• Annika Schneider (Purpose Foundation): Mirjam, what was the “aha” moment that led DOEN Ventures to back steward-ownership aligned financing (SOAF)?

Mirjam Niessen: While DOEN finances impact-driven startups and innovations in general, we’ve seen quite a number of companies lose that impact when the business and its shareholders decided to take a different path. For us as impact investors, our investment then feels rather fruitless and like wasted time. The real impact is unlocked when a company’s mission and vision stay intact throughout its growth stages and journey. That’s why steward-ownership is so important to me.

 

• In your own words, what problem does SOAF solve that conventional capital doesn’t?

Steward-ownership and its aligned financing solves the problem of short-term profit maximization (or subsequent financing rounds) inherent in conventional capital-based systems by legally safeguarding a company's structure and its independence, and thus safeguarding its long-term vision from the control of financial shareholders.

DOEN Ventures itself is an evergreen fund (no carry, no bonuses) and reinvests profits back into the fund. And yes, we do make profit, like any other VC investor, while focusing on impact primarily. 

 

• What do you think is the most important thing if you want to finance your company in an aligned way?

Because not all investors are familiar with steward-ownership yet, the pool of potential backers may be smaller than in a conventional ownership structure. While you may need to convince some investors, there are also those, like DOEN, who see steward-ownership structures as beneficial to their investment. Knowing that a company has carefully considered its ownership structure gives me confidence that it will stay focused on what’s best for the company and its stakeholders, rather than purely on shareholders.

 

• If you had one wish for SOAF in the ecosystem, what would it be?

I wish for people to understand that steward-ownership is a way to keep a company intact – and in doing so, to generate healthy profits as well. SOAF is also interested in returns, potentially even high, VC-like IRRs, in theory, but with the difference that in order to serve all stakeholders of a company, focus is not only on pure return maximization.

Steward-ownership raises the sufficiency question – it makes stakeholders think about what is enough. A question we should ask ourselves more often.

 

• How do you see the future of SOAF evolve? Paint a picture of the ecosystem in 5,10,50 years

At DOEN, we see positive momentum for steward-ownership. More people are aware of it, and more founders are starting to experiment with it. However, investors tend to be traditional and resistant to change. Combined with the strict and long mandates of financing funds, that makes the system slow to evolve. Even so, we fully expect SOAF to keep gaining ground and to actively help drive that change.

 

Thank you for the interview!