Julie Blane has a range of activities in impact investing professional focussing on integrating ESG into venture capital (LinkedIn).
We speak on the strengths, and weaknesses, of impact investing, ESG and Venture Capital. Plus, If you are a lifelong learner, going into a new career is daunting, exciting, scary, thrilling, exhausting, and invigorating, and a whole bunch more. But it’s never too late to restart and never too late to reinvent.
For clarity, I have been a tutor on the sustainable finance online short course offered by the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL). That does not make me a Cambridge Professor (Julie had got the wrong end of the stick in an earlier conversation).
We recorded this interview on 10 March 2022.
Listen
Links
‘ESG’ – stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance. More here.
Sloan Fellowship at London Business School
Different phases of start up funding (pre-seed, seed, Series A etc) mentioned at 5:42, are explained here.
The 100-year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity by Lynda Gratton & Andrew Scott.
Timings
0:50 – Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there?
14:35 – Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why?
21:30 – Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why?
25:36 – Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next?
25:36 – Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next?27:53 – Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them?Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach?
28:44 – Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say?
Themes and quotes
-Curious about the numbers and how the nuts and bolts of an initiative work together on on a very rudimentary basis to see if you double the income of an investment, how can you more than double your impact? What are routes to scale?
-Goal: influence a mindset that when investors go into a company, that it’s not just about the financial return that they’re interested in. And to support founders and founding teams to be aware of that it’s not just a financial return.
-Sometimes it feels like what can one person do to relieve their anxiety and the the real scary situation that many, many people are facing now.
-It does really make a difference if you have a clear value set, that your return on investment includes health, well being of the company, of the company employees, but also health and well being of the communities in the planet.
-There may be important trade offs to consider, there may be a longer investment period that’s needed, there may be a slower return, there may be less of a return for a while before that J curve goes up. But if that J curve, and if that aim for return on investment, is a holistic approach to financial improvement, wellness improvement, care for our planet, and care for our communities, then it’s more sustainable, it’s more sustainable, on all fronts.
-Priorities: Learning how to bring ESG into VC (venture capital).
-I’m a lifelong learner. Going into a new career is daunting, exciting, scary, thrilling, exhausting, and invigorating, and a whole bunch more. It’s never too late to restart and never too late to reinvent.
-I would tell my younger self, it’s okay to dream, because planning starts with dreaming.
-I would tell my younger self, if something doesn’t feel right, be brave enough to step out of it.
-I would tell myself if something feels great, and it feels that you’re learning from that keep on going.
David Bent 