Most of the founders I meet care deeply about the change they want to create. But many are starting to realise that good intentions alone won’t carry that change very far. Because the hard truth is:
Business don’t fail for lack of purpose. They fail because the economics were never designed to carry that purpose over time.
I left a career in investment banking to build businesses of my own, including a fashion brand in Paris, which I eventually exited. Built from scratch in an industry where standards are exceptionally high, mistakes carry immediate financial consequences, and global competition leaves little margin for error, that experience made one thing crystal clear:
Pricing, cash flow, and structure quietly determine what a business can become and how fragile good intentions are when the economics don’t hold.
Those lessons carried into everything that followed: international climate projects, a circular fashion business toolkit commissioned by a European institution, and more than a decade teaching finance to non-finance founders. Again and again, I saw the same pattern:
Founders don’t need more expertise: they need clarity and the confidence to engage with their numbers early
A pattern emerged.
The businesses that last are not the most virtuous.
They are not the most ambitious.
The businesses that last are designed honestly. Around financial reality, not around hope.
Not impact first, then business.
Not business first, then impact.
But businesses designed so that economics and impact reinforce each other, over time.
>>> you are mission-driven, but recognise that intention alone does not sustain impact
>>> you feel the tension between impact and financial reality, and are willing to face it rather than avoid it
>>> you don’t have everything figured out yet, but you’re willing to look at what’s really happening rather than hide behind intention
>>> those looking for shortcuts, formulas, or guarantees instead of engaging with real trade-offs
>>> approaches where growth, scale, or visibility are pursued at any cost
>>> relying on strong values without building the economic structure needed to sustain them
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