312 | How to Launch and Grow an Impact Fund with Tanya Beja

Our guest this week on the pod is Tanya Beja.  Tanya is a serial entrepreneur passionate about for profits with a social conscience and non-profits with a sustainable business model.  She is a General Partner at AlleyCorp where she leads the Social Impact Fund.

Resources mentioned in this episode include:

How to Launch and Grow an Impact Fund with Tanya Beja

 

NOTE: While it’s not perfect, we offer a transcript and the below summaries by Castmagic for those who are hearing impaired or who don’t find listening to a podcast enjoyable or possible.

Full transcript of the interview is available here.

Key Topics & Bullet Points

I. Introduction to Tanya Beja and Alicorp

  • Tanya Beja's background and passion for poverty alleviation

  • AlleyCorp's focus on transformative companies and social impact as an impact fund

II. The Purpose and Benefits of Impact Funds

  • Definition of impact funds and their goal of creating positive social change

  • Reasons to start or be part of an impact fund

  • Increasing interest from traditional VCs in underserved communities

III. Alicorp's Approach to Impact Investing

  • Overview of the social impact fund at AlieyCorp

  • Examples of investments in companies addressing low-income challenges

  • Launching Impact Engine to support tech-enabled nonprofits

IV. The Role of Capital and Value-Added Support

  • Importance of capital deployment and value-added support after investment

  • Areas where AlieyCorp Social Impact Fund adds value, including fundraising, networking, and strategic expertise

V. Tracking and Measuring Success in an Impact Fund

  • Monitoring growth, revenue, burn rate, and social impact KPIs

  • Tailoring metrics based on specific investment opportunities

  • Measuring success in an impact fund by financial returns and social impact

VI. Collaborative Opportunities and Future Plans

  • Invitation to early-stage founders working on low-income issues to collaborate with AlleyCorp

  • Exploring food distribution and incubation opportunities

  • Growing Impact Engine and expanding incubation programs

VII. Impact Funds and Financial Returns

  • The potential for impact and financial returns to align and reinforce each other

  • Balancing return-seeking investments and philanthropic funding for strong impact

  • The importance of flexible capital in addressing specific problems

VIII. Nonprofits and Business Management

  • The strength of nonprofits that are run like businesses

  • The positive returns Alicorp's impact Fund has seen from investments

IX. Conclusion and Summary

  • Recap of AlleyCorp Impact Fund’s approach and impact vertical investments

  • Emphasis on the measurement of both financial returns and social impact

  • Encouragement for listeners to suggest future podcast topics on the Awarepreneurs website

Paul Zelizer