Wow, I’m no expert on VC, but it sounds like you could have the expertise to pull something like this off.
Counterfactuals: mostly I’m saying that most impact investing just replaces other investment. At the ludicrous end of the spectrum (which is unfortunately most of the spectrum), a lot of ‘socially responsible investing’ involves buying shares on a public market, simply transferring ownership without changing incentivises (since the impact on capital raising ability appears minimal and most investors don’t do PR stunts, influence management or other potentially useful byproducts of owning shares). As one goes into private markets—as you are --, I’m a bit more optimistic since there are situations like seed funding where an investor really can make the difference between existing or not, or growing or not, and can perhaps have useful early influence. e.g. I’d guess that investing in Wave now would just be displacing another investor, while maybe an impact investor helped them get off the ground and they wouldn’t have been funded by regular investors. (I don’t know if that’s true.) The more you can identify opportunities which you could fund which wouldn’t otherwise get funded, the less confident I would be in my pessimism :) Overall, I mostly defer to the Founders Pledge report. Reading every mention of ‘counterfactual’ will likely cover everything I would say and much more.
You mention a few potential outcomes from this kind of work (e.g. getting impactful things capital, a platform for EA advocacy, influencing companies’ behaviour*). When I have done impact analysis recently, the first step was to consider what the most important outcomes could be. Sometimes a quick estimate suggests that one of the outcomes is much more important than the others, allowing you to focus on studying that factor.
Re comparing to 80k’s priority paths, I’d be surprised if doing something part-time would be optimal, just on generic advice. If that generalises to VC, I’d start by comparing running a VC full-time vs deploying the same staff in other roles. Interesting idea for this as a sub-fund of a larger group. Whatever you decide, great to hear about what you’re doing.
*See commentary from the Good Technology Project on their related experiences here. The ‘Advise entrepreneurs directly’ section seems particularly relevant, but it all might be of interest.
Wow, I’m no expert on VC, but it sounds like you could have the expertise to pull something like this off.
Counterfactuals: mostly I’m saying that most impact investing just replaces other investment. At the ludicrous end of the spectrum (which is unfortunately most of the spectrum), a lot of ‘socially responsible investing’ involves buying shares on a public market, simply transferring ownership without changing incentivises (since the impact on capital raising ability appears minimal and most investors don’t do PR stunts, influence management or other potentially useful byproducts of owning shares). As one goes into private markets—as you are --, I’m a bit more optimistic since there are situations like seed funding where an investor really can make the difference between existing or not, or growing or not, and can perhaps have useful early influence. e.g. I’d guess that investing in Wave now would just be displacing another investor, while maybe an impact investor helped them get off the ground and they wouldn’t have been funded by regular investors. (I don’t know if that’s true.) The more you can identify opportunities which you could fund which wouldn’t otherwise get funded, the less confident I would be in my pessimism :) Overall, I mostly defer to the Founders Pledge report. Reading every mention of ‘counterfactual’ will likely cover everything I would say and much more.
You mention a few potential outcomes from this kind of work (e.g. getting impactful things capital, a platform for EA advocacy, influencing companies’ behaviour*). When I have done impact analysis recently, the first step was to consider what the most important outcomes could be. Sometimes a quick estimate suggests that one of the outcomes is much more important than the others, allowing you to focus on studying that factor.
Re comparing to 80k’s priority paths, I’d be surprised if doing something part-time would be optimal, just on generic advice. If that generalises to VC, I’d start by comparing running a VC full-time vs deploying the same staff in other roles. Interesting idea for this as a sub-fund of a larger group. Whatever you decide, great to hear about what you’re doing.
*See commentary from the Good Technology Project on their related experiences here. The ‘Advise entrepreneurs directly’ section seems particularly relevant, but it all might be of interest.