact, we led her seed round and we then watched the company grow. We committed some more capital. But the turning point for her was really when she realized that there’s a whole workforce of women in villages that are connected to their neighbors, have strong networks, but they don’t really have economic opportunity. And unlocking this, just like the Avon or the Mary Kay models did in the US, could be very powerful for the company and for these women to find that win-win in her workforce, so she developed a sales force of women called Solar Sahelis. now she has built that to thousands of women who are selling her products and using a Tech enabled smartphone application. They’re actually even helping with data drive, data insights about inventory of what each village actually needs. They’re trained so that they know what questions to ask and know how to engage their customers and know how to even do some after sales service or figure out if a product breaks. But what it really did was it opened up a world of opportunity for this business. And had that company gone as just renewable energy distribution, finding these little shops and villages and planting their products there. It would not be near where it is right now. And they’re about to raise their series b at a pretty strong valuation. It would be something much smaller, so unleashing the power of an alternative workforce trusting and being brave and courageous enough to think about something differently was a big lesson from this company and we just added it to our second fund as well. So, we’re reinvesting.
Jeffery: ah, that’s brilliant. a great story. It reminds me of a long time ago. I think it was JetBlue where they took all their customer support. And they moved it in-house, meaning in people’s homes and they could ransom phone calls and take care of things. So, they utilized their network of at home people and said you guys take care of the calls and let’s solve this problem by being different. So, I love the fact that she went somewhere different, triggered that and found a massive network to solve their problem and move their business forward. And of course now, very far along. So, that’s amazing. Thank you. We’re going to jump now into our rapid fire questions. And the way this works, well you’re coming in from the investors side, so you choose one or the other. And then we’ll jump into the personal side. ready to roll?
Eva: ready.
Jeffery: All right. founder or co-founder?
Eva: founder.
Jeffery: unicorn or a four-year 10 x exit?
Eva: wow! That’s hard. Look, I’m going to say unicorn because I think there are like a dozen just ready to happen in Africa and I’m super excited about that.
Jeffery: okay. Tech or CPG?
Eva: technology.
Jeffery: NFT or Web 3.0? oh, sorry my audio dropped for a second there. First time founder or second third time founder?
Eva: second third time founder. first on the enter series
Jeffery: equity or interest payments?
Eva: equity.
Jeffery: I love it. favorite part of investing?
Eva: the people.
Jeffery: number of companies invested per year?
Eva: average dozen.
Jeffery: preferred terms?
Eva: We tend to do safes and they’re pretty simple discount caps on the no cap, on the safe things like that.
Jeffery: I love it. verticals of focus?
Eva: healthcare, fintech.
Jeffery: two qualities a startup needs in order to stand out to you.
Eva: a conscious leader, solving a problem that hasn’t necessarily been solved in that way before.
Jeffery: I like the conscious leader one for sure. Okay, personal side. book or movie? Superman or Batman?
Eva: Wonder Woman.
Jeffery: All right. Done. restaurant or picnic?
Eva: picnic.
Jeffery: Five minutes with Bezos or Oprah?
Eva: Oprah. Oh my gosh. I wouldn’t even take five minutes of Bezos if somebody offered it to me, especially after the last few years. I can’t see why, but Oprah I think she’s a massive network and I think she’d be amazing to learn from.
Jeffery: So, I agree. Yeah. mountain or beach?
Eva: I like both. But I’ll say beach.
Jeffery: bike or run?
Eva: bike. although neither, because of my arthritis. rowing machine then.
Jeffery: rowing machine, yes. Big Mac or Chicken McNuggets?
Eva: I really don’t eat processed food, but I would pick a Big Mac.
Jeffery: All right. trophy or money?
Eva: money.
Jeffery: beer or wine?
Eva: wine.
Jeffery: camera or mobile phone?
Eva: camera.
Jeffery: king or rich?
Eva: That’s a hard one. Queen.
Jeffery: Okay, perfect.
Eva: I’ve got the answer where it was. I don’t want the responsibility. So, I’ll be rich. So, they all work I guess.
Jeffery: concert or amusement park?
Eva: concert.
Jeffery: fortune cookie or birthday cake?
Eva: birthday cake.
Jeffery: Ted Talk or book reading?
Eva: Ted Talk.
Jeffery: most famous person that pops into your mind? you already said Oprah on Bezos. So, that’s where my mind went. But the most famous person that pops into my mind right now?
Eva: We already talked about Musk. I don’t know why I’m struggling with this one. oh well, he may not be famous to a lot of people here, but his name is Jay Shetty and he’s got an awesome podcast.
Jeffery: yep. Jay Shetty is cool. I like it. favorite movie and what character would you play?
Eva: I mean I think my favorite movie is a movie called Lantu Shop. It’s a French movie. But they did make one with Kevin Hart. Maybe, it’s called The Untouchables. But I doubt it. So, I don’t know the name in English. But I don’t know if I would play anybody. It’s a story of a man who’s bound to a wheelchair and a paraplegic movie. It’s so good. It’s just so heartwarming. So, sorry I wasn’t able to meet the role-playing criteria. Well, the guy that takes care of him he’s pretty awesome. So, that’s what it’s all about. So, I think it’s a pretty good movie. great choice. The French version has one of my favorite actors. His name is Omar C.
Jeffery: You did have a great choice. great choice. All right. favorite book?
Eva: The book that really inspired me to do my work is called “The Life You Can Save” by Peter Singer.
Jeffery: awesome, favorite sports team?
Eva: my son’s tennis team.
Jeffery: That works. the first brand that pops into your mind?
Eva: Victoria Beckham. That’s what I’m wearing today.
Jeffery: I like that. What happened? I haven’t heard of that one. So, that’s perfect. That’s good. favorite app you’re using today or your favorite app in general?
Eva: my favorite app is my podcasting.
Jeffery: Last two questions. What is the meaning of success to you?
Eva: happiness.
Jeffery: brilliant. What is your superpower?
Eva: A very focused focus is good.
Jeffery: I think I should just call this podcast, Focus, because I think it is the hardest thing in the world to do. But it brings the best results. Yeah, it’s very sure. It really does. Well, Eva, I want to thank you very much for all of your time today. It was a pleasure getting to dive into your background and all the great things you’re doing. I love the book and I think your second book is going to be fantastic as well. I hope I can get the email that tells me you’re going active with it so I can read it again. It was a pleasure learning about all the great things you’re doing. And the way we like to end our shows, we like to give you the last word. So, anything you want to share to investors or to founders, I turn it over to you. But thank you very much for your time today.
Eva: Sure. What I want to share is that this is not only about money. This is also about our consumer choices and where we place all our resources. It can be aligned with our values and that is the truth. So, think about every single transaction, not just where you invest or where you put your time as a founder or where you put your sweat equity. think about your consumer choices. think about your relationships and find a community that can support you being aligned with your values because that’s really what makes us happy and feel good at the end of the day and that’s proven. Thank you for allowing me to share that message.
Jeffery: I love it. I totally agree with you. And get more impactful help save the planet and that all starts with the first movement and that’s investing or helping somebody else do something great. So, thank you very much again and have a fantastic day.
Eva: Thank you. take care. all the best Jeffery. bye you too.
Jeffery: Thank you. Okay, that was awesome. I had taken so many notes but Eva was fantastic, really enjoyed breaking down the whole impact side and what that means, how it works. And of course, the conscience investing and what a startup founder will look for in a startup founder, and then I highly recommend that you jump in and read our book. It’s really a great book. And as she said, it’s a program to help you learn about how you can be more conscious of the types of companies you invest in, work with, or buy. And I think it’s overall. It’s a fantastic read. And then again, I really enjoyed the fact that she gives one percent of the GP profits back to the founders of all the portfolio companies they invest in. So, again a fantastic initiative. And I just love what you’re doing. So, thank you again for sharing all of that. So, thank you for joining us today. If you enjoyed this conversation, please feel free to share with your friends or subscribe to our YouTube channel. follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcast and or Stitcher. Your support and comments are truly appreciated. You can also check us out at supportersfun.com or for startup events, visit openpeoplenetwork.com. Thank you and have a fantastic day.