Six Ways Startups Struggle Trying to Solve the 21st Century’s Grand Challenges [Part 4]

The existence of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the other lists we discussed in our first post is a good start. In our second post we provided an overview of various organizations tackling the 21st Century’s Grand Challenges (21CGCs). Our third post showed that there are investors willing to invest in Purpose+Profit Driven (PPD) Startups. 

Clearly, startup founders are waking up to the fact that humanity faces major challenges and they have an important role in solving them. And a glimpse at the news on any random day shows just how much is at stake. But these promising startups still face struggles.

Based on our research covering over 30,000 startups, including interviews with dozens of startup founders, we have identified six main struggles that startup founders face when setting up and growing their PPD Startups.

Key points explored in this post: 

• Purpose-driven startup founders are currently struggling to attract great talent.
• There are too few purpose-driven startup founders setting up PPD companies. 
• The ecosystem of PPD Startups is not yet defined clearly enough.
• Access to venture capital for PPD Startups remains limited. 
• Governments are not doing enough to support PPD Startups.
• We need more success stories about PPD Startups to inspire current and future founders.
• With increased focus and motivation, we can overcome these hurdles and scalable technology startups can play a major role in solving the 21st Century’s Grand Challenges, providing a major positive impact.

Recently, Daniel Ek, a founder of Spotify, the music streaming platform, announced that he would invest 1 billion euro ($1.2 billion) of his personal fortune into deep tech “moonshot projects” over the next 10 years. The startup founder indicated that he was specifying machine learning, biotechnology, material sciences and energy as his focus areas. This initiative alone could significantly increase the access to capital to several PPD Startups. 

Only one day later, on September 25, 2020, David Miliband, the former British Foreign Secretary, and John Browne, the former CEO of oil giant BP, announced that they were joining forces with Giant Ventures, a VC fund that has invested over $25 million in PPD Startups working on issues from climate change to financial inclusion and affordable healthcare. Tommy Stadlen, the founder of Giant Ventures, has also committed to raising and investing $1 billion into PPD Startups over the next 10 years.

Sadlen summed up the announcement for Bloomberg by saying:

“Governments have shown an inability to solve critical societal and environmental problems, and it’s hard for big corporations to do anything other than window-dressing.” - Tommy Stadlen

He also said that he believes that new ventures aiming to solve these problems are going to rapidly scale up.

This post focuses on the current business landscape to suggest solutions to what we see as a continuing hesitation among some entrepreneurs and startups to invest in impact balanced by profit. 

As tech entrepreneurs, we believe in the power of technology to get us out of this mess, but the right global policies and geopolitical structures are equally important.

The world is more connected and more complex than ever. At the same time, technological development is exponential and unprecedented. But business being what it is, we, unfortunately, can’t expect every company to do the right thing just for the sake of it. 

In order to utilize the full potential of the most advanced technology to improve current conditions, the right business environment must be created to enable companies to profit from having a positive—rather than a negative—impact. 

Why Aren’t Innovators Making More Progress? 

We need systemic changes so tech companies and innovators can flourish while enriching lives and making the world a better, safer place. 

We believe that more people than ever are willing to work for meaningful causes; to invest their fortunes meaningfully; and to buy from companies that care about the planet as well as profit. 

But any business trying to do good still faces an uphill climb. Here is our list of major challenges for startups trying to solve the 21CGCs.

1. There Are Too Few Purpose-Driven Founders

Unlocking the potential of PPD Startups means attracting more founders who are focused on impact. 

Probably the biggest impediment to our progress is the fact that too few founders are willing to put their time and energy into businesses that are driven by purpose as much as profit. Some may have been building other businesses, some have recently exited their ventures and are only beginning to consider starting their next endeavors, and still others are now considering starting their first venture with no previous entrepreneurial experience. 

There are plenty of discussions about systemic change today, but we simply don’t see widespread support systems in place for the next generation of Elon Musks and Nicola Teslas. Support from universities for their students who are launching deep tech startups, and VC funds providing support networks for startups while remaining ready to invest into the prototype stage would be good places to start.

We need passionate individuals who are willing to work on challenges supported not just by money but also skills and experiences. And we need to help them build scalable and exponential businesses fearlessly, even though they are likely to fail.

It’s crucial that we have a broader discussion that is supported by data and aimed toward systemic change on all levels. But this will only happen with support networks for researchers and founders, including expert advisors and brave investors who are willing not only to make more money, but also want to be part of a mission to solve really massive problems.

So, how close are we to making that happen? Let’s look more closely at the current landscape.

Founders Are Aware, But Passive

One thing became clear after our discussions with fellow company founders who are working on what can be called traditional commercial startups. Many have said that it never occurred to them that they could play a significant role in solving some of the world's greatest challenges. 

Until now, many founders have assumed that there is already a working ecosystem of nonprofits, governments, large corporations and philanthropists that are focused on solving the 21st Century’s Grand Challenges. There isn’t.

Under pressure, some founders respond that they already do enough by employing people and providing products and services that do some good in their respective industries. Only a few expressed a certain degree of acknowledgment and frustration that they might actually be more engaged and active. 

One positive is that almost none of the founders we interviewed questioned the existence of the 21CGCs and their vast current or potential impact on society and the environment. But many of them disagree about what needs to be done in order to solve these challenges. 

Founders Face Social and Personal Pressure 

Never underestimate the power of peer pressure! We have spoken to many startup founders about this, and some feel that if they switch their entrepreneurial focus from profit to social impact, their family, friends and colleagues will perceive this as a step back in their careers, a risky decision with uncertain outcomes. 

At the same time, founders without previous experience working on impact might feel unprepared and unqualified.

Those with deep industry knowledge, whether gained from study or practice, may feel that they lack the business knowledge required to transfer an innovative idea into a scalable PPD Startup. They need help.

These are deeply personal reasons and only the ones that have surfaced in our research. Nonetheless, they have a significant effect in terms of limiting the number of PPD Startup founders actively working on scalable technologies that contribute solutions to the 21CGCs.

We believe the number of PPD Startup founders will increase in the future, yet we still need to develop a platform for connecting academic scientists and business founders to work on solving the 21CGCs. 

To build impactful technological solutions to the 21CGCs, founders need to develop deep technical innovations requiring thorough technical knowledge and field expertise that’s often gained by extensive work in academia and scientific research.

But scientists often lack the business skills required to build successful businesses, such as the ability to form sales teams, develop a workable go-to-market strategy, raise venture capital, and finally to sell their businesses.

Finding a complementary co-founder to develop a traditional commercial startup is difficult enough, but finding a great co-founder for a PPD Startup striving to generate both profit and purposeful impact is even harder. Academic scientists often lack access to businessmen and businessmen lack access to the scientists. 

When you consider the fact that there is generally a low number of potential founders actively seeking to work on the 21CGCs, the prospects of finding your next business buddy in your existing network or in your city is nearly impossible.

Bringing Academia and Business Closer Together

Business clubs and knowledge-transfer organizations set up by universities have been doing some good work in connecting the two worlds together and supporting founders to patent their innovations and to build commercial applications around them. 

However, we have found that the often-prohibitive contracts signed between scientific innovators and their universities limit the potential of scientists to set-up organizations that may freely focus on product development and business scaling. 

For example, Vojtech Kadlec, a Co-founder of Unico.ai, a private business incubator working with a number of universities in the Czech Republic and in Central and Eastern Europe, told us that Unico has helped a number of aspiring entrepreneurs in the academic field to renegotiate contracts with their universities in order to allow them to work on the commercial applications of their innovations. 

Furthermore, the company has worked to connect scientists with experienced business experts who have taken active board seats or executive roles in newly created organizations. This is a good start, but more work is needed.

2. The Ecosystem Is Not Defined Clearly Enough

Unlike profit, impact is actually rather complicated to measure definitively. While it is important to measure impact when investing in impact startups, it is very complicated across all verticals to come up with simple reporting. 

The best definition and rule of thumb is this: if you remove impact you remove business and one unit of sale should generate one unit of impact. 

Beyond that, we would rather define it per startup. Companies keep an eye on the so-called triple-bottom-line (TBL), which is an accounting framework that incorporates three dimensions of performance: social, environmental, and financial. TBL dimensions are also commonly called 3P: People, Profit, Planet.

There are many other tools to measure business impact. The most widely used are IRIS+; GIIRS (the gold standard for funds that manage their portfolio’s impact with the same rigor as their financial performance); GRI (Global Reporting Initiative); SASB (Sustainability Accounting Standards Board); and AIF (Access Impact Framework). We found many of these frameworks very complex and somewhat confusing for the needs of a fairly small and daily updating technology startup. 

We recommend that PPD Startup founders review these frameworks for possible inspiration and implementation at a later stage. Many PPD Startups can simply find a UN SDG that fits the category where they are developing their business and measure how they contribute to reaching a target of the SDG.

Profit vs. Impact

Everyone involved in business thinks about the tradeoff between profit and impact. Unfortunately, some people still believe that focusing on impact will lower profit. 

The perceived tradeoff between profit and impact is a major source of conflict. And it’s largely false.

When speaking with Silicon Valley impact funds, one of the answers we got was “we are in the top percentage of performance among all funds, so we don’t see any trade offs… and even if there were any and our performance was worse, our previous fundraise was three times oversubscribed…”

In other words, US-based impact funds have registered an immense interest for investors to chip into impact investing. 

Through our interviews with impact fund managers and individual investors, we received a counter-intuitive response to the possible tradeoff between profit and impact. As we reported earlier (link to Part 3), we believe that passionate investors need to lead the way for other investors interested in impact. A good way to begin is for investors to ask portfolio startups to measure impact, and for startup founders to build impact measurement into their reporting and give it the same importance as financial measurement.

3. Access To Venture Capital Is Limited

Our research showed us that business angels and early-stage VCs need to connect more with the relevant PPD Startup founders to increase the overall funding directed toward solving the 21CGCs. 

Even the most idealistic and innovative entrepreneurs still face serious fundraising problems. 

Founding a startup, going first for angel money, then Series A VC money, then, when the business is scaling well, adding Series B and Series C capital before either going public or selling the business to a large corporation — that is the mantra of the Silicon Valley-style startup. 

Many impact companies take alternative routes: Founding a nonprofit, patenting their technology based on a university loan or small grant coming from an acceleration program or incubating scheme, then applying for another grant before applying for another grant. And every grant application slightly de-focuses their grand vision and the mission the founders built their businesses for. 

Plus, with negligible access to the commercial financial market, the chances of ever attracting the larger capital required to significantly scale business and impact is fairly low. We heard these opinions from many of the startup founders we interviewed, as well as some fund managers focusing on social impact. 

There is massive potential for PPD Startup founders to raise capital from purpose-driven business angels, high-net-worth family offices, and venture capital firms that align with the startups on their mission to deliver returns on investments with positive impacts. 

However, as we described above, finding a suitable investor is a real challenge. With the stress of fundraising for an early-stage business, the founders rarely have time to educate investors on the differences between traditional and impact startups. 

Moreover, startup founders themselves often do not have direct access to relevant business angels or early-stage VCs. So they end up going for grants or alternative financing through loans, which may cause them to lose focus on their long-term mission. In turn, suboptimal capitalization can make even a successfully growing company hard to finance in the later stages. 

Those founders that manage to raise capital from early-stage investors who are inexperienced in the impact space often see their valuations being discounted for the elevated risk of their “impact vision.” The funding gap for PPD Startups is a known phenomenon. 

Startups go for cheap money alternatives such as grants and loans, and venture investors have a lesser opinion of impact startups. We believe this challenge can be solved by better education for both founders and early-stage investors, as well as a more organized socialization of the two groups toward higher investment activity. There are still too few conferences and meetups dedicated to PPD Startups, and there’s a lack of case studies and founder success stories shared among the community. 

Wanted: Purpose-driven Business Angels 

More business angels need to be motivated to support the growing number of early-stage PPD Startups. 

There are countless active business angels with previous successful investment experience who have no particular focus on impact. These are just some of the people who need to be refocused! Others are more risk-averse investors typically investing in publicly traded companies through shares or debt-financing. Their passion for a particular focus area within the 21 CGCs may motivate them to diversify their investment portfolio to also include startup investments. 

While speaking to some active PPD angels and early-stage VCs, we noticed they all described a noticeable lack of quality deal flow in investable PPD Startups. Increasing the share of wallet of investors wanting to invest into the 21CGCs is therefore the second essential step in leveling up the efforts of startups contributing to solve the 21CGCs, followed by an increased number of founders setting up investable ventures, as we’ve already mentioned. 

But there are more challenges that must be faced—including the question of talent. 

4. PPD Founders Struggle To Attract Great Talent

Many PPD Startups are not prepared to attract the top talent on the market and they need to change their approach.

Even once complementary founders find each other, they typically need to hire employees to work on the product. Attracting great talent in the IT industry is challenging enough for unproven early-stage startups, but adding the “impact” element into the mix doesn’t make it easier to hire top-notch software and hardware engineers, DevOps experts and product managers. 

Some impact startups we spoke to have chosen to decrease their quality benchmark and hire lower-tier applicants. Others have tried to attract their first employees on the prospect of giving them future partner status as co-founders. 

Many startups working on the 21st Century’s Grand Challenges do not offer stock option plans for their employees. This is a problem.

Stock options could provide high returns to early employees after a successful exit (if a trade sale or IPO is a desired strategy for founders). Some startups we spoke to have been built as nonprofits or for-profits with fairly low potential to scale their businesses, thus making it unlikely that they can offer attractive stock option plans. That makes it a challenge to attract top talent and we believe such companies need to be redesigned from the ground up. 

Great talents seek a great company vision, an ambitious mission and charismatic founders.

Besides the stock options, our entrepreneurial experience tells us that great talents seek a great company vision, an ambitious mission and charismatic founders. Some founders simply haven’t paid enough attention to positioning themselves to attract the best talent available on the job market. 

Founders Must Step Up to Attract Top IT Talent

There is a prevailing limiting factor in job recruitment for startups tackling the 21CGCs. The majority of the best software engineers, IT experts and product managers work in highly paid jobs at either large tech companies such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft and the like, or well-funded VC-backed tech startups. 

Take the AI Scientists developing algorithms for machine-learning-equipped software, a majority of whom work for the few largest technology companies in the United States. 

To attract the best talent currently working in relatively stable, highly paid jobs in companies often considered some of the best employers to work for, PPD Startup founders need to position themselves as visionaries with bold missions and attractive workplaces. 

Moreover, the founders need to be able to provide market-average salaries, with attractive stock option plans and other benefits, such as the possibility of working from home. 

Limited Access to Expert Advisors Is a Major Hurdle

Our research revealed the need to create a platform for connecting PPD Startup founders with expert advisors and to help them set standard cooperation conditions.

Sometime in your business life, you have certainly heard something like this: 

“Hard problems require hard solutions.” 

“There is no shortcut to solve complex global problems.”

“You need multi-disciplinary experts to work on grand challenges.”

We were reminded of these claims many times in our interviews with experienced PPD Startup founders. But how can you attract the best experts in the industry to increase your chances of succeeding with your innovation and guiding your company successfully during the treacherous first few years, when most new companies go under? 

Early-stage startups with unproven traction and limited resources, very often bootstrapped or with limited venture financing, have only limited means to remunerate experts advising them on key decisions. But we have spoken to a number of senior executives and career scientists with 20+ years of practice in their respective fields, who were willing to support newly founded startups working on the 21CGCs. 

Some were willing to contribute their time free of charge, some expected remuneration in the form of stock options, and others required appropriate cash remuneration. 

But we did find that these “expert advisors for hire” often have limited access to relevant startups they could help. At the same time, we noticed the same repetitive problem with founders—they would like to have expert advisors onboard, but they don't know where to find them and how to approach them. 

Thus, we believe there is a need for creating (or utilizing) a platform to connect early-stage PPD Startup founders with relevant expert advisors to help them set standard cooperation conditions. 

5. Governments Are Not Supportive Enough

Governments need to step up their game, embrace the potential contribution of technology startups in solving some of the world's grand challenges, and work closely with tech startups. 

Cooperation with governmental organizations is welcome in some areas, very important in others and must-have in many cases. 

Working with the government on minimizing fake news and misinterpretation within national and international media (including Facebook and other major social media outlets) may be advisable in some circumstances. But in others it's not such a good idea because it may contribute to conflicts of interest or avoidable public scrutiny. 

However, for the majority of the 21CGCs we have analyzed, the government's role in unleashing a meaningful positive impact is essential. For instance, not working with governments in implementing new technological standards for improved water distribution, new medical devices or improving educational curriculum through technology is literally impossible. 

One private equity investor we spoke to has a long-term focus on energy sustainability. He has worked closely with the Slovak government to develop a new “gigafactory,” a battery production plant for electrical devices including cars. The investor confirmed that without the government's blessing the project would probably not have succeeded. 

We also spoke to a private-equity-backed venture working on new photovoltaic technology to generate solar energy. He said his early commercial success depended largely on successful cooperation with a state-owned energy company. What’s the takeaway? 

Government involvement is essential for the growth and scaling of technological innovation in the sustainable electricity sector.

The UN has outlined Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals—neither are binding to any of the member countries and both are subject to implementation by everyone individually. Regulatory frameworks play a significant role in the ability to change the incentive structure for starting new businesses and investment.

A particularly sobering article on the topic of systematic investment support highlights the set of incentives that need to be in place for investment to shift to the kinds of solutions that are beneficial to society and are ultimately aligned with solving the 21CGCs.

6. We Need More Success Stories

Unfortunately, the impact market does not have a wealth of exit partners. Yet.

So far, very few large commercial companies have purchased technology startups making an effort to solve the 21CGCs. 

Even looking at IPOs (Initial Public Offerings of stock), we haven’t found a growing trend of technology companies working on solving the 21CGCs that are raising capital by becoming public companies. 

Companies becoming public are expected to reach a certain size (typically with annual revenues in the hundreds of millions), alongside demonstrable scale and stability. For many startups that are developing unique patent-pending technological innovations and disrupting industries that have a lack of previous success stories, it may be advisable to stay private and work with business angels in the early stages. In the growth stage they can work with VCs and then with private equity in later growth stages, scaling as more traditional startups typically do. 

Without examples of successful exits, there is less motivation for everyone to get involved solving the 21st Century’s Grand Challenges.

Founders today are looking in vain for role models “who made it.” At the same time, investors miss the precedent of money returning with profit, and early employees lack the confidence to join upcoming companies in unproven industries. 

The number of exit partners and IPOs seems to be low (compared to the vast number of technology innovations needed to help solve the 21CGCs across diverse focus areas). But several impact fund managers and impact-focused private equity investors told us that the number of exits has been increasing and that they expect this trend to continue—fueled by the recent impact-driven discussion concerning the effects of COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement.

More work needs to be done to clear a path for startups to tackle the 21CGCs. Investors must change the way they think about investment, profit and impact. Startups need to make more of an effort to attract top talent. And governments have to help create an environment where these businesses can thrive. 

CONCLUSION: Making Progress on the 21CGCs

How do you feel after reading our previous posts—optimistic or pessimistic? 

It is impossible to ignore the major obstacles that must be overcome before solving the 21CGCs—and these involve significantly changing the current business and political landscape, no small task. But we want you, our readers, to know that we believe PPDs can accomplish the 21CGCs, making a positive difference and a profit with the help of funding, support and powerful technology. 

What Are We Waiting For?

First, founders and investors should be more informed, more engaged and more empowered to tackle the 21CGCs.

Second, technological innovation, which is essential to solve the 21CGCs, should receive more investment.

Third, PPD Startups need to work harder to attract investors and employees.

Fourth, PPD Startups and investors should develop clearer methods of measuring social impact.

Fifth, governments and other stakeholders must support PPD Startups more significantly. 

Now you have read our opinions, but what about yours? We’d love to hear what you think and we’d love to discuss the possibility of working together to make the world a better place, one business at a time. 

If you’re looking for more inspiration, we recommend the following books and resources we have utilized in our research for these posts. 

We also hope you’ll get in touch with any suggestions you have. Drop us a line at: [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you!

Jan, David, and Vit

Book Recommendations

• 80,000 Hours: Find a Fulfilling Career That Does Good by Benjamin Todd 
• Social Startup Success: How the Best Nonprofits Launch, Scale Up, and Make a Difference by Kathleen Kelly Janus
• Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit by Al Gore
• Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadas
• Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino
• 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari
• Accessory to War by Neil deGrasse Tyson

More Great Resources

• UN Social Development Goals — The most comprehensive research and framework for solving the most pressing problems of the planet by 2030.
• Rainmaking SDG Compass — A map of more than 2,000 startups in the funding stages solving the UN’s SDGs.
• Trillions — A solution proposal to tackle a fifty-trillion-dollar funding gap required to solve the UN’s SDGs in time.
• GITA.org — A global network of impact-tech leaders, from investors and organizations around the world, who are working in various ways to combine the UN’s SDGs with tech innovation. GITA aims to significantly scale global Impact-Venture Capital Investments from $1bn in 2019 to 50bn in 2030. 
• The Social Innovation Playbook — This playbook was created for the 2020 European Social Innovation Competition.
• NASA Climate Section — An extensive collection of global warming resources for the media, educators, meteorologists and public speakers.
• GlobalCarbonAtlas.org — A platform to explore and visualize the most up-to-date data on CO2 and CH4 fluxes resulting from human activities and natural processes. 
• WIPO — An online platform for technological exchange. WIPO supports global efforts to address climate change by connecting providers and seekers of environmentally friendly technologies.
• Future Earth — A network of scientists, researchers, and innovators designed to provide the knowledge needed to support transformations towards sustainability. 
• The Global Challenges Foundation — This foundation aims to promote the development of global decision-making models that are capable of more effectively and equitably mitigating and, preferably, eliminating the major global catastrophic risks threatening humanity.
• B Corporations — Certifies and forms a community of leaders and drives a global movement of people using business as a force for good.

VCs & Angels

• Future Planet Capital — A global innovation platform connecting the world’s largest investors to the best minds in order to address global challenges. An investor-led, co-investment platform giving the world’s largest investors scale-efficient access to innovation. Investing in top university clusters, the group aims to address and profitably impact the world’s biggest challenges; Health, Climate Change, Education, Sustainable Growth and Security.
• Apollo Projects — Founded by the Altman brothers, focusing on funding moonshot startups.
• DCVC.com — For over twenty years, DCVC and its principals have backed brilliant entrepreneurs applying deep tech, from the earliest stage and beyond, to transform global scale industries.
• Generation — A sustainable investment management company with $24bn AUM that is building a sustainable company portfolio and running a foundation to accelerate the transition to a more sustainable form of capitalism.
• Lux Capital — A $2.4 billion firm of more than 20 full-time professionals, investing in seed- and early-stage ventures in HW, SW and the life sciences.
• SeedTribe by the Angel Investment Network (only for UK startups) — Connecting impactful organizations with people who want to invest their time, energy or money.

Acceleration Programs

• The Sustainable Ocean Alliance — A nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, the SOA develops leaders, cultivates ideas, and accelerates solutions in the field of ocean health and sustainability.
• Uncharted.org — This Social Impact Accelerator has helped raised more than $250 million since 2010. 
• Entrepreneur First — An accelerator program investing money into the world’s most talented and ambitious individuals, helping them to find a co-founder, develop an idea, and start a company.
• GreenTown Labs — The largest climate tech startup incubator in North America, with more than 280 startups incubated and more than $850mil raised.

Think Tanks

• Copenhagen Consensus Center — A think tank that researches and publishes the smartest solutions to the world's biggest problems. Their studies are conducted by more than 300 economists from internationally renowned institutions to advise policymakers and philanthropists about how to achieve the best results with limited resources.
• World in 2050 — A think tank and ideas lab producing global events, research, and publications reaching audiences in 180 countries.

Resources for Benchmark Data

• SOCIETAL DATA — The General Social Survey (GSS) This survey has been in use for more than 40 years and is utilized (usually by politicians and policymakers) to acquire a picture of the opinions of the American populace on various national issues.
• HOUSEHOLD COMMUNITY DATA — The Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) works for the improvement of evidence-based policymaking. The study facilitates the acquisition of quality data through best practices in survey implementation.
• FAMILY LIFE SURVEYS — The Family Life Surveys (FLS) are generally implemented by the RAND Corporation (and its partners in regions of the survey) to gather insights on household and community life. Among the survey regions currently available are countries such as: Bangladesh, Guatemala, Indonesia, and more.
• THE OECD REGIONAL DATABASE — The OECD Regional Database offers a comprehensive database (35 countries) of statistics and indicators related to demographic factors, the economy, and social trends in the OECD regions of the world.
• THE OECD METROPOLITAN DATABASE — The OECD Metropolitan Database defines metropolitan areas as urban regions with more than half a million inhabitants. Of those areas (281 of them), the database consists of indicators tracking data across economic, environmental, demographic, and social themes.
• NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL STATISTICS AGENCIES — Data supplied by national statistical offices from member countries and presented in a comparative format. If you are seeking more detailed information or information about non-OECD countries, consult this list to find the appropriate agency.

Reports

• McKinsey Report: How Purpose-led Missions Can Help Europe Innovate at Scale — A report stating how vital innovation is to Europe, and what Europe needs to do to stay ahead of American and Chinese competitors.
• State of Tech in Europe by Atomico — A report by Atomico VC about the state of tech in Europe and how to support it .
• UBS Global Family Office Report 2020 — A report on the activity of family offices including the relocation of family office funds to impact areas.
• The Deloitte Global Millennial Survey 2020 — Research among 27,500 millennials and Gen Zs, both before and after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey reveals that despite the individual challenges and personal sources of anxiety that millennials and Gen Zs are facing, they have remained focused on larger societal issues, both before and after the onset of the pandemic. If anything, the pandemic has reinforced their desire to help drive positive change in their communities and around the world.
• Founders Pledge Impact Investing Report — Research about impact investment, its problems compared to standard for profit investments, and how to evaluate and access them.
• State of Nordic Impact Startups — Myths about the Nordic Impact environment, with a data-driven analysis of Nordic impact startups and barriers for growth.

Inspiration

• The One Initiative — An initiative to help fund impact startups in Nordic countries. The One Initiative collects and provides data that enables them to connect the best solutions and impact companies with the most thoughtful businesspeople and visionary investors.
• Sustainability Trends Report 2020 from Generation — A data-based list of challenges issued after the COVID19 pandemic.
• Moonshot Thinking by Singular University — A blogpost by Singular University student David Alayón.
• Venture Capital Needs a Complete Reset — A blogpost by Gabe Kleinman from Obvious VC.
• The World Positive Term Sheet — The purpose of the WPTS is to make sure investors and founders are aligned on key values that will determine how company leadership makes both strategic and tactical decisions in the years to come.
• MIT: Why Venture Capital Doesn’t Build the Things We Really Need — An insightful consideration of the practical effects of venture capital.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Sincere thanks to Vlasta Vodi?ka and Martin Dostál at Leadspicker for helping us access and engage with thousands of PPD Startups: Markus Freidberg (Fa-Se.de), Nina Cejnar (Golden Deer), Philipp Haydn and Karel ?těpán (EON), Petr Vítek (Impact HUB, Tilia Ventures), Silke Horáková (Tilia Ventures), Petr Disman (?EZ), Peter Gajdo? (PMI Group, Presidio Partners), Petr Rok?sek (Nano Energy), Andrej Kiska (Credo Ventures), Ji?í Navrátil (Unico.ai), Luká? Strni?tě (Entreprise UP), Adam Mitchell-Heggs (FoundersLane), Eduardo Gallo (Mutant Garage), Luká? Loun (Siemens), Jessica Rameau (Wellstreet VC), Hai Habot, Sean Salivan (SOSV), Christoffer Nilsson and Fabian Erici (Norrsken), Jonas Skattum Svegaarden (Katapult Ocean). Thanks to Joshua Kagan, Murat Armbuster, Pavlina Lou?enská, Michael Seiler, Philip Horvath, and 30+ angel investors from our network for giving us honest feedback and inspiring ideas. We thank Jirina Dunkova for research assistance and Stephan Delbos for editing our work. And to 100+ startup founders from the US and Europe who participated in our research. And to you, the reader.