When it comes time to solve real problems, and real problems worth solving, the answer is almost never starts with preconceived notions. It doesn’t start with existing structure and it doesn’t start with the reasons something “can’t” be done. It starts with what “yes” looks like. The solution gets built from there.

In its simplest form, Impact is the business-driven intersection of doing good and doing well. It’s a way to merge profit-generation with the purpose of producing a specific benefit to society. When it’s done right, Impact can form the basis of a successful investment fund, the foundation of a strong company, or the impetus for a new initiative within a giant corporation.

In mid-April, roughly a month into the first wave of COVID-19, I sat down (virtually), with Gregory Kallenberg to talk about steps that entrepreneurs, or communities, could take to navigate through uncertainty. We certainly didn’t have all the answers. We still don’t know all the questions. But I hope some of the principles we talked about will help frame some of what we all can do, as we work our way towards a better, safer, and more equitable future.

2017 was the 10 Year anniversary of the Social Capital Markets Conference. Known to most as SOCAP, it’s the biggest impact investing conference in the US each year.

What can a talking dog, a human computer, an aging fighter, and a farmer’s field teach us about entrepreneurship? More, it turns out, than we might imagine. Especially if we’re willing to think a little differently about the messages from some of our favorite films. In that spirit, here are a handful of Hollywood’s hidden lessons.

Rob Lalka (Executive Director of the Lepage Center at Tulane University), Howard W. Buffett (Professor at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University), and I set out to explain how, and why, to incorporate impact into Opportunity Zones. We hope the logic, suggested approach, and “upside of action” resonates.

Here’s how a Venture Slugging Percentage would work, what it would be good for, how else it might be used, and how I think we can get started bringing baseball logic to the investment process

Wins Above Replacement, or WAR. It’s the closest thing baseball has to a Grand Unified Theory of Everything. It breaks every event that unfolds during a baseball game, offensively or defensively, into a unit. And that unit is part of the thing that matters more than anything else in sports.

Now: What if we could do that with job creation?