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Professionally Judgemental – For a Purpose

Beth Caniglia
Beth Caniglia
// Pitch nights come and go from the event calendar but passion mixed with purpose - that might just have staying power. Beth reports from the recent Social Impact Festival pitch night ...

Pitch nights come and go from the event calendar but passion mixed with purpose – that might just have staying power. Beth reports from the recent Social Impact Festival pitch night …

Pitching with Purpose

A sell out event and a highlight of the Social Impact Festival, Impact Seed’s Pitch Night bought together members of the startup, business and angel investor community who came along to see a selection of WA’s best ‘business for good’ startups pitch for investment.

But as MC Tom Dawkins, CEO and Co Founder of StartSomeGood, reminded the judges as he introduced them, their role for the night was to be professionally judgemental.

Judgement Day

It didn’t turn out to be Judgement Day for the majority of the hopeful pitchers though. The judges were outspokenly surprised at the quality and calibre of the business models and the impacts they were having, across the six pitches that were heard throughout the night.

Feedback ranged from polite and observational to outright praise.

It’s certainly a tough ask to be critical of organisations aiming to help kids with cystic fibrosis, women facing domestic violence, recovering alcoholics and the improving the urban environment.

The Winners

The two standouts of the night, both led by passionate female founders, were judge favourite, Climate Clever and crowd favourite, Kooda.

Carly Hardy from Kooda is pioneering ‘compost as a service’ for busy professional, families and businesses that have the inclination but no knowledge or capacity to DIY the dirty work that composting comes with.

Meanwhile, Vanessa Rauland, Research Fellow at Curtin University, has developed Climate Clever, a data-driven, online program that enables schools to reduce their carbon footprint and utility costs, while also building in curriculum outcomes for students.

The Social Imperative

As keynote speaker, Daniel Madhavan (leveraging his capacity as CEO of Impact Investment Group) reminded the crowd, social impact comes from small actions. His advice included this gem:

“Do something – don’t make perfect the benchmark. That’s like making Romeo and Juliet your ideal relationship – you’ll only die alone.”

He also framed social impact as an important recruiting tool for the finding the best young talent – because “they are all obsessed with purpose. And it doesn’t hurt that it’s amazing for your branding”.

About Impact Seed

Kylie and Sven, the husband and wife team behind Impact Seed, are passionate about growing impact investment alongside business, investors, foundations and not-for-profits wanting to integrate social impact as mission aligned investments.

You can find out more about Impact Seed here.

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Beth Caniglia

Beth Caniglia

A digital essentialist, obsessed with how technology can transform businesses, industries and lives, Beth has worked in and around the Perth startup scene for the last 5 years, starting co-working spaces, building apps and creating digital strategies for startups and corporations alike. She is currently Global Marketing Manager for VROC AI in Perth, and co-host on our 'Startup West' podcast.
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