How to build a company that can save the world and generate a profit

For startups that hope to save the world, or at least make it a better place, balancing impact with profit can be tricky.

“Investor and shareholder expectations are often not aligned with how hard and intractable the problems are that we face as a society,” Allison Wolff, co-founder and CEO of Vibrant Planet, said on the Builders Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. “I think in some ways, we’re a little bit stuck.”

But it’s not impossible.

Wolff’s company develops cloud-based software for utilities, insurers, and land managers like the U.S. Forest Service to model and respond to wildfire risk. To ensure the company keeps its eye on the mission, it has registered as a public benefit corporation, which requires companies to report on impact in addition to the usual financial information. 

“That’s an elegant structure to consider if you haven’t already, and it’s easy to convert,” she said. “And it’s a good forcing function to do the reporting side of that, to really think through every year, what impact are we having, and how do we account for it.”

Another approach is to find a technology and business model that tightly couples purpose and profit. That’s what Areeb Malik and his co-founders did when launching Glacier, their robotic recycling company.

“When I was starting my company, I was looking for the right opportunity, and it was really about aligning profitability with impacts,” he said on stage.

“If you can find a place where you can align, for instance, climate impact, the thing that I’m super passionate about, with making money, then I welcome a PE fund to come and take over my business, because they will juice us for money. That money directly correlates with climate impact.”

Holding fast to the mission isn’t necessarily enough, though, Hyuk-Jeen Suh, general partner at SkyRiver Ventures, said at Disrupt. Mission means nothing if a company’s reach remains limited. 

“A lot of founders get focused so much on making their widget that that one widget is all they care about. They haven’t figured out how to build the foundation for scale,” he said. “When you’re making a widget, you have to think, how am I going to mass produce this? How am I going to mass market this?” 

If that all sounds like too much for startups to juggle, that maybe the mission part should fall to the wayside while they master the basics, Suh said that sort of ambition is actually a sign that the companies are on the right track. “They almost have to bite more than they can chew, because without that boldness and vision, I think it will be difficult to really make an impact.”