Colorado startups aren’t just known for their tech-savvy products, they are also making waves in impact investing and the B Corp movement. For many entrepreneurs, starting their own businesses is fulfilling a dream. For B Corp companies, the focus is as much about fixing a societal wrong as it is about making a profit. “As a social enterprise, we get to live [our] mission while encouraging hundreds of businesses daily to do the same,” said Mark Fisher, CEO of Inspire Commerce.
For these companies, work is more than about punching the clock. “Every day we get to work on something that is much bigger than ourselves and that we believe can truly change the world,” said John Jordan co-Founder and CEO of Impact Trader.
Feeling inspired yet? Below are four Colorado companies that are looking to make an impact in the world while turning a profit.
Increasingly, Main Street is looking to their investments to provide a social return along with a financial one. Once a niche area, impact investing, socially responsible investing (SRI) and investing with environment social and governance (ESG) criteria, is growing each year in popularity (according to the US Social Investment Forum, SRI assets grew 76 percent in the past two years alone). But for all investors, understanding how their dollars are implemented on the ground can be a real challenge – this is even more pronounced in impact investing, where investors have an emotional connection to the work.
Boulder-based Impact Trader helps investment firms show the real-world impact they have to their client base. The firm offers monthly updates directly from fund managers, using pictures, videos and stories. “Two of our co-founders are former financial advisors and we experienced first-hand the frustrations of trying to build impact-focused portfolios with our clients. That was the inspiration behind the solution we've built to make it easier for financial advisors to guide their clients through the process of defining personal and family impact goals, then build portfolios that seek to achieve those impact goals in addition to their financial goals for retirement, their kids' education, etc,” said Jordan.
Early next year the company will launch a “web application that will help financial advisors integrate social and environmental impact priorities into their clients' portfolios, then show the client the ongoing impact of their portfolio over time,” said Jordan.
Colorado-based advisory firms interested in beta testing the product should reach out to the company on their website. Combining tech, finance and real-world change, this Boulder company is changing the world, one dollar at a time.
Even social firms and non-profits have to deal with the day-to-day financial transactions. But for many, the products out there aren’t a great fit. For over a decade, Inspire Commerce’s CEO Mark Fischer was helping “conscious companies” with online marketing, but he realized their biggest challenge was the merchant. “The industry needed a developer and merchant focused solution, and since it didn't exist we created it,” said Fischer.
His platform helps socially responsible companies with their bottom line – getting paid – and donates part of Inspire Commerce’s revenues to non-profits.
Earlier this week, the company recently launched a new product called value.io, a “new type of Universal Tokenization Service and developer API. Think of it as the one API a developer needs to connect to ALL of the payment industry,” said Fischer.
The product had been in private beta for over a year and the company’s been delighted with the results. Inspire Commerce is a proud B Corporation. For Fischer, having a social mission (and being a B Corp) means “that we can be ourselves to the core.”
The world is filled with too many acronyms. Trying to solve one of the world’s problems – and being a “hero” in the Yippiekiyay’s book – shouldn’t require filling out forms and knowing government lingo for tax reforms (EIN, 1023, 990, anyone?)
The good folks at Yippiekiyay think starting a non-profit should be inspiring and life changing, not tedious and filled with paperwork. “Yippiekiyay is a call to action, an attitude, a belief that nonprofit leaders are heroes who need a resource to take the mounting bureaucratic and regulatory burdens off their backs so they can stay focused on their mission. Our motto is 'Saving the heroes so they can save the world' and we don’t take this mission lightly – because it shouldn’t be hard to do good,” said Lynn Rogala, CEO of Yippiekiyay
The team, experienced with non-profits and bureaucratic red tape, takes the pain out of starting a new 501(c)3 by streamlining the process for you. The company guarantees success in applications for tax-exempt status and expedites the government approval process. Applicants who aren’t sure where to start will like Yippiekiyay’s suggestion tools.
For the team, going to work is inspiring on a daily basis. “The most powerful thing about being a company with a social mission is that we get to write our customers into their own 'hero’s journey,' which makes everyone at Yippiekiyay spring out of bed in the morning with a purpose that’s bigger than any product or task,”said Rogala.
The website is still in beta (don’t let that stop you from starting your non-profit with them) and they will be rolling out new features in the coming weeks.
Blood, technology and non-profits don’t often go together, but Denver-based Blood Banker combines all three. The problem: blood shortages affect too many Americans. When there’s a blood shortage, hospital patients suffer. It’s “the world’s first virtual economy around blood,” according to the company.
Blood Banker uses its online technology platform to connect blood donors. The non-profit also works to educate the public on the importance of blood donations.
Users can join Blood Banker’s online registry and track their blood donations. The platform is a virtual economy, where users can earn credits by donating blood and spend those same credits when they need blood.
