0:00:03 Amanda Stassen: Welcome to purpose Power brand, a podcast for leaders and brands transforming business into a force for good. I’m Amanda Stassen, business and brand strategist, entrepreneur, and founder of BZU Innovation Group. I was speaking with leaders who are proving that not only does purpose drive profit, but the future of our world depends on it. If you want to outperform your market, grow your customers, build your employee culture, or attract investors, you’re going to want to lean in.

0:00:28 Amanda Stassen: So I’ve had this conversation with myself a dozen times, and I’ve talked to tons of people. Entrepreneurship on the best of days isn’t for the faint of heart. Every founder, every startup that I’ve talked to time and time again, one of the greatest areas of challenge is this idea of investor pitching and raising funds. So today I really want to understand why this is such an area of struggle. And I would love for us to learn a few hacks to attracting investors. So to help me dive into this topic today, we’ve brought in an expert from the investment space, Keith Ipal.

0:01:03 Amanda Stassen: He’s the co founder and co CEO of Spring Activator, a global incubator, accelerator and advisory firm that empowers entrepreneurs and impact investors. Keith is also the co founder and head of growth at Spring Impact Capital, a firm that’s all about purpose investing, specifically in early stage canadian businesses. Keith, welcome, and thanks for joining me today on the Purpose power brand podcast.

0:01:28 Keith Ippel: Thanks for having me here, Amanda. It’s great to be here.

0:01:30 Amanda Stassen: Awesome. So, Keith, you’ve been in the purpose investing space for a long time. You’ve been an advisor to tons of startups like Nada, who I definitely want to talk about later on, and Hootsuite, who you were an advisor for over seven years, but your purpose journey didn’t start there. Share a little bit about your journey to purpose and entrepreneurship.

0:01:55 Keith Ippel: Yeah, I’d love to. Thanks for asking, Amanda. You know, for all of us, we, I think, grew up in a world where it’s so common for people to be a capitalist by day and a philanthropist by night, and how that has played out over time is entirely logical. But, you know, I really came to this place where I asked myself, how can I actually be the same person from nine to five that I am from five to nine? And so for me, that’s such a critical part. And so this is a journey that I’ve been on now for close to 20 years and really finding a way to dig in and work with and invest not only for profit, but also for purpose.

0:02:39 Amanda Stassen: Mm hmm. So if there was one word that would describe this journey of yours and your, maybe your, even your approach to investing. What, what would it be?

0:02:51 Keith Ippel: Definitely the word would be evolving. You know, you and I are talking about investing for impact.

0:02:58 Amanda Stassen: Yeah.

0:02:59 Keith Ippel: The impact world is all about innovation, right? If we think about climate solutions, if we think about healthcare, sustainable food and agriculture, if we think about all of these different sectors and more, it’s really about adapting and evolving and changing over time as we learn better ways to create a sustainable planet and a sustainable society. And so for me, that’s definitely the word.

0:03:25 Amanda Stassen: I love that. And, you know, it’s interesting that you say that, because with the last time that we chatted, we actually started talking a little bit about the entrepreneur archetype. And there is an evolving element to that. And I want to dive into, I want to start by diving into this idea of unpacking that. And I’m really curious about, you know, the very thing that makes entrepreneurs so uniquely gifted in the area of idea generation.

0:03:55 Amanda Stassen: It can also sometimes be a hindrance. Let’s take a minute. Describe the archetype for me that you’ve seen over the years, and let’s talk about the strengths and maybe their flip side.

0:04:08 Keith Ippel: Yeah, thank you for asking. Entrepreneurs. So often if we think about an archetype, it’s people who have personally or have had close hand experience to the problem that they’re trying to solve. And so very often they come from diverse backgrounds and experiences. Now, often when we think about entrepreneurs in this current era, people think about technology entrepreneurs, and they think about people with technical backgrounds, you know, computer scientists, programmers, engineers, et cetera. And then how do you wrap the business skills around them? But in reality, over the last seven years, what has happened is it’s actually flipped.

0:04:47 Keith Ippel: And so the vast majority of entrepreneurs now have no prior technical experience, and they have no prior business leadership experience. And so what happens is they’re coming into this world with an idea, with a problem to solve. And because they’ve experienced it, they have that unique perspective on the problem, which is very compelling for investors to know that they have that. And so the flip side to this is that because it’s their idea, often they treat it like it’s their baby.

0:05:18 Keith Ippel: And so what can happen is that they are afraid to share it. Because, you know, when you walk down the street with a stroller and you show people your baby, everybody, of course, will say your baby looks beautiful, right? But when your baby is your startup or your idea, people have no problem telling you that it’s ugly. And so, so I think that’s really important is to know that that’s the case. And then once they get past that, then the other challenge that can emerge from the strengths that they have is with a lack of business leadership experience or financial leadership or financial training, is that sometimes they can step into this world of needing to raise money and really having no idea how to do it.

0:06:03 Amanda Stassen: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Now, I’m curious, is there a difference that you’ve seen between, you know, impact or purpose focused entrepreneurs and maybe non impact or non purpose focused entrepreneurs? Is there a difference in that archetype?

0:06:19 Keith Ippel: So much of the archetype is the same in that they have identified a problem to solve. They believe the market is substantial. They try and wrap the right people around them, either as co founders or team members. They exhibit the hustle and adaptability and resilience. Those pieces are the same, really, where you start to see the shift and the difference in archetypes is the why. And when you have a person who wants to create a climate solution that can impact the world, or if you meet an entrepreneur who wants to transform the health sector for the benefit of patients across Canada or around the world, that why drives them at a level of passion and a level of commitment that actually often helps them to be more successful in business, more successful in outcomes and impact, and therefore also can actually bring demonstrably better returns for their investors as well.

0:07:25 Amanda Stassen: And yet, it’s interesting because there’s so many startup entrepreneurs that are struggling to get capital. Why do you think, you know, in the space of, you would think that the why and the passion behind the why would be, would be enough to get them over the hurdle. But why isn’t it enough?

0:07:49 Keith Ippel: Such a great question, Amanda. Like, you’ve really hit the crux of it. When entrepreneurs are going to raise capital and they’re early in their journey, they don’t have the company years of experience, they don’t have the financial statements, the bank account, the revenue to allow investors to make a financial decision. So ultimately, these decisions are what we call trust based investment decisions.

0:08:17 Keith Ippel: As an early stage company, I can’t trust your financial statement. So I have to look at you, I have to look at your team, I have to look at the space, your competitive advantage and your forecasts. Not historical, but your future looking forecasts to actually make a trust based decision. And that’s actually the biggest reason why it can be so hard for entrepreneurs to raise capital. Now, layer on top of that impact.

0:08:45 Keith Ippel: On one hand, you highlighted the strength. Hey, they’ve got this passion, they’ve got this commitment. Isn’t that a strength? It is. But on the flip side, I think a lot of investors are still trying to understand that and embrace the fact that an impact venture does not need to be a charity, it does not need to be a nonprofit. You can have an amazing high growth for profit business that is creating great positive impact for people and or planet.

0:09:15 Keith Ippel: But often now investors, I think, still sometimes have the stigma that it’s going to be more charitable than financial returns. And that’s the layer that gets added on top of an impact entrepreneur to make it hard.

0:09:30 Amanda Stassen: So you named some of the things that investors look for. What would you say is the number one thing that investors look to, particularly in this impact space, when they’re actually evaluating an idea or a business proposition?

0:09:48 Keith Ippel: Yeah, something thats very early. Its a great question. Very often if you google, search or watch YouTube videos, youll often talk about investors talking about how they love to invest in a team. And that is absolutely true. My experience has been that before an investor gets to the team, they actually buy into the space, which is a combination of the problem that is being solved and the size of the market.

0:10:16 Amanda Stassen: Yes.

0:10:16 Keith Ippel: And so when we talk about impact, for example, some people say, hey, I want to actually create cleaner oceans, I want to eliminate plastic waste, I want to create equitable access to healthcare. I want to create equitable access to capital for founders from underserved or underrepresented communities. There’s multiple impact theses. So what will happen is as a founder, you come to pitch somebody, they’re gonna look at the space that you’re in and they’re gonna say, first, is this a space for me? Do I believe in this impact thesis? Maybe I’m more about people than planet, or maybe I’m more planet than people are more Canada, than the globe, and they’ll dilk, you know, and they’ll come at it from that perspective.

0:10:59 Keith Ippel: Then it’s all about the team because of the trust based relationship. And so I think for me that’s a really important component, which is if I’m a founder raising capital, the first thing I want to do is I want to get out there and tell people the space that I’m in and the problem I’m solving and the impact I’ll create that can trigger a fast yes or a fast no. Great. After that, then I’m going to tell them how awesome myself and the team.

0:11:23 Amanda Stassen: Are now just, you know, off the top. I’m interested to hear it. Like there’s some, I call them idea spaces, and it’s what you’re talking about. So it’s these investment spaces that are, you know, are ripe for solutioning. There’s problems to be solved in that space. Are there any, like, what are the hottest ones right now that you see a lot of investment happening in?

0:11:48 Keith Ippel: Yeah, there’s some pretty amazing innovation spaces right now. I would say the hottest basis, decarbonization for sure. I would say energy efficiency, especially in the built environment. So commercial buildings, residential buildings, like really trying to take carbon out of the equation and reduce fossil fuels from the equation, I think is really red hot. Definitely everything around materials and for batteries, raw materials, alternative material types, the circular economy for those rare earth materials that are used in battery technology, definitely a very important space.

0:12:40 Keith Ippel: Another one is around sustainable food systems. So one example I would give is all around this world of alternative proteins and also alternative fats, right? Because as we look to become less reliant on animals and the impact that they can have on the environment with farming and all of that kind of surrounding ecosystem, looking for the right solutions where it’s plant based, it’s sustainable, but it still gives people a great flavor profile, it gives us the right nutrients and it gives us that equivalent cost.

0:13:24 Keith Ippel: People do need to have affordable solutions at all times. And so 2024 being obviously a very poignant example after the rise in food costs over the last few years. So those would be, I think, three really hot sectors that people are looking at right now.

0:13:41 Amanda Stassen: And, you know, what’s really interesting is there’s been a lot of movement in the space of things like food waste. It’s one of the areas that I’m particularly interested in, or upcycling, nutrition and those kind of things. And yet that space, even though people understand intellectually and emotionally the problem to be solved, it’s still a hard thing to figure out what is the specific problem that I’m solving. Because sometimes societal problems, it’s so attractive to say, yes, I’m solving world hunger, I’m solving food waste, or I’m solving plastic pollution.

0:14:22 Amanda Stassen: But because it’s such a big problem, an impact entrepreneur who’s well intentioned sometimes can get lost in the bigness of the problem. It becomes almost too overwhelming. And so when they start to tell their story, it can, their solution starts to be lost a little bit in the actual value proposition of what’s going to make money and what’s going to make a return. I’d love for you to share your perspective on that.

0:14:52 Keith Ippel: Yeah, I love how you shaped this tension that entrepreneurs live in, which is, I have a very specific problem I’m solving with a very specific solution. And then there’s the macro problem, like, as you said, world hunger or clean water, or insert any of the major kind of global challenges that we face. And to extend that, the challenge that you’re describing is sometimes when people and entrepreneurs focus or over focus on the macro problem, sometimes they also start to forget that they’re supposed to be running a vibrant business, because you can’t change the. Yeah, you can’t change the world if you go bankrupt.

0:15:36 Keith Ippel: Right, right. And so, so for me, for example, looking at organizations like Chiwiz, which is a healthy snack company, and they say, hey, we’re not going to solve all of healthy food, but we know that the snack category, humans love snacks, and they’re always going to love snacks. So we’re going to focus there. And then as a part of that, we’re going to be using the ugly fruit, the upcycled fruit, as a part of our process, and create a more circular system.

0:16:11 Keith Ippel: That’s a really good example. Sarah Goodman being the founder is a really good example of a founder and a team that has remained focused on their place in the solution. And I think that’s really critical for all of us to remember is no one company is going to solve the problem, but together with all these solutions, we can.

0:16:33 Amanda Stassen: And to create that sort of impact ecosystem is so important. So let’s shift gears a little bit. Let’s talk about that pitch deck. So anyone can scroll the Internet and find hundreds of perspectives and templates on what makes the best selling the most effective pitch deck. Now, I come from the Guy Kawasaki school of 1020 30 presentation style, which I apply to things like pitch decks. So to me, that’s ten slides, it’s 20 minutes, it’s a 30 point font, that kind of thing.

0:17:07 Amanda Stassen: I’m curious. Walk me through what you believe to be the best pitch deck framework. What are the key components? What are the high notes that you want to see when someone is pitching an idea to you?

0:17:21 Keith Ippel: So there’s an important point that you’re raising that I think you and I are going to come to together, Amanda. So the first one is anybody who’s preparing to pitch for the first time should just go to guy Kawasaki’s mall. Yeah. And the reason I say that is because it is a standard template upon which a first time founder raising money for the first time can have confidence that they have the core structure.

0:17:49 Keith Ippel: What will then happen over time is they will find ways to insert their personality and their personal preferences in pitching styles, et cetera, to then evolve it over time. But if somebody tries to go, hey, I need to personalize a day one, don’t, you’re just, you’re gonna be in for a lot of, lot of headaches and heartaches. So, so for me, what I’m really looking for is, is when a, when an entrepreneur comes to me, I have a set of questions. I’m like, who are you?

0:18:20 Keith Ippel: What problem are you trying to solve? Why do I care? How are you gonna win? What impact are you going to create? What are you asking me for? Those are the questions you need to answer. So when doing that, a person should come in, tell us their company name, what is the problem theyre trying to solve? How big is the market? And always from the vision back into the current reality. Dont tell me youre launching in Toronto first and then Ontario and then Canada.

0:18:52 Keith Ippel: That doesnt get me excited. Tell me what the global or north american opportunity is, and then tell me how you’re focusing in the near term in a specific geography or a specific sector so that I know why and that I understand that you can focus. So after the market opportunity, then we have the solution and how it works. Then you’re going to tell me how you’re unique from the competition. You’re going to tell me how you make money or will make money.

0:19:18 Keith Ippel: Then you’re going to tell me about the team. Then you’re going to tell me what your ask is. That’s the basic framework for a pitch. And if a founder just focuses on those core slides and you have a title page and a thank you on the back end, of course, after that, then the pitch will evolve. So, for example, if you have a company that’s very high tech, with a lot of intellectual property, you might have two or three slides on the product and how it works, and maybe describing at a high level where you have patents or patents pending on the team, you might have a second slide for advisory board of directors to show augmented team.

0:20:08 Keith Ippel: Once you’re launched, you also add another slide, which is for progress. So what progress have you made? And then there’s sometimes a bonus slide, which is what have we learned? Right. So I’ve made progress, but, like, what has it taught us and how, therefore has it helped us to pivot, adapt and become resilient? So those are, I think, some of the key things that I think about.

0:20:29 Amanda Stassen: Yeah, that’s so good. So what would you say are like, the biggest mistakes that you’ve seen entrepreneurs make in this, in this process, in the pitch. In the pitch process. Given this is kind of the, the framework, it’s kind of a best in class sort of thinking around presenting an idea or pitched pitching an idea. What have you seen have been like, the biggest mistakes that have been made?

0:20:54 Keith Ippel: Yeah, it’s very, like, interestingly enough, I think it’s very straightforward in that the biggest mistake that entrepreneurs make is they feel compelled to tell the investor everything in the first pitch. Where was I born? Where did I go to school? How did I come up on this space? What did I do last week for lunch? And I’m joking, of course, as you know. But at the end of the day, there’s this urge to be like, I need to convince the investor in the first 15 minutes by telling them everything that they might possibly need to know.

0:21:37 Keith Ippel: And so what happened is that all of the, the important points get lost in the noise. And then the second thing is, as an entrepreneur, you have to remember, this is a sales process. There’s no magic, there’s no voodoo. What we’re doing is we’re selling. It just happens. We’re not selling our product. We’re selling a share certificate. So when you pitch, you also recognize that in a first pitch, you give the introductory material that key points, and then you listen, right?

0:22:14 Keith Ippel: And you’re listening for the cues as to whether or not this person is a fit or not as an investor, because they may not invest in the space, they may not invest in the stage that you’re at, they may not have the financial capacity to support the size of the round, and you also don’t leave room for questions. If you say everything, they don’t get a chance to say anything back, which means you don’t know if they care or nothing.

0:22:37 Keith Ippel: So, one example I like to give is often in a first pitch, I love to leave the financials out.

0:22:44 Amanda Stassen: Interesting.

0:22:46 Keith Ippel: And the reason is because if I tell you, here’s a problem I’m solving, it’s real, it’s a big space. We have a compelling solution that’s unique from the competition. Look at the power of my team. Look at the progress that we’ve made in terms of market adoption, et cetera. Here’s my ask then, if somebody’s interested, they’ll say, hey, listen, so tell me about your financials. You have an appendix slide, and you’re like, hey, thanks for asking.

0:23:11 Keith Ippel: Now, notice what I did is if they didn’t care about my pitch, they wouldn’t ask for the financials. Because they wouldn’t want to waste their time. But by leaving it out, if they’re interested, then I know they’re interested because they’re asking for more information. Right. Right. And so I need to leave room for them to signal to me that they’re interested and where they’re going to ask questions. Are they ask questions about financials or they ask questions more about the business model than the go to market strategy. Like, you have to leave space. So keep it short.

0:23:45 Keith Ippel: Focus on those key points. Guy Kawasaki rules. Right. And so keep it short, keep it compact. Leave space for them to ask questions, to get interested and excited. That’s the goal.

0:23:55 Amanda Stassen: Right. That’s so good. I really like that. I like the idea of, and it goes without saying, this is not just for startups. It’s not just for pitches. It’s for any presentation. Leave. You don’t need to say everything. You don’t need to give them all of your background, although it could be exciting and it could be relevant. Leave an opportunity for someone to ask you the question, what makes you the best person for this? Then you can share all the background if that’s something that’s relevant.

0:24:25 Amanda Stassen: So I think there’s something to be said about holding things back and using that as a trigger for, is there interest? Is there compatibility? Do we have a resonance here that we can work with? So that’s really, really sage advice. I want to talk about Nada. This was a company when they launched that really captivated me because for those of you who don’t know, Nada was Canada’s first zero waste store.

0:24:59 Amanda Stassen: They had package free whole foods and fresh produce, and customers brought their own containers and reusable bags from home. And you would refill with bulk dry foods and liquids and kind of like a bulk barn type approach, but people would bring their own containers. And I know that, you know, you were an advisor to them for, you know, maybe over six years, and they were around for, I want to say, like, eight years or so. And then I, you know, I got the news that they were closing their doors, and I was like, wait a minute.

0:25:32 Amanda Stassen: And the. The news revolved around this idea of this challenging funding landscape, and that just kind of reverberated in my mind. And I’m like, ugh. I just. It’s painful when companies that are fighting the good fight, they’re working to do good in the world. They’ve got a proposition. What happened? I’d love to hear your take on it.

0:25:55 Keith Ippel: Yeah. First, I love that you’ve raised this topic because one thing that we know about business, ultimately, is there are no guarantees for financial success. And whether you’re investing in public companies or you’re investing in an early stage startup. And so, first, we also have to be in this place where we’re very comfortable talking about those that don’t make it as much as those that do. And so in the case of Nada, I think it is an example of a situation where you have an amazing set of factors.

0:26:34 Keith Ippel: First, it’s a big problem to solve. The number one source of plastic in the world is consumer plastic from grocery stores.

0:26:42 Amanda Stassen: Yeah.

0:26:42 Keith Ippel: Huge problem to solve. Right. It’s a global problem. It’s not just a canadian problem.

0:26:46 Amanda Stassen: Yeah.

0:26:47 Keith Ippel: So we know that that’s true. Second, we have millennials and Gen Z who are the purpose generations, and they’re looking actively for solutions at the consumer level that they can participate in. So you’ve got a great consumer side to go along with the problem side.

0:27:02 Amanda Stassen: Yep.

0:27:03 Keith Ippel: You had a very compelling offering that included intellectual property around how the whole system of, like, pre pre weigh containers, then fill them, then post weigh and pay. So you really had all these pieces. And the founding team was phenomenal.

0:27:19 Amanda Stassen: Right.

0:27:20 Keith Ippel: And so. So you have all the ingredients go into the bowl.

0:27:23 Amanda Stassen: Yeah.

0:27:24 Keith Ippel: And then, so you ask the question yourself. The question, what comes out the other side? And there’s a few things that come into play, of course. The first is that you always need to have a business that you believe that can get from a to b without external funding. You need to. You need to believe that there’s a path, first and foremost. And I think in the case of nada, they were really in a place where, you know, sometimes, especially with the amount of capital expenditure required to set up grocery stores, they didn’t have that capital on the back end, and so really did have a hard requirement to go into the market. So that’s kind of point number one.

0:28:07 Keith Ippel: Point number two is sometimes macroeconomic factors and these kind of factors, out of your control, come into play. And so in their particular case, we’re talking about a no package grocery store where people come in, they fill their containers, they weigh them, they pay them, and then Covid hit. And so that happened to be one of the sectors that was deeply impacted in a negative way by Covid. And so that caused a drain in resources at really the wrong time.

0:28:41 Keith Ippel: And because of that, then the financial statements maybe don’t reflect the potential, but now they have historical financial statements. Investors ask that question now, maybe they’re not as excited to invest in because they look at the historic and they don’t give them due credit for the impact of COVID and say, you know what, maybe I’m going to take a pass on this. And so you can start to see these factors starting to layer in the.

0:29:06 Keith Ippel: And so I think there’s a great lesson here for entrepreneurs that are listening to this. And the first one is, first, chart a path where you believe you can be sustainable without outside capital. How far can you get? That’s point number one. Point number two is remember that there are some factors that are out of your control. Your goal is not to have an answer to those. Your goal is to be able to adapt and hold them lightly and then get the help that you need to kind of navigate those pieces.

0:29:42 Keith Ippel: And I think that that’s a really important component. And then I think the final thing too is do be honest about any of the structural requirements. And I think in Nadas case, they had a great flagship store to start, but it wasn’t big enough for the economics to work.

0:30:00 Amanda Stassen: Right.

0:30:00 Keith Ippel: And so I think if that was a do overdose, they probably would have done a store three or four times the size to allow the economics to maybe work, if that makes sense.

0:30:11 Amanda Stassen: Yeah. Yeah. There’s kind of two things that I want to just hone in on. And the first one is this idea of thinking about your business in a way that is sustainable without external capital. And that is a really challenging one, because what it suggests to me is you’re not plan it, try to plan it so that you’re not dependent on that external infusion of cash, of investment. So the business itself has to be monetizable to the point where you’re making those transactions, you’re making those sales, you’ve got customers already in place. And a lot of startups, a lot of the impact entrepreneurs that I’ve come across don’t have that.

0:30:58 Amanda Stassen: So, so how, how do they start to think about their business differently from your perspective?

0:31:05 Keith Ippel: Yeah, it’s a great question. If everybody wants to come off of this podcast and do a quick Google search, look for traveler collective or travelercollective.com. and Darryl McIver is the founder, an incredible business leader. And when he launched that business, he had very little cash. And so what that meant for Daryl was he needed to get out and go generate revenue. Week one.

0:31:35 Amanda Stassen: Right.

0:31:36 Keith Ippel: There was no sense of delay. Yeah. And so it changes the trajectory. Now, the second thing that I would layer on to this conversation in the context of Canada is that what has also become an acceptable practice for launching a new venture is to have it as a side hustle or as a moonlight venture. I think gone are the days for a lot of ventures, not all, but for a lot of ventures where actually people can do it evenings and weekends to get things rolling to the point where there’s enough market validation, where there’s enough opportunity, and you, as the founder, can see the path of how you generate your income in that thing, and you can quit your day job.

0:32:21 Keith Ippel: And. And so I think that’s the other key piece, is that it used to be there was only one path. Right? You know, quit your job, move back into your parents basement, eat ramen, and, you know, and, you know, you know, you’re. And then what you would do, and then you would, you know, kind of starve your way until you kind of, you know, we’re able to generate revenue. We don’t have to do that anymore.

0:32:46 Amanda Stassen: Right.

0:32:46 Keith Ippel: And so Daryl and Traveler collective is a great example of being relentlessly focused on revenue from day one. And this notion of side hustler or Moonlight Ventures is another great channel to go. And so I think entrepreneurs really need to challenge themselves on how they do it, because there is always a path to non investor cash. There’s non investor capital. And so revenue is number one. The second one is doing the side hustle, moonlight, you know? And then, of course, in Canada, we have things like granting programs, small business loans, et cetera. So there’s always a path from a to b.

0:33:29 Keith Ippel: Yeah.

0:33:29 Amanda Stassen: Yeah. I also love, the second thing that you really tweaked me on was referring back to your singular word that sort of is that purpose word, is this idea of evolving. And one of the challenges that entrepreneurs have that I have, that I’m sure lots of us struggle with, is you fall in love with your idea, and you love it so much, and you don’t want it to change. And so despite what maybe the market is doing, despite what you hear or whatever you may want to, that your focus is so relentless, you almost become tunnel visioned on that idea that you don’t evolve and you don’t evolve to your own risk. And so I think that’s another lesson, is this idea that keep the idea, hold it loosely, obviously. Nurture it, protect it, grow it, spend the time on it, but hold it loosely so that you are able to adapt and evolve when things come up, because they will.

0:34:26 Amanda Stassen: And it could come out of nowhere, and you want to be open enough and resilient enough to be able to adapt and evolve your business idea. So I love that we sort of started and ended on that idea of evolving.

0:34:44 Keith Ippel: Yeah. If I were to give a piece of advice to people based on what you just shared, and I really felt like you were just reading my mind, which was amazing, is that when you’re a founder, remember every founder has a vision for how they want to change the world.

0:35:01 Amanda Stassen: Yeah.

0:35:03 Keith Ippel: We always have to remember that there is a, there’s a difference between the vision and what we are doing today. Today is one step on the path to get to the vision. When we, when we acknowledge that, then it’s, it’s far easier to hold what we have today lightly. Because today’s step will lead us to the next step, the next step that will eventually get us to the vision. And that is never a straight line, its always a bit of a wander through the forest or a journey down the river.

0:35:37 Keith Ippel: And so knowing that we can pivot and we can adapt and adjust week to week, month to month, quarter to quarter, year to year, such that in three, 5710 years, we actually start to achieve our vision, then. Great. I think the times where I see people struggle with holding on to things too tightly is because they believe what they are doing today is the vision. And it’s not, it’s just today’s manifestation of that vision.

0:36:06 Amanda Stassen: Yeah, nice.

0:36:07 Keith Ippel: Yeah, nice.

0:36:08 Amanda Stassen: Keith, it’s been an absolute pleasure chatting with you. And, you know, we’ll chat a little bit more when we flip into video for behind the purpose power brand. But before we close, I would love for you to share two practical, purpose powered tips that entrepreneurs and business leaders can apply today that would make a difference to them. Attracting investors or supporters.

0:36:32 Keith Ippel: Yeah, fantastic. First thing that I would say is make sure that you remember always, you can’t change the world if you go bankrupt. Always be able to articulate your impact vision, but have your impact metrics equal and beside your, your financial metrics. Make sure you build a vibrant business that then changes the world. Right. And I think that’s really key, step one, and I think step two is to trust that when you share your impact vision, that the right investors will step forward and the wrong ones will step out.

0:37:11 Keith Ippel: And that actually is exactly the right outcome that we all want. So always make sure that you have that present, that you’re able to share that, so that it’s very easy for those investors to opt in or out according to their own impact thesis. And so those would be the two key steps that I would encourage.

0:37:28 Amanda Stassen: I love that. I always say, I always say that, you know, as wonderful as your vision is, to change the world or to, you know, end homelessness. If you’re not making money, if you’re not, if your business is not viable, those people are not going to be helped. You won’t be around. So I love that you reinforce that. So thank you. So how do people learn more about the work that you’re doing at spring impact capital, or how do they connect with you?

0:37:55 Keith Ippel: Yeah, thanks for asking. Easiest way is, of course, to connect with me on LinkedIn. So, Keith Ipple, Ippel. And by the way, there’s only two Keith ipples in the world, and the other one is my dad. And he’s a great guy. And if you want to connect with him, he’s 84 years old and super enthusiastic. Feel free. But otherwise, it’s me. And the second one is spring is. So spring is. You can find out about all of the work that we do.

0:38:27 Keith Ippel: We have training and support and advisory programs for entrepreneurs looking to raise capital. We have matchmaking programs. And as you mentioned, we have spring impact capital, our early stage impact fund. And we have spring collective, which is a national impact investor network. So we’d love to connect in any of those ways.

0:38:45 Amanda Stassen: Oh, that’s awesome. Keith, thank you so much for sharing your story, and thank you for living your purpose. And just in case you haven’t heard it today, I want to tell you that the world is made better because of you and the work you’re doing.

0:38:56 Keith Ippel: So thank you again, much appreciated. Thank you for the kind words and I appreciate the conversation.

0:39:02 Amanda Stassen: Awesome. Hey, thanks for listening to the purpose power brand podcast. I’m Amanda Stassen. If you liked what you heard, be sure to share and subscribe on your favorite podcast player. We’d also love to hear what resonated with you. Or if you have a guest suggestion, drop us a line at Infoezou Co. Special thanks to Mark Salam for original music and lead podcasting for production. Lastly, if you’re ready to purpose power your brand to grow, win, and impact at scale, let’s talk.

0:39:32 Amanda Stassen: Visit www. Dot Bzoo Co. That’s www. Dot Bizu Co. Bye for now.